Low, low tensions. 30lbs feels great. 20lbs pretty good, too

[nickarnold2000]

Originally Posted by Rabbit

Well, it only took me 3 years, and I'm still not at the 30 lb mark, but I am closing in. My regular hitting partner is stringing his Prince EXO 3 Rebel 98 (18X20) with Solinco Tour Bite at 45 on an Ektelon Model H.

Every time I set my tension at 45 on my Wise, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I kept reading on here how you had to have tension up on the 99S to get the "snap back" effect; at least 58. Well, I strung it up with 4G 1.30 @ 49/46. I hit for two hours yesterday morning and then played yesterday afternoon for two hours. It hit/played great. There was absolutely no decline in anything, my serves had as much stick on them, spin was great, control was great and power was about the same. I am so enthused, I strung my other racquet with 4G 1.30 at 47/44.

The great thing is, it plays as good (if not better) and absolutely no arm fatigue or wrist soreness. I'm sold!

I'm interested to know how many hours you get out of this setup before the snap back goes away.

[808guy]

I'm hooked on 35lbs for My 17g black widow. Hit a little long, sometimes yesterday in my 20 minutes trial. I need a little more time to fine tune my forehand. will try it again later today.
My stringer hangs out by the courts at the patk, and strings on the fly on a park table and carry a variety of strings at a very small mark up and strings exactly as requested.

[allenkau]

Originally Posted by drak

It is only a guess as I have not yet experimented much, but I think which syn or multi is likely much less important at ELT then it is at "normal" tensions. Gosen Micro worked fine for me and I used 16 gauge.

unorthodox stringing, arche3 and drak,

Update. So I got my 17g OGSM yesterday and immediately cut the Poly off my 32lb 2013 APD.

Strung up the 17g OGSM at 33lbs.

THANK YOU. I think you all are right. SynGut is better than Poly at ELT.

Took my son to the courts for an 2 hr training session. I hit with him for about 50 mins. We put him on the ball machine for about 30 minutes. He also served about 150 balls.

My 11yr son describes the differences as.

1.) More Power. - Both on Strokes and serves. I agree with him.
2.) Same Spin potential. Yup. Agree.
3.) More comfort - He described the ELT Poly as having more shock.
4.) Control - Not less control. But the ball can / will go long due to the added power. Thus, he needed to be discipline and hit topspin. Meaning, he couldn't flatten out his strokes very well.

His serves had much more depth also.

I took his racket and hit about 30 balls with the ball machine and I also felt the differrence between SynGut and Poly at ELT.

For another comparison, my personal APD is strung as an Gut / Poly hybrid at 58/54. I still love the Gut/Poly Hybrid but I can see that I definitely have more spin with ELT SynGut.

So what is next? I am hesitant on a full bed of Gut at ELT due to cost. Has anyone tried ELT Gut/Poly? From what I have read, having GUT on the cross is a waste of money. So far, I only see Yourmailman and unorthodox trying Gut. Right?

[unorthodox stringing]

Allen,

Thanks for sharing such a detailed feedback! I'm glad you liked ELT syn gut

Yourmailman is the one who started this experiment in this thread. Encouraged by his success, I hitched along for the ride and got converted. So he's the man to thank!

You did not mention why you liked gut/poly since ELT syn gut gave you more spin. Is it the comfort or power?

As I've shared in an earlier post #1718, ELT poly seems a little more complex to me and I've not tried it any further.

To hybrid gut with poly may add more confusion to it. It'll also be costly to keep trying different combinations of gut with poly strings and at different tensions I think.

After a few sessions with Klip 16g at 32lbs, the vibrations are still there. On hindsight, I think I should have prestretched the gut more, or maybe use a thinner gauge. I recall reading Yourmailman pulling tension twice with 18g gut on a crank at 30lbs.

As for gut in crosses, I agree it may be extravagant. So, another thought I'm harbouring is to do a gut/multi or gut/syn gut hybrid at ELT. However, this would be on hold for quite a few weeks or months since each gut order for me takes about 3 weeks.

[allenkau]

Originally Posted by unorthodox stringing

Allen,

Thanks for sharing such a detailed feedback! I'm glad you liked ELT syn gut

Yourmailman is the one who started this experiment in this thread. Encouraged by his success, I hitched along for the ride and got converted. So he's the man to thank!

You did not mention why you liked gut/poly since ELT syn gut gave you more spin. Is it the comfort or power?

As I've shared in an earlier post #1718, ELT poly seems a little more complex to me and I've not tried it any further.

To hybrid gut with poly may add more confusion to it. It'll also be costly to keep trying different combinations of gut with poly strings and at different tensions I think.

After a few sessions with Klip 16g at 32lbs, the vibrations are still there. On hindsight, I think I should have prestretched the gut more, or maybe use a thinner gauge. I recall reading Yourmailman pulling tension twice with 18g gut on a crank at 30lbs.

As for gut in crosses, I agree it may be extravagant. So, another thought I'm harbouring is to do a gut/multi or gut/syn gut hybrid at ELT. However, this would be on hold for quite a few weeks or months since each gut order for me takes about 3 weeks.

Hi, I have to say that I don't prefer Gut/Poly @ 58/54 "better". Its different only. It has a more normal sound. It feels stiffer. It has more Pop. It costs 10 times more than OGSM 17. I have to worry about humidity. etc...

I just think that full gut or Gut / syn or Gut / poly at ELT will give more Power and possibly even more control than ELT Syn.

As for getting Gut, have you seen that GUT on **** for $15 a set from INDIA? My buddy from South Carolina (4.0 player) swears by it. I think the seller's name is tiplopworks . I ordered a set 2 weeks ago so it should arrive anyday now.

Great Blog by the way....

[Dimcorner]

I hit yesterday again with the APD during my group lesson. The coach was like "WTH did you string it at, 5lbs?" In the beginning the ball was sailing long (It would probably have sailed on me anyway with normal tension) on me but towards the end I was dropping them in pretty consistently. He told the other people in the group to watch my shots because you can't hear if I crack one or go easy on them. One thing I noticed is that you can't hesitate on taking a full swipe on the ball on this. You can hit it slower but definitely have to do the full motion for it to drop in.

BTW the serves are getting better with this setup. I can notice more spin on 2nd serves and I don't think I lost any power in this setup.

[chapmag]

To those using the ~30# multi ELT, how many hours do you get out of your string before it breaks or goes dead? If it goes dead, how do you know? It looks like the string moves, so does that mean checking main snapback is not an indication of remaining life? Thanks.

[unorthodox stringing]

Chapmag,

You are right that from the first hit off the stringing machine, both the mains and the crosses move a lot. So that is not a good gauge of string wear.

So far, the way the syn gut "wears" seems like the pocketing just gets deeper. The feeling never goes dead. Not even after more than 10 hours of harder than normal hits.

Perhaps there was a little bit more power as the strings age? Or was it due to tension loss I cannot really tell.

But I cut out my ELT 30lbs 17g syn gut at about 15-20 hours of play. (I stopped tracking after 10 hours.) It was still perfectly playable and very comfortable. It's just that I wanted to test another string

[yourmailman]

Well, my wonderful nat-gut broke in my Bio 100. So about 55 hours with no loss of feel or playability and minimal loss of tension (28 on the app before the breakage). Mind you, this was 18g, so YMMV with thicker ones.

Ordered a couple of sets from India. The price is great, but the shipping time is horrendous. Also, no 18g. I guess I can live with 17g for $15 bucks a pop.

Since I have one of my PS 6.0 85's with the same full bed nat-gut, I used it Thursday night and loved it again. This was just a friendly match between my men's doubles partner and myself. We played almost 2 hours and had a great time. I am still trying to convince him to go all the way down to 30 on his backup racquet. He's thinking hard about it now that he has seen how much power and spin I get.

[v-verb]

Originally Posted by yourmailman

Well, my wonderful nat-gut broke in my Bio 100. So about 55 hours with no loss of feel or playability and minimal loss of tension (28 on the app before the breakage). Mind you, this was 18g, so YMMV with thicker ones.

Ordered a couple of sets from India. The price is great, but the shipping time is horrendous. Also, no 18g. I guess I can live with 17g for $15 bucks a pop.

Since I have one of my PS 6.0 85's with the same full bed nat-gut, I used it Thursday night and loved it again. This was just a friendly match between my men's doubles partner and myself. We played almost 2 hours and had a great time. I am still trying to convince him to go all the way down to 30 on his backup racquet. He's thinking hard about it now that he has seen how much power and spin I get.

Hey yourmailman!

I've got a PS 6.0 85 with Klip Legend 16 on the way. I bet it's strung higher but can't wait to see what the fabled 6.0 95 is all about!

Of course I'll go ELT when the strings break.

[allenkau]

Originally Posted by yourmailman

Well, my wonderful nat-gut broke in my Bio 100. So about 55 hours with no loss of feel or playability and minimal loss of tension (28 on the app before the breakage). Mind you, this was 18g, so YMMV with thicker ones.

Ordered a couple of sets from India. The price is great, but the shipping time is horrendous. Also, no 18g. I guess I can live with 17g for $15 bucks a pop.

Since I have one of my PS 6.0 85's with the same full bed nat-gut, I used it Thursday night and loved it again. This was just a friendly match between my men's doubles partner and myself. We played almost 2 hours and had a great time. I am still trying to convince him to go all the way down to 30 on his backup racquet. He's thinking hard about it now that he has seen how much power and spin I get.

Wait... You have already tried the INDIA gut from e B a_y ? Or this is the first time you are ordering it?

[goose guy]

I initially tried ELT poly mains (bw), syn gut crosses (ogsm) and had mediocre results.

As per your suggestions, I tried 32# ogsm on my old k6.1 95 16x18. Wow! It feels much better than the hybrid ELT. Not uncontrollable power as I was expecting. Nice feel, nice touch, great for volleying. Great spin. More power than the hybrid. But it still requires a full stroke, not lazy strokes which occurs when you get tired.

I'll string up a syn gut ELT with my regular stick (X10 325) when my spare x10 arrives. Can't wait!

[yourmailman]

Originally Posted by allenkau

Wait... You have already tried the INDIA gut from e B a_y ? Or this is the first time you are ordering it?

No. I used Klip 18g. I only ordered from India after that one broke.

[Buford T Justice]

Originally Posted by allenkau

As for getting Gut, have you seen that GUT on **** for $15 a set from INDIA? My buddy from South Carolina (4.0 player) swears by it. I think the seller's name is tiplopworks . I ordered a set 2 weeks ago so it should arrive anyday now.

Great Blog by the way....

Slight derail.....

I took a chance on that brand gut and strung it in mains at 55 and used a poly in crosses at 60. I have to say, it was absolutely the best string combo I've ever used, far and away. Just fantastic. My arm felt like it could have hit the ball 1000 times with no fatigue.

However, a main snapped after 90 min of play. It was not a framed shot, etc, but a serve hit right in the sweet spot.

However, I am not giving up on this gut as I suspect the premature failure was likely from stringing error. I saw that I frayed some mains too much from slipping clamps . So I've strung up 3 more frames with the same combo and will see how they last.

[unorthodox stringing]

Buford,

I read from the feedbacks that the gut is uncoated. I also saw comments on how easily it frayed during stringing plus inconsistent gauge diameter across the string.

Is your experience similar?

With no coating, I would expect it to play much softer and nicer but durability would suffer.

[Fuji]

Just copying and pasting from a different thread my experiences with Kevlar / Poly @ 30lbs!

Tried a "cheap" version of the original Jolly Rig last night in my Pro Staff 90 that weighs like 14oz. It played unreal. I had it strung with Prince Problend/BHBR @ 30lbs. It surprised me at how amazing and soft it played. I know that Problend is literally the stiffest string on the market, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, it played softer then some gut beds I have used. Absolutely amazing. If I had a better arm for health, this would be my go to set up, but since I'm playing sensibly and keeping healthy, I probably won't fool around with this set up too much, but holy man, just unreal playability. I hit the best slices I ever had in my life last night with this rig, and my forehand was untouchable. I now understand why Jolly used it for so long. I was leaning in and flattening out the ball without a problem of sending it long, and I was pinning the baseline within about 2 feet off every ball. True freedom to hit as big as I wanted, plus the spin was nice and tight, not overly loopy like I sometimes get with full poly. Ugh, I feel like I'm touching forbidden fruit with this set up, but it is amazing.

-Fuji

[unorthodox stringing]

Yes Fuji!

I've tried Kevlar/Poly with similar result! Great spin, excellent comfort and high power!

The only problem was Poly's poor tension holding. If I recall correctly, even with kevlar in the mains, the stringbed became a little too loose for my liking. (I skipped some cross strings though )

[Fuji]

Originally Posted by unorthodox stringing

Yes Fuji!

I've tried Kevlar/Poly with similar result! Great spin, excellent comfort and high power!

The only problem was Poly's poor tension holding. If I recall correctly, even with kevlar in the mains, the stringbed became a little too loose for my liking. (I skipped some cross strings though )

Tension loss doesn't bother me all that much, unless it becomes extremely boardy. I really do enjoy hitting with this set up though. Syn gut @ 56lbs is my favourite, although this definitely takes a solid second place!

-Fuji

[Buford T Justice]

Originally Posted by unorthodox stringing

Buford,

I read from the feedbacks that the gut is uncoated. I also saw comments on how easily it frayed during stringing plus inconsistent gauge diameter across the string.

Is your experience similar?

With no coating, I would expect it to play much softer and nicer but durability would suffer.

The string appeared to have a waxy coating on it, and yes it did seem easily frayed during stringing.

The gauge of the string seemed relatively consistent to me, but I will add that I've never used something like Babolat VS, etc so perhaps my standards are not as high as they would be had I had experience with the top of the line guts.

I did immediately coat the stringbed with baby oil, as I read on grandslam stringers that this was a good idea.

I am used to working with just poly, so this stuff really is a PITA in comparison, but the stringbed felt so wonderful that I am now semi hooked on it after just one use.

However, there is no way I am going to be popping $47 a string set for the Babolat gut, so if this Global gut just has terrible life, I'll have to just switch to a syn gut or multi in the mains that is marginally close in feel. Of course, marginally close is about all ill get, but straight poly is no more for me.

[allenkau]

Originally Posted by Buford T Justice

Slight derail.....

I took a chance on that brand gut and strung it in mains at 55 and used a poly in crosses at 60. I have to say, it was absolutely the best string combo I've ever used, far and away. Just fantastic. My arm felt like it could have hit the ball 1000 times with no fatigue.

However, a main snapped after 90 min of play. It was not a framed shot, etc, but a serve hit right in the sweet spot.

However, I am not giving up on this gut as I suspect the premature failure was likely from stringing error. I saw that I frayed some mains too much from slipping clamps . So I've strung up 3 more frames with the same combo and will see how they last.

What gauge did you get? Did you get the BLACK gut or NATURAL color one?
You should try 30lbs and let us know

I am thinking of ELT NatGuy Main / SynGut Cross Next.