spaghetti stringing

[Anonymous]

i know its been discussed but is there an "actual" way to do it??? or do you just wrap strings around the strings you already have?

im really intrested in jsut trying it, any suggestions? i use a pro braided henman, (but ill probably try it with a head PT 280 i have in my bag)

[Steve Huff]

With a Spaghetti string job, you need to get 2 strings in each hole. Generally, you use fewer mains and crosses though, because if you had double the number of strings at the same tension, you would have no elasticity in the stringbed. The one I did on a t2000 had only 6 cross strings. The original (go to google and look up "spaghetti stringing") had only 5 crosses. Basically, anyone can make up their own versions, and I have seen several now. Be careful not to add too much total tension to the frame. The idea is to get an exagerated texture to the stringbed for more spin. The ball often comes off the stringbed in an unpredictable manner though, so don't be aiming at the lines if you use one.

[joe sch]

See the discussions under rackets re: speghetti rackets. Also consider that before these type of stringing jobs became popular and were banned, it was common to string rackets with double strung patterns as Steve Huff described. The early lawn tennis rackets often had double double mains & crosses or even more densely strung patterns.

[NoBadMojo]

for the record, spaghetti stringing was never really popular. marty fischbach first used a spag and was beating players he would otherwise have no chance of beating and then nastase drove people crazy w. it for a VERY short while and maybe a handful of others tried it.it's time was really short lived and it was NEVER considered legal for play as far as I know..it just took them a little while to declare them illegal for play as slow moving as you maight imagine the USTA to be. ed

[intense2b]

Sorry Mojo...but you are incorrect.

The spaghetti racquets were VER VERY legal. In fact Nastase used it to snap Vilas' world record of win streaks. Fisbach used it to beat Stan Smith. Furthermore, according to Bill Scanlon's new book "Bad news for Mcenroe"...they were simply made illegal due to politicla reasons. prior to the spaghetti racquet there have never been any restrictions whatsoever in the history of tennis. In fact the then USTA president said something like "If you can play with a tomato can than go ahead and use it"...for the exact quote read Scanlon's book. In any event, when Nastase beat Vilas to end his streak, his coach Tiriac went crazy. He pushed for the racquet to become illegal and because of his political connections within the USTA he was able to do it. If you ask me and Scanlon... it should absolutely be legal. I have spoken to various people who have played against it and they say that it was not that big of a deal and todays graphites would blow them out of the water. The spaghetti's had no power....you could only hit a serve at about 45mph!!!! In any event it would make tennis more intersting...power versus spin. I believe its tennis' loss not to have this racquet technolgy explored.

[NoBadMojo]

the racquets did have no power but the spin was goofy and totally unpredictible, and if you would have watched any of this , these stringjobs were an embarassemnt to the game. it wasnt politics.,the stringjob was just insanely goofy and far lesser players like Fischback were beating players they would normally barely get a few games from.....they really had no place in tennis..tiriac is from romania and doubtful he had much control over the usta altho i am sure he did make alot of noise about it. most of the pros did. if you didnt see these stringjobs being played with on tv, you wouldnt know the spin is totally unpredictible...the player really had no control over the ball so he would pretty much have to aim for the center of the court. it really wasnt tennis. and it is fine to hit with spin but i cant see how hitting w. this where you cant even control the spin is a fair test of skills...what next? 44 magnum charges in the racquet you use to serve with?

[fastdunn]

ITF rules that the main and cross string should be "interweaved" or "locked" each other.
Spagetti pattern makes mains and crosses make latteral movement independantly without interwaeving or lock.
Therfore, it is illegal.

[fastdunn]

Actually, the key factor of its spin production is due to free lateral
movements from 3 layers of string array(2 mains and croesses)
and not much from texture. As I recall, they experimented with
"interlocked" spagetti pattern and did not make much differences
with regular pattern.....

FD

Originally Posted by Steve Huff

With a Spaghetti string job, you need to get 2 strings in each hole. Generally, you use fewer mains and crosses though, because if you had double the number of strings at the same tension, you would have no elasticity in the stringbed. The one I did on a t2000 had only 6 cross strings. The original (go to google and look up "spaghetti stringing") had only 5 crosses. Basically, anyone can make up their own versions, and I have seen several now. Be careful not to add too much total tension to the frame. The idea is to get an exagerated texture to the stringbed for more spin. The ball often comes off the stringbed in an unpredictable manner though, so don't be aiming at the lines if you use one.

[intense2b]

Mojo.....experts agree that it was completely political. This is not my opinion. Tiriac controlled one of the top players in tennis. What I had described was a paraphrase of Bill Scanlons book "bad news for Mcenroe"......you are disagreeing with an expert. By the way Warren Bosworth has also written the same exact thing. It was completely political.....read scanlons book!!!

[NoBadMojo]

many many pros back then also complained about this stringjob..i mean who amongst the top pros would wish to be beaten by a martin fischbach goofily spinning the ball and embarassing them? ..and they were frustrated and embarrassed by what this string job was making them look like out there. if i remember correctly some of the pros threatened to not play a match against someone using a spag strung frame. none of the top players were in favour of this. tiriac was nastase's coach for a long time and nastase used the spag. i guess tiriac wasnt his coach then or he surely wouldnt have tried to have it banned. i'm not arguing or disagreeing w. scanlon but i remember the anger that many of the pros exhibited about this spag string incident (sounds like a band like string cheese incident) ..but no worries..i'm not interested in reading bill scanlons book..i also think he was really wrong if he indeed said, as you reported, that there was only one manufacturer making wood racquets back then....that simply isnt true. but t really doesnt matter and maybe other board memories have a better recollection of this. i gues there are politics involved in any organization, but bottom line is that the usta disallowed them and created a rule to ban them which was the right thing to do.ed

[NoBadMojo]

but this does make me wonder how many actual manufacturers of tennis racquets there really are currently. most of them seem to be made in China these days and, if like many other product lines, there are prob only a couple of meaningful manufacturers over there..the industry isnt very big and the Chinese dont let foreigners own any factories there. so a volkl could be coming from the same factory as a wilson or fischer or head or whatever..the chinese will build in any quality you want and make something at just about any raw cost you want them to. with so much money from say a Wilson going into endorsements and such, somethings gotta give and it is most likely the quality, because Wilson is unlikely to short margin a low volume part of their business like tennis racquets.

[intense2b]

MOJO,

On wood racquets...I believe Scanlon was talkin about the "Jack Kramer" autograph days of wood racquets. If you notice autograph racquets did not come out once nthe dimensions of racquets differed. The only reason they had autographs was to differentiate between all of the same exact racquets. The paint jobs were different and the autograph were different...but thats it!!! Think about it...why dont we see any "autograph" racquets anymore?...the answer is clear= we dont need them because todays racquets vary quite a bit! We were all hoodwinked my friend!