Ashaway 100% Zyex monofilament

[corners]

Originally Posted by Torres

^ Am comparing it strung at 52lbs CP with the same string, same racquet previously strung at 53lbs CP. This 2nd string job isn't providing the same consistency over the string's playing life. Just seems a bit overpowered and I'm having to reduce my racquet speed or change my racquet path. The only difference is the tension and the main tied off on a different hole. I just don't get it - 1lb will make a slight difference but surely not as much as I'm seeing. If I was going to try another full bed of this, I'd definitely be trying the 'slow pulls' suggestion by Julian and going back to 53lbs CP for this stick. All this testing is getting expensive as I've burned through 4 sets now and this string isn't cheap. If it wasn't for the fact that the 1st set of this string in the Juice Pro played beautifully for a time, I would have junked this test ages ago....

Next up will be Red ZX 1.27 / Genesis Black Magic 17 at 53/52lbs CP. Should be interesting to see if those poly crosses help that ZX slide and snap back more easily. Will be doing slow pulls on both. Machine goes down to 30% pull speed, but will use 50%.

The remaining half sets will then be used in reverse after that ie poly mains / ZX crosses. Not entirely convinced by that combination, primarily because Black Magic 17 tends to go dead after about 5 hours of hitting, and I doubt that any cross will save it.

So you'll be trying ZX/poly both ways. Great.

[corners]

Originally Posted by chapmag

I'll be interested in your results. I wonder if the poly cross will constrain the power of the Monogut ZX. I've felt lots of power from the ZX, especially the Pro, so giving up some power for some additional snap back could work out very well.

My next experiment will be the ZX Pro Red/MSV Co.-Focus 17 at 50 lbs. I don't do my own stringing, but my full-bed impressions several posts above were strung at slow pull speeds (not sure how slow).

That will also be very interesting. Have you played gut/Co Focus before? If so, it would particularly interesting to hear how ZX/Cofocus and gut/cofocus compare. Great to have your contributions to this thread!

[corners]

Originally Posted by Boricua

In a week I wii order Q5 295. Will string with red Zyex at 55. I will report my impressions

Hi Boricua, it looks like we all missed your first post above. Sorry about that, but it looks like you're sorted. 55 in the Q5 sounds like a good place to start. Looking forward to hearing how it plays for you.

[Torres]

Red ZX 1.27 / Black Magic 1.23 (53/52CP)

I really don't know why I strung it like this. Must have had a brain fade. Stiffness of Black Magic is 260 or thereabouts, ZX about 150 or thereabouts....I can't feel the ZX in the stringbed at all. It's dominated by the poly. Feels like a board with not much forgiveness. Played with it a couple of hours after stringing and it was not nice. Boardy, not much spin, unforgiving, tiny sweetspot etc. Feels like a dead, stiff poly stringbed. Needs a bigger tension differential between the strings next time. Lets hope it improves after 24 hours as the poly loses tension.

I also broke the end again tying off the knot (see knot on right of picture). Very difficult to produce a small knot. Seems like you have to leave the knots fairly big and not overtighten them (see knot on left of picture).

[mikeler]

Let that poly sit for 2 days before play. My gut/poly hybrid felt bad at first but has really softened up with idle time and then play. It was very tinny at first.

[Torres]

Yeah, that poly will hopefully lose some tension over the next couple of days. I do wonder though whether something like Black Widow would have been more complementary. At least the stiffness differential would not have been as marked as with Black Magic.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by Torres

Yeah, that poly will hopefully lose some tension over the next couple of days. I do wonder though whether something like Black Widow would have been more complementary. At least the stiffness differential would not have been as marked as with Black Magic.

Black Magic feels soft in a hybrid. Must be a lot stiffer in full bed than BW. Either way, too late now. Looking forward to hearing the results.

[corners]

Originally Posted by Torres

Yeah, that poly will hopefully lose some tension over the next couple of days. I do wonder though whether something like Black Widow would have been more complementary. At least the stiffness differential would not have been as marked as with Black Magic.

Yeah, it should relax a little with a little time, and just after that it'll die.

But seriously, I think having the Black Magic in the mains will have a softer feel. Babolat has maintained that the crosses provide the power and the mains the spin. Of course, they are talking about spin shots only, where the mains are sliding and snapping back, so their energy goes into spin production, while the crosses are deflecting in the normal direction and producing ball speed. So stiff poly crosses are kind of getting out of the way of the collision with all their sideways movement shenanigans, while the crosses bear the head-on brunt of the impact. And 20 lonely ZX crosses should flex with that impact nicely. God, I'm full of it.

But with ZX in the mains it will be very interesting to see if they notch up, or whether Zyex's super-high melting point will preserve 'em.

[Boricua]

Originally Posted by corners

Hi Boricua, it looks like we all missed your first post above. Sorry about that, but it looks like you're sorted. 55 in the Q5 sounds like a good place to start. Looking forward to hearing how it plays for you.

How many playing hours shall I expect before the Zyex breaks or has to be cut out?

[corners]

Originally Posted by Boricua

How many playing hours shall I expect before the Zyex breaks or has to be cut out?

If you read this thread I think you'll see that ZX seems to be as durable as a copoly, so unless you're a string breaker you won't break it. As far as cutting out, opinions are mixed. If you read through the RSI playtests - encouraged - you'll find that people say it doesn't lose much tension, or at least that they can't tell if it's lost tension, which may as well be the same thing I suppose. On the other hand, Torres, who in this thread is singlehandedly introducing the world to the subtleties of Monogut ZX, has noticed a dropoff in spin potential after 6-10 hours of play. Most polys die by then anyway, so maybe that's not so bad.

Bottom line, in my opinion, is that ZX is a new and unique string, with the softness of the softest multis and the spin of a copoly, when fresh. I think it's definitely worth a try, and better than blowing more money trying Heptazest or Twisted Angst, or whatever "new" repackaged gimick poly they are pimping this week. But read the RSI playtests. Decide for yourself. When the weather turns here in Siberia I know I will be dropping some cash on four sets to playtest in various configurations. And if someone convinces you to try a copoly/multi combo instead, do yourself a favor and sub ZX for the multi cross.

[Boricua]

Originally Posted by corners

If you read this thread I think you'll see that ZX seems to be as durable as a copoly, so unless you're a string breaker you won't break it. As far as cutting out, opinions are mixed. If you read through the RSI playtests - encouraged - you'll find that people say it doesn't lose much tension, or at least that they can't tell if it's lost tension, which may as well be the same thing I suppose. On the other hand, Torres, who in this thread is singlehandedly introducing the world to the subtleties of Monogut ZX, has noticed a dropoff in spin potential after 6-10 hours of play. Most polys die by then anyway, so maybe that's not so bad.

Bottom line, in my opinion, is that ZX is a new and unique string, with the softness of the softest multis and the spin of a copoly, when fresh. I think it's definitely worth a try, and better than blowing more money trying Heptazest or Twisted Angst, or whatever "new" repackaged gimick poly they are pimping this week. But read the RSI playtests. Decide for yourself. When the weather turns here in Siberia I know I will be dropping some cash on four sets to playtest in various configurations. And if someone convinces you to try a copoly/multi combo instead, do yourself a favor and sub ZX for the multi cross.

Yes. As I said I will use it full bed. But I could later try Poly Plasma or Scorpion with Zyex crosses or viceversa

[Torres]

Originally Posted by corners

If you read this thread I think you'll see that ZX seems to be as durable as a copoly

There's no way its as durable as a poly. The 'bend' test and the knots breaking show that. That said, as long as it doesn't break during normal play it doesn't matter.

[Torres]

Just goes to show that bare measurements aren't always representative.

There's no way in a billion years that this is stiffer than Lux Alu.

Luxilon Alu Power Rough 125 Polyester 1.25 240 18.98
Ashaway MonoGut 16L Polyester 1.27 242 19.40

http://www.racquetsportsindustry.com...ctor_2012.html

[corners]

Originally Posted by Torres

Just goes to show that bare measurements aren't always representative.

There's no way in a billion years that this is stiffer than Lux Alu.

Luxilon Alu Power Rough 125 Polyester 1.25 240 18.98
Ashaway MonoGut 16L Polyester 1.27 242 19.40

http://www.racquetsportsindustry.com...ctor_2012.html

That's the original monogut, a poly with zero zyex in it. I'm convinced half the negative reports about zx were by people that got the old Monogut confused with the new Monogut ZX.

ZX is not on that list but in the playtest RSI said 16g was 151 stiffness.

[Torres]

Ah, I see. I stand corrected!

[corners]

Originally Posted by Torres

Ah, I see. I stand corrected!

LOL, but you were right about Alu being stiffer! I imagine Ashaway has mixed feelings about keeping the "Monogut" name for this new string. The old one, being a poly, should never have had gut in the name. But with ZX it actually makes a little sense. But the poly Monogut was on the market for years, and I wonder if, for the casual string maniac (as opposed to us hardcore nutjobs), they won't get past "Monogut" to see "ZX." Would be unfortunate.

[chapmag]

Originally Posted by Boricua

How many playing hours shall I expect before the Zyex breaks or has to be cut out?

I'm at about 6-7 hours in a full bed of ZX. I hit moderate topspin groundstrokes. I'm not seeing any notching and only a tiny bit of string movement. The strings feel like they settled in after the first couple of hours. I'm getting nice movement on my serve, both slice and topspin. And the strings are still very comfortable.

[corners]

Originally Posted by chapmag

I'm at about 6-7 hours in a full bed of ZX. I hit moderate topspin groundstrokes. I'm not seeing any notching and only a tiny bit of string movement. The strings feel like they settled in after the first couple of hours. I'm getting nice movement on my serve, both slice and topspin. And the strings are still very comfortable.

How would you compare the power level of this string to others that you've tried or favor?

[Torres]

Red ZX 1.27 / Black Magic 1.23 (53/52CP) summary

Crosses were too stiff to start with and the Black Magic 17 dominated the string bed. Felt too boardy with small too a sweetspot, low powered, and generally unforgiving.

Over the space of a few days the Black Magic lost tension and the characteristics of the ZX started coming to the fore much more (principally power and some touch).

However, the problem seems to be that the Black Magic loses too much tension over time and eventually there's not enough tension in the Black Magic crosses to keep though softer more powerful ZX mains in check. Playing for a couple of hours earlier on this evening the stringbed felt a bit overpowered on groundstrokes. Spin was harder to come by - are those strings really sliding well against each other? This really plays like a 'big flat hitting' string setup, good for hitting through the court - but not necessarily for hitting short angles. The power from the stringbed tends to lengthen the trajectory of the ball, particularly when flat hitting. I never really felt entirely in control of my groundstrokes though I found some success against my hitting partners by just trying to hammer the ball as hard as I could and relying on the power to create forced errors. Anything less than a perfectly hit flat ball though would sometimes send the ball sailing 3ft beyond the baseline. You can put rotations on the ball but you really have to work just that little bit harder to do so by whipping up behind the ball with alot more racquet speed, which was kind of fun because I could my opponent struggling a bit with the power, depth and jump of the ball off the court, but I never really felt complete confidence in doing so as in the back of my mind I was conscious of not sending the ball long. Stringbed still felt slightly overpowered. Volleys felt a bit too springy for my liking. Couldn't really get the strings to cut the ball enough for good slice serves, and the amount of power wasn't giving me confidence to really accelerate the racket head when trying to hit kick serves either.

Overall, not quite the ideal setup for me - feels too much like a bludgening instrument rather than a precision tool - though I could imagine that someone might like this type of setup if they wanted to play a big hitting baseline bashing game. Personally, I think it needs a different type of poly cross, probably something slightly less stiff and which holds tension a bit better but also allows the ZX to move/slide/snap back etc. Just goes to show that strings that might play well seperately as full beds may not necessarily work as a hybrid.

[Torres]

Going to be poly/ZX up next. Any suggestions?

Have got Alu, Adrenaline, RPM, Beast, Yonex PTP/PTS, B5E, Black Magic, Mosquito Bite, Poly Hitec, Tour Bite (though its 16), BHBR/BHSR, Silverstring, some Discho polys etc.

Personally, I think it needs something medium powered, bitey, consistent and forgiving, with good tension maintenance, and lasts a while before going dead. If there is such a poly of course...