kevlar users setups, what are your cross strings?

[2ndServe]

I've been using either forten or ashaway kevlar. Here is what I've tried and what I've thought about it

Ashaway 17 with msv hev 17 at 70lbs. Feels board at first but plays good till the kevlar frays which was north of 30 hours, then I stopped counting.

Ashaway 17 with Rip Control 17 at 68lbs. Very soft, good dwell time but the rip control crosses shredded in 2 hours.

Forten and Ash Kevlar with Forten Sweet 16g crosses at 70lbs. Forten sweet 16 at high tensions is very harsh imo, not good for the elbow.

Ashaway 17 with Og sheep micro 17 at 68lbs. A very economical setup, last a long time and pretty soft.

I also tried msv hex 17 mains and forten sweet 16 at ~65lbs and this was pretty brutal on the arm.

Going to try 18g kevlar with 17L msv hex at 65lbs.

[Lips]

hey 2nd serve, you are stringing wayyyyyyy too high for kevlar...i string ashaway 17 at 42 lbs...cross is polylon at 47 lbs..5.0 player using apdc...when playing on a regular basis...5xs a week....got about 3 wks of use

[tlm]

I use gamma power play at 58 lbs. with yonex poly tour spin crosses at 63 lbs. and this set up plays very good.

[purple-n-gold]

Ash Kev/Lux Alu crosses at 50lbs was the best,recently tried OGSM cross' and that wasnt bad either, strings started to move though.

[PBODY99]

Ashway 17 crossed with PSGD 16g for two different players. 58 blx in a 95, 63 in a Pro Tour 260 OS.

[NLBwell]

Played most of the packaged kevlars (with the included syngut crosses). My favorite setup was Crossfire mains with ToughGut crosses. Definitely more comfortable, better feel, and more spin - as well as more money. It lasted me as my primary racket almost a whole summer, though, so it is cost effective.
Tried poly crosses (think it was SPPP) with kevlar mains from ThinBlend. Definitely different, got excellent spin, but never really got the feel of what I needed to do to put the ball where I wanted it. I cut it out because it was too tough on my arm.
I suggest the 18g Crossfire kevlar with the ToughGut mains.

[travlerajm]

Been using Kevlar for more than 20 years.
First ten 10 yrs with Problend. Then 5 years with Crossfire II, including some experimenting with Fusion 19, and 17 and 18g versions of crossfire.

About 5 yrs ago, I switched to poly crosses. This gives a significant jump in spin relative to syn gut crosses, and this has been my favorite string combo class since then.

I've tried full poly, poly/syn, syn/poly, gut/poly, poly/gut on many occasions, but nothing comes even close to the type of control, bite, and spin you can get with kevlar/poly IMO. But to qualify this, to get the most benefit and enjoyment out of a kevlar/poly setup, you need to play with a high swingweight frame. The extra mass in the hoop takes all the sting out of the impact, so you can take advantage of the big jump in control that comes from having a stiff stringbed.

Also, I've found that kevlar/poly performs best with denser stringbeds. Open stringbed frames require higher tensions to get good control, which means that the poly stretches out too fast, leading to a stringbed that starts out too-low powered and doesn't last very long with good control. If your frame is extremely open-patterned, I recommend sticking with kevlar/syn gut hybrid for best results.

On to my specific poly crosses:
Prince tournament poly 16: the most spin-friendly option due to its hard glassy surface, high dent resistance, and lubricity. But its tension maintenance sucks. I love it in the first week, but after that it needs to be cut out.

SPPP: Despite its reputation for good tension maintenance, I found that a kevlar/SPPP stringbed just got progressively softer over time, until it was too mushy for my liking.

Silverstring 1.20: This is my favorite so far. It's not that slippery a surface, so it's not the most spin-friendly. But still much more spin-friendly compared to syn gut crosses. It has the best tension maintenance of any poly I've tried so far, so the string bed plays quite consistently for several weeks. I currently use Kevlar 18g ashaway mains (which shred about the same time the poly SS loses too much tension). By the way, 18g kevlar mains will shred in a less than a week with syn gut crosses, but they last 3x as long with poly crosses since the friction is lower.

If you are looking for a stringbed to play with for an entire summer without cutting it out, then you might need to go with a syn gut cross.

[DAS2011]

Originally Posted by travlerajm

Been using Kevlar for more than 20 years.
First ten 10 yrs with Problend. Then 5 years with Crossfire II, including some experimenting with Fusion 19, and 17 and 18g versions of crossfire.

About 5 yrs ago, I switched to poly crosses. This gives a significant jump in spin relative to syn gut crosses, and this has been my favorite string combo class since then.

I've tried full poly, poly/syn, syn/poly, gut/poly, poly/gut on many occasions, but nothing comes even close to the type of control, bite, and spin you can get with kevlar/poly IMO. But to qualify this, to get the most benefit and enjoyment out of a kevlar/poly setup, you need to play with a high swingweight frame. The extra mass in the hoop takes all the sting out of the impact, so you can take advantage of the big jump in control that comes from having a stiff stringbed.

Also, I've found that kevlar/poly performs best with denser stringbeds. Open stringbed frames require higher tensions to get good control, which means that the poly stretches out too fast, leading to a stringbed that starts out too-low powered and doesn't last very long with good control. If your frame is extremely open-patterned, I recommend sticking with kevlar/syn gut hybrid for best results.

On to my specific poly crosses:
Prince tournament poly 16: the most spin-friendly option due to its hard glassy surface, high dent resistance, and lubricity. But its tension maintenance sucks. I love it in the first week, but after that it needs to be cut out.

SPPP: Despite its reputation for good tension maintenance, I found that a kevlar/SPPP stringbed just got progressively softer over time, until it was too mushy for my liking.

Silverstring 1.20: This is my favorite so far. It's not that slippery a surface, so it's not the most spin-friendly. But still much more spin-friendly compared to syn gut crosses. It has the best tension maintenance of any poly I've tried so far, so the string bed plays quite consistently for several weeks. I currently use Kevlar 18g ashaway mains (which shred about the same time the poly SS loses too much tension). By the way, 18g kevlar mains will shred in a less than a week with syn gut crosses, but they last 3x as long with poly crosses since the friction is lower.

If you are looking for a stringbed to play with for an entire summer without cutting it out, then you might need to go with a syn gut cross.

How long have you been using kevlar/poly setups? Its something I have been wanting to try but I've heard its rough on your elbow, so I've never actually done it.

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by DAS2011

How long have you been using kevlar/poly setups? Its something I have been wanting to try but I've heard its rough on your elbow, so I've never actually done it.

Been using kevlar/poly for the last 6 years. IMO, racquet weighting is more of a contributor to arm issues than stringbed stiffness.

For 10 years, I played Prince Problend (stiffest type of Kevlar) at 80 lbs in the Wilson Profile 2.7 (84 RA stiffness). It had a SW of 350 and weighed nearly 13 oz. Never had an issue. But I playtested the 2013 Babolat APD in stock form with RPM Blast last week - that hurt my elbow on serves.

[Larrysümmers]

forten thin blend 46lbs in a depolorized yonex rds 001 mid-48 grams between the 3 and 9 and handle-was magic. getting redic spin and touch shots had soooo much bite.