mains much lower tension than crosses?

[2ndServe]

Has anyone tried a poly main at say 45lb and a syn gut cross at 55 lbs. Or is this too big a difference and bad for the racket?

[El Diablo]

What would be the point? Make the mains much looser than the crosses and they essentially cease to function, too lax to add any tautness to the string bed.

[Muppet]

A 10 lb. difference is too much. The cross strings would pull the hoop into a longer, narrower shape. 45/50 or 47/52 is as far as you would want to go. The poly will de-tune the power of the synthetic gut.

[UCSF2012]

A 10lb difference is fine. The final tension will be lower for the crosses anyway.

Ever strung a full bed of syn gut at 60/60, just to find the crosses are much, much looser?

[UCSF2012]

45/55 isn't the same as 60/70. The graphite is made to comfortably withstand 45-55lbs.

[hidude2009]

Originally Posted by 2ndServe

Has anyone tried a poly main at say 45lb and a syn gut cross at 55 lbs. Or is this too big a difference and bad for the racket?

I've done this but at 10 pound lower tensions. I think it does warp the frame slightly but I didn't notice a huge difference in the way it played versus my usual 35/40 so I preferred to keep it at a tension which didn't have such weird stresses on the frame.

[Steve Huff]

It should be ok, and if its a Head frame, I think they play better when the crosses are strung tighter than the mains.

[keithfival]

I do poly/syn gut at 48/54, works great. Used to do 50/57 which was good for bashing but ultimately felt too stiff. Not sure what you'd get out of a whole 10 pounds up as 6-7 pounds already makes the stringbed feel tight/crisp with tons of control.

[fortun8son]

Originally Posted by 2ndServe

Has anyone tried a poly main at say 45lb and a syn gut cross at 55 lbs. Or is this too big a difference and bad for the racket?

Have you given up on 70lb kevlar?
Remind me again what frame you are using and what you are trying to accomplish.

A rule of thumb (not the only, of course) is string the synth/multi cross at your comfortable range and drop the poly main by 10%.

[ChicagoJack]

Originally Posted by 2ndServe

Has anyone tried a poly main at say 45lb and a syn gut cross at 55 lbs. Or is this too big a difference and bad for the racket?

Oh man... watching you consistently search for incremental advantage, by following the least traveled paths in idea land has been entertaining! I think Ive fielded questions from you about 32 inch frames, 400+ Swingweight racquets, and 70lb Kevlar. I'm not sure what you'd gainn by having the crosses 10 lbs tighter than the mains but it seems to fit the pattern of out of the box thinking. I'm left kinda wondering the same thing as FortunateSon, what exactly is the idea here? Is it just that the poly is stiffer, so you are thinking to soften it up a bit?

Jack

[2ndServe]

I'm trying to find the deadest setup possible. For me I string it super tight and I can hit my serves and 1hbh just as hard as a lower tension but I kind of need a higher tension just for the returns and prefer it on low volleys. I go over the ball off both sides on the return, take it on the rise and come in to the net on both serves. A little unorthodox and pretty difficult against strong servers. I may change this strategy as the return percentage can get too difficult. But I've been having a lot of fun going full offense. Plus I have some injuries so playing super short points is good for me.

[anubis]

Originally Posted by 2ndServe

Has anyone tried a poly main at say 45lb and a syn gut cross at 55 lbs. Or is this too big a difference and bad for the racket?

When the tension of the cross strings is greater than the mains, that increases the reference tension of the entire racquet. This is accomplished by the weaving of the crosses that tighten and squeeze the mains as you pull tension.

Your racquet is no longer at a reference tension of 45 lbs. Simply an extra 2 lbs difference in crosses is enough to raise the reference tension by 10 lbs. Who knows what happens when the difference is 10 lbs, but you'd have to measure that yourself.

So if you're truly going for a low-tension poly hybrid setup, you should keep your crosses @ your mains tension or lower. Otherwise, you really no longer have a low tension setup.