Ashaway 100% Zyex monofilament

[mikeler]

Julian,

If I normally string full multis at 50 pounds which is quite low, do you still recommend the reduction in tension with the Zyex. It just seems strange to go into the 40s unless it is poly.

[Torres]

^ Obviously I'm not Julian (and I'm sure he'll answer anyway) but for Red ZX 1.27mm, definitely go into the low/mid 40s if you're stringing a multi at 50. I'm stringing it at soft poly tensions for my sticks and I think its fractionally too high.

Obviously I can't comment on Natural 1.27 (ZX) or Natural 1.22 (ZX Pro), both of which I'm assuming will be softer. But don't make the mistake of basing tensions on what you're used to because this is different material that has its own characteristics.

Tensions recommendations are on their page: http://www.ashawayusa.com/MonoGutZX.php

[Torres]

Just found this on the Ashaway website. Seems to have very promising tension loss characteristics.

Once the stringbed's settled, this suggests ZX maintains its tension for a couple of weeks without further tension loss. That's quite extraordinary.



http://www.ashawayusa.com/TennisTip6.php

If that table is representative, then presumably you would string it with the intention of the strings settling at their target tension by day 3.

[Torres]

Hours 2-3 of hitting with Red ZX 1.27mm in a BLX Juice Pro....

I definitely need to reduce the tension slightly next time as it feels like I've strung it slightly too high. Stringbed doesn't feel bad but it feels a little bit tinny unless you nail the ball perfectly in the sweetspot every time. I think a slightly lower tension will increase the forgiveness from the stringbed and open the sweetspot a bit more.

The optimum tension isn't what you'd expect. I would string it at maybe 51lbs CP next time (compared to 53lbs CP originally). This compares to 52lbs for Black Magic 17, 53lbs for BHBR16, and about 58lbs CP for a synthetic gut even though ZX doesn't play as stiff those two polys (though I've never consider Black Magic or BHBR to be arm unfriendly unless they've gone dead). Contrary to what you'd expect, Ashaway's tension recommendation of 15-20% lower than nylon for Red ZX 1.27mm sounds about right.

This string plays like a poly but without the poly stiffness and changeable tension loss characteristics of poly, and also unlike most polys it has the non-linear power characteristics of a multi/gut thrown in IF you want it. The BLX Juice Pro is a more spinny racquet than the 6.1 18x20 and its quite noticeable with some of the balls that you can produce. The swerve and cut you can put on slices, particularly slices with side spin is poly-esque. Spin on groundstrokes is poly-esque as well - maybe not quite as much as the ultimate 'grabby' polys but its not far off. Its not the easiest to tell though because the higher power of the string (well, higher power than a typical poly) elongates the trajectory of the ball. But power is there if you want it. Low power is there is there if you want it as well. It has very adjustable power characteristics. Poly like control from the stringbed too unless you mishit the ball, or you're being silly with your shots.

Red Monogut ZX 1.27mm feels like the 'love child' of a poly and a multi/gut. It has characteristics of both, but couldn't be described as either. String it at a high(er) and it feels more poly-esque. String it lower and its like soft poly with more multi/gut power and touch characteristics thrown in. Personally, I think Red ZX 1.27mm leans more towards being a 'poly-lite' string - at the end of the day its still a type of plastic - but Ashaway really have created a new category of string here with a really interesting blend of characteristics.

[mikeler]

^^^ Good write up

[julianashaway]

Originally Posted by mikeler

Julian,

If I normally string full multis at 50 pounds which is quite low, do you still recommend the reduction in tension with the Zyex. It just seems strange to go into the 40s unless it is poly.

The reason for the recommendation of 15-20% reduction in tension from Nylon is that Monogut ZX will hold tension much better than Nylon. Therefore, a 15-20% reduction is not much of a recuction at all once your Nylon strings have been in play. That being said, 50 lbs is quite low for Nylon. If you don't get a lot of play from your strings, you may find 50 lbs just fine for Monogut ZX and get longer lasting enjoyment at that tension. If you do get a lot of play from your Nylon strings at 50 lbs, you may prefer Monogut ZX in the 40's. Hope this helps.

[maxpotapov]

Alright everybody, so should I risk half set of Wilson Natural Gut to cross with Monogut ZX? Last time someone tried it, it did not go too well...

Originally Posted by Ramon

It amazes me how long people have been talking about this combination in different threads, but almost everyone who posts is either asking if anyone else tried it or is trying to get other people to try it. Well, guess what? I'm the sucker who finally tried it a few days ago.

My setup was Mamba Premium Natural Gut 16 mains with Ashaway Zyex Monogut 16L crosses at 50/50 on a drop weight machine (equivalent to 57/57 on a lockout). Don't ask me to try it at different tension settings, which was my original intention. It's just not worth my time. I only tried it for 10 minutes, but that was enough.

The setup was way too powerful and didn't have enough spin to compensate. My PK Ki 5x is as control-oriented as any racquet I've tried in recent memory, but even with this racquet the stringbed feels like a trampoline. Shots that normally go in were sailing long. As I got used to it, I started hitting some shots in, but I didn't pick up any confidence. It's like my mind was telling me the shots were going in by mistake. When I switched back to full bed multi (Premier Attack) it was a big relief! I felt much better after that.

At this point, I just don't think mono zyex works as a tennis string. There are obvious reasons why no one else uses it. It's too powerful, has no feel, and provides less spin than nylon. Its only redeeming quality is that it's more arm-friendly than poly, but since it gives none of the benefits of poly, it's a total waste. Now I have a half set of mono zyex that I'm going to throw away. At least I can still do something with the remaining half set of econogut.

[scotus]

Originally Posted by maxpotapov

Alright everybody, so should I risk half set of Wilson Natural Gut to cross with Monogut ZX? Last time someone tried it, it did not go too well...

From Ramon's findings, it seems to me that a poly main and ZX cross will be a better setup.

What is your usual setup?

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by julianashaway

The reason for the recommendation of 15-20% reduction in tension from Nylon is that Monogut ZX will hold tension much better than Nylon. Therefore, a 15-20% reduction is not much of a recuction at all once your Nylon strings have been in play. That being said, 50 lbs is quite low for Nylon. If you don't get a lot of play from your strings, you may find 50 lbs just fine for Monogut ZX and get longer lasting enjoyment at that tension. If you do get a lot of play from your Nylon strings at 50 lbs, you may prefer Monogut ZX in the 40's. Hope this helps.

OK, thanks for the insight.

[maxpotapov]

Originally Posted by scotus

From Ramon's findings, it seems to me that a poly main and ZX cross will be a better setup.

What is your usual setup?

Right now it's Pacific Tough Gut / WC Mosquito Bite.
But I would not mind something softer and more energetic in my super dense and low powered Prestige LM Mid.

[scotus]

Originally Posted by maxpotapov

Right now it's Pacific Tough Gut / WC Mosquito Bite.
But I would not mind something softer and more energetic in my super dense and low powered Prestige LM Mid.

I do not subscribe to the change-only-one-variable-at-a-time theory when an expensive piece of gut is on the line.

I would probably go a bit higher on tension going from gut/poly to gut/zyex, but that's just me.

[Torres]

Originally Posted by maxpotapov

Alright everybody, so should I risk half set of Wilson Natural Gut to cross with Monogut ZX? Last time someone tried it, it did not go too well...

The problem with Ramon's review is that he seems to have made alot of school boy errors when testing the string, and drawn quite a few mistaken conclusions about ZX as a result of those errors.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by Torres

The problem with Ramon's review is that he seems to have made alot of school boy errors when testing the string, and drawn quite a few mistaken conclusions about ZX as a result of those errors.

Not sure what school boy errors are but like you said, it does not appear he tested the ZX version.

[fgs]

i think that before being renamed to monogut zx the string initially hit the market under the name zyex monogut - i could be wrong nevertheless.

still can't be found in continental europe and obviously the german and austrian distributors have not even found out it exists!

[corners]

Originally Posted by maxpotapov

Alright everybody, so should I risk half set of Wilson Natural Gut to cross with Monogut ZX? Last time someone tried it, it did not go too well...

I'm definitely going to do it. But I won't be getting to it for another month or so, so whatever happens to me won't be useful to you in the meanwhile.

But I would carefully consider at which tensions you string a) a bed of full gut, and b) gut mains with soft copoly crosses.

Based on everything I know about those two setups, and everything I think I know, or currently assume, about ZX, I would personally string (in a mid):

Full gut: 55-60 pounds
Gut/soft copoly: 45-52 pounds
Gut/ZX: 50-60 pounds

ZX is much less stiff than any copoly on the market. It isn't even close. So I would definitely be thinking of stringing gut/ZX at a higher tension than I do with gut/copoly.

Now, Ramon said that gut/ZX was very powerful, which is what we would expect, given that ZX is much more flexible than copoly. But he also said it didn't give him enough spin to bring the ball into the court. But here's the thing: anytime you change the cross string in a setup you're going to get a different rebound angle. If gut/ZX produces a higher rebound angle than full gut, you're going to hit long, even if gut/ZX actually produces more spin than full gut does. But rebound angle can be adjusted to quite easily, but it may take more than ten minutes.

For example, a copoly string will rebound the ball at a higher angle than a multi will. But, the multi is also truly more powerful, it rebounds the ball at a faster speed than the copoly does. So when comparing them, you might end up getting similar distance on your shots, but the shot trajectories will be quite different: the copoly will produce a high, arcing trajectory and the multi will produce a line drive.

But if you go from gut/copoly to gut/ZX you're going to get more ball speed, maybe less spin, and maybe a higher rebound angle. If one or more of things these are true, you're going to get more depth. You can freak out about this depth or hit with it a while to see if you can make it work for your game and figure out the source of the depth.

If you're getting more depth because of more true ball speed, this is an unqualified good in my book.

If you're getting more depth because of less spin, this is not so great, but you still might want to make it work if the extra speed and comfort is important to you. Ramon thought this is what happened and it was unacceptable to him.

If you're getting more depth because of a higher natural rebound angle, it's not a big deal. You can adjust to this in a fairly short amount of time. If the string combo really floats your boat you could switch to a tighter string pattern which will make the adjustment for you. In my opinion, depth resulting from a high rebound angle could very easily be mistaken for less spin. I would be careful about jumping to conclusions about spin. Recent experiments have shown that player perception of spin is not very reliable.

Personally, I'm hoping that gut/ZX will deliver a noticeable increase in speed and comfort over gut/copoly and that the spin will be near enough to gut/copoly to work for me. As long as the spin is better than a multi or syngut I'm not too concerned about rebound angle. Extremely-low tension copoly produces very high launch angles and I didn't find that very hard to adjust to at all.

Anyway, keep in mind that I haven't even hit with this stuff yet. So all the above might be totally wrong.

[Torres]

I really don't understand why people are talking about crossing this with natural gut. What's the point?

[corners]

Originally Posted by Torres

I really don't understand why people are talking about crossing this with natural gut. What's the point?

Good question!

Power?

Spin?

In your experience so far, Torres, how would you rate ZX in a full bed to gut/poly in these two categories?

[ultradr]

Originally Posted by Torres

I really don't understand why people are talking about crossing this with natural gut. What's the point?

1. Cost saving
2. Different playing characteristics.

NG/Zyex hybrid must be at least better than NG/Poly, in terms of tension
maintenance.

[maxpotapov]

Originally Posted by Torres

I really don't understand why people are talking about crossing this with natural gut. What's the point?

Nono, natural gut mains!
ZX looks like it's slick and elastic, what could be better as a cross?
And frankly, I don't understand what's the point with full beds unless you hit totally flat.

String on string friction can always be improved in hybrids over what you get in full bed. Denting/notching is also worse in full bed setup, strings lock in place from day one in most cases. Plus you get some cushioning from synthetic gut crosses without losing bite from poly mains. And it's more economical too.

Why people use full bed of anything is beyond me, although I acknowledge that feel (the zing!) of fresh full Luxilon ALU is quite exhilarating. But who can afford to restring every match?

[maxpotapov]

Originally Posted by corners

Personally, I'm hoping that gut/ZX will deliver a noticeable increase in speed and comfort over gut/copoly and that the spin will be near enough to gut/copoly to work for me. As long as the spin is better than a multi or syngut I'm not too concerned about rebound angle. Extremely-low tension copoly produces very high launch angles and I didn't find that very hard to adjust to at all.

Anyway, keep in mind that I haven't even hit with this stuff yet. So all the above might be totally wrong.

Now I have to wait until Tough Gut / Mosquito Bite breaks, which takes forever considering slow indoor season (few hours per week). I could try it in a different racquet but I want to make apples to apples comparison. Besides, dense string pattern of Prestige Mid could really take advantage of higher launch angle and easier power/depth.
I think I will go for 50/50 lbs with ZX crosses and Wilson Natural Gut mains. For Tough Gut / Mosquito Bite it was a bit too tight, I would string 48/46 next time.