PV Audio's Playtest Thread

[ewberner]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Been getting a lot of the Biomimetic strings lately. To save money, I think I'm going to go Scorpion mains and S-Gut crosses. Also have Black Widow, Silk, Hexy Fiber and Juice. All are actually great strings aside from Silk which is flat out boring.

Did you find it to be soft at all? My experience when I used it as a cross was that it was quite stiff...

[pvaudio]

No idea. Just finished stringing two sticks at 47/52 and I'll let you know. The black in the hand feels floppy unlike the yellow and white. It actually feels like Thunderblast or Xcel FO.

[ewberner]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

No idea. Just finished stringing two sticks at 47/52 and I'll let you know. The black in the hand feels floppy unlike the yellow and white. It actually feels like Thunderblast or Xcel FO.

The s-gut is decent. I was referring to the silk. My bad for not making that clear.

[pvaudio]

Oh the Silk? It's awful stuff, completely ruined my impressions of the BM demo sticks I tried until I cut it out and put in just regular Gosen OGSM.

[alidisperanza]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Been getting a lot of the Biomimetic strings lately. To save money, I think I'm going to go Scorpion mains and S-Gut crosses. Also have Black Widow, Silk, Hexy Fiber and Juice. All are actually great strings aside from Silk which is flat out boring.

I got a great deal on some for my buddy, silk, and HF are fantastically disappointing. He was totally bummed and went back to sensation. BW is great but womp on tension maintenance. Sgut is a very comfy cross.

[alidisperanza]

Hey guys, random q, I got my friend a set of MCS too, does it have a funny smell?

[pvaudio]

Haha yes, just wait until mikeler gets wind of your post. Or U&C. Or me for that matter, because yes, it has a delicious gluey smell

[mixedmedia]

The smell is so wonderful--gluey high notes with menthol undertones.

[JT_2eighty]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Solinco Barb Wire 16L / WC Mosquito Bite Black Death

This playtest was inspired by a post by TW University. They posted their newest string spin testing results, and found that the ratio of ball/string friction to string/string friction should be as high as possible. In other words: more ball bite, more string sliding. They found that Barb Wire gave the most ball bite, hence its choice as my main string. That meant that the only other choice for a cross was a smooth polyester. Any synthetic or natural gut would get chewed up by the textured main, and a textured poly, while likely giving an odd spin profile, does not make for predictable spin. Thus, I chose one of my all time favorite strings, which comes in a small gauge, is comfortable and is black like Barb Wire: WeissCANNON Mosquito Bite Black Death.
...


Strung 47/47.
Groundstrokes: I have only 1 hour on this setup, and if it has not broken in yet, then my goodness, am I in for a treat. I have yet to find a superior poly stringbed. Mosquito bite is the multifilament of the poly world, in my opinion. It gives great control, average spin, astounding comfort, but above all else, unparalleled feel. That coupled with Barb Wire's innate crispness and the heaviness that is produced by the stringbed and you've got a monster from the baseline. You can simply pick your swing to make the shot you want: high and deep, hard and heavy, short and low, etc. The string takes care of you. I've not found that before. If this continues as the strings age and settle, this will become my grail. Plus, in all black, it looks superbly humble and sinister.
NEW: Alas, I was right to not hold my breath. Barb Wire has completely changed. While it's still very usable off the ground, once it settled after about 2 hours (TOO LONG), it just feels like generic poly. The MB no longer shines through, and that was the only reason why this was good. Spin? Not anything near earth-shattering or even the other hybrids in here. After settling, I cannot see how this would be better than full Barb Wire.

...
[Overall]
This is shaping up to be a great, great setup. If this holds, then I will purchase a reel of Mosquito Bite
...We'll have to see how it lasts and if it starts to notch. If anything, it shouldn't be broken in yet and it's already playing sensationally.

NEW:Barb Wire simply is not Solinco's best offering. What I alluded to above is the following: this setup exhibit's what I call Pro's Syndrome. What this is is the reason why so many professional players use RPM, Luxilon and natural gut crosses: they do not need their racquets to last for any period of time.

Overall: 9.0/10

I thought this was a good experiment, and I also love WC mosquito bite, it is my favorite cross to gut, my go to setup.

With that in mind, and with your initial ravings only to be overshadowed by the lack of longevity, I have the urge to explore this setup with some new main strings, since it seemed Barb Wire was the death of the setup.

So a few setups that I am thinking of trying, mains that have good stability and 'bite':
SP Tornado/WC MB
Gen Typhoon/WC MB
PS Turbo/WC MB

If any of these shine I may post back a review or so, going to try typhoon/mb first.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by mixedmedia

The smell is so wonderful--gluey high notes with menthol undertones.

Yum yum! Silk is a stiff, crappy multi.

[maggmaster]

Gutex smells a lot like MCS

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by maggmaster

Gutex smells a lot like MCS

There are a few strings with this smell.

[alidisperanza]

Gotcha, my buddy used the term "rancid" haha. He was like wtf did you give me!?

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by alidisperanza

Gotcha, my buddy used the term "rancid" haha. He was like wtf did you give me!?

The proper term is "gluey goodness". MMMMMMMMMM, love that smell.

[ewberner]

Originally Posted by alidisperanza

Gotcha, my buddy used the term "rancid" haha. He was like wtf did you give me!?

I have had that kind of smell with some cheap nylon strings like forten and ashaway.

[GarryClarke]

pro supex maxim touch made my eyes water when i opened my parcel which contained 3 sets,it also stunk my house out,had to put it into 3 seperate sealed plastic zipper bags,havent been near it since lol

[pvaudio]

Scorpion/S-Gut shall be my setup for the semester. I am not calling it closed on this thread, but it's just 85% as good as Thunderblast at a fraction of the price (balls included). I may try another syn gut cross, such as OGSM since it seems to be muting some of the Scorpion-ness. It's also less durable than Thunderblast. It's already coming apart and I only hit with it for an hour against rdis10093.

[ewberner]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Scorpion/S-Gut shall be my setup for the semester. I am not calling it closed on this thread, but it's just 85% as good as Thunderblast at a fraction of the price (balls included). I may try another syn gut cross, such as OGSM since it seems to be muting some of the Scorpion-ness. It's also less durable than Thunderblast. It's already coming apart and I only hit with it for an hour against rdis10093.

OGSM is the best price/performance syn. gut you will find.

Which I am sure you already know..

[rdis10093]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Scorpion/S-Gut shall be my setup for the semester. I am not calling it closed on this thread, but it's just 85% as good as Thunderblast at a fraction of the price (balls included). I may try another syn gut cross, such as OGSM since it seems to be muting some of the Scorpion-ness. It's also less durable than Thunderblast. It's already coming apart and I only hit with it for an hour against rdis10093.

hmmm, a durable cross? perhaps forten nylon. jk.

so it has been a while since I have played with a poly hybrid, what do you think the rough in the mains and the red weisscannon bug bite in the crosses or vice versa would play like? It would look sick for sure, but not sure how it would play.

[edwincen]

just trying whisper touch 17 last night with adrenaline cross at 55/54, not really impressed for my first 2 hours of single play.
Lack of power and spin especially compared with the big banger or yptp cross at same tension.