I remember using uncoated gut during the late 70's and 80's. I miss those strings. Thanks for the flashback Rabbit.
What did people used back in the 80s?
- Thread starter THESEXPISTOL
- Start date
I remember using uncoated gut during the late 70's and 80's. I miss those strings. Thanks for the flashback Rabbit.
Yaz
Rookie
I also used mainly Leoina 66 in the 80s, but my Dad occasionally splurged for that gut with the blue spiral. I have a friend that still uses L66 and he loves it.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Probably. Wasn't that the gut with the blue spiral?
Lakers4Life
Hall of Fame
Victor Imperial gut came in a tin can. I actually have a can, I got with a machine.
dunlop_fort_knox
Professional
blue star was the popular synthetic at the time. the most popular guts were Victor Imperial and also a cheaper Natural gut? Leonia 66 was the bomb!
Lakers4Life
Hall of Fame
I think I still have a Wilson JKPS with Leona 66 on it.
THESEXPISTOL
Hall of Fame
Which gauges where the most popular on nylons back then? 1.35 and 1.40?
There is a (big) difference between the States and Europe. In europe at that time and most likely still, were using thicker strings. Red clay just breaks strings a lot faster. So 16 was luxury, 17 almost never.
Take a look at Tecnifibre, in the states you cannot buy TGV 1.25, 1.3, 1.35 or 1.4. Compare europe web order shops with the states ones and you will see different strings and gauges.
At that time (prince) syntetic gut 17 & 16 (1.3) was used a lot in the states but I did mostly did string with 1.35 and up for amateur to close to pro level.
Peter
THESEXPISTOL
Hall of Fame
Can anyone identify this string on Vince Spadea's POGO?
EDIT:
Same string on Sharapova's racquet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PjfK49pcsw
EDIT:
Same string on Sharapova's racquet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PjfK49pcsw
Last edited:
Steve Huff
G.O.A.T.
I used Victor Imperial, than VS Africord gut, then PDP Green Spiral Nat. Gut Rough. I started hybridding in around 88-90 to save money. I used Leoina 66 and 77 (the 16g version) some of the time. I tried poly back in the mid 80s also--Leoina Poly X and Poly 7. They were a little stiff and they squeaked when you moved them. They stayed straight though. Some others I used were Toa Gold, Prince Synthetic, Babolat Fine Play, Vantage (70s), ***** nylon (black), PDP gut, Dunlop Gut, American Eagle Gut and a few Gamma strings. Despite what many believe, there has never been a shortage of choices.
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Imago
Hall of Fame
Chotobaka
Hall of Fame
Autodidactic player
Professional
Easy cowboy! Polystar introduced the first monofilament polyester tennis string in 1981. Many excellent players, such as Brian Gottfried, used the original Polystar string on the pro tour as early as 1983.
Champs990411
Rookie
I stuck with PSG and Topspin. They still smell the same too. Perhaps a weird comment, but true.
Not weird at all. String smell is key. Brings me back!
My eyes roll out of my head when I read in modern string reviews something like, "Terrible string. After 10 minutes of hitting the strings were all over the place!" In the day, that was just life. Topspin in the CTS Approach 90... fuggetaboutit
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Chotobaka
Hall of Fame
I like your sig, brother. Same here.
So there is a guy locally that had some Winn gutex, gutex graphite, & gutite for sale. They were stored nicely and I am going to string up on my POG to see how it feels. A bit nostalgia here..
As for poly, I recall using prince poly pro (strings were green in color) in the mid 80's.
As for poly, I recall using prince poly pro (strings were green in color) in the mid 80's.
Most people here answered looked at US point of view.
In Europe in the end area of wooden racket most used string where
Peter
In Europe in the end area of wooden racket most used string where
- Gut Babolat VS and AFV.
- Bow Brand Ethernyl or Super Ethernyl (Pretty ruff multi outside and fixed core as far as I remember)
- Goosen string with HY-O-Sheep
- Standard Nylon string in all kind of flavors
- Gamma was more or less unknown in Europe.
- Tecnifibre came around 1980 on the market and started to become popular around 1985
- Polystar (German Company) and Snauwaert Dynocraft were the first poly strings one the market available in 1.2 and 1.3 starting 1981. The 1.2 was used fairly a lot but did break quickly. And it did damage the wooden rackets by sort of pulling itself through the wood.
Peter
PrinceMoron
Legend
Alu power to you
PrinceMoron
Legend
Wonderful smell
vsbabolat
G.O.A.T.
I was using Technifibre in my wood Maxply McEnroe in 1983. I think it was 515
tennistomcat
Semi-Pro
Vince used optic yellow Prince in the 1980's.
The early Gamma strings were not multi's.
Early polys were difficult to play with.
Is that Prince Topspin string?
I remember it looked pretty sweet as a fresh stringjob on a racket back in the day.
First had rackets strung in the mid 1970's and I think Blue Star synthetic was what we wanted if we could get it. Played college tennis from 1976 thru 1980 and used whatever our coach had for us. Preferred the synthetics at that time compared to the basic nylon. Used gut when I got it free, never paid for it. Had some ranking sponsorships for a few years and played with free gut. Mainly used various synthetics over the years until poly got mainstream and started using it hybrid. Seems like in the wood racket days the rackets were not as string sensitive for our string options, other than gut felt much more lively.
Ronaldo
Bionic Poster
Unless playing at 35 degrees fahrenheit or below
I've been wondering if oil-filled poly would be a good idea. I think the oil would dampen some of the shock on the arm. Also, poly doesn't wear through quickly, which was the problem I had with the oil-filled, since you only had to wear a little bit into the string before it broke.
If I had a racket-string company, I would certainly tinker with developing it.
ricki
Hall of Fame
[/QUOTE]Vince used optic yellow Prince in the 1980's.
The early Gamma strings were not multi's.
Early polys were difficult to play with.
EDIT:
Same string on Sharapova's racquet?
I think it can be "Prince Poly EXP" string back from 2008-2009
Ronaldo
Bionic Poster
Wilson had a Hollow Core string BITD. Hollow Core poly? Polystar was the earliest poly I recall.
Poly EXP did NOT exist back then. The picture was NOT taken in 2009 as caption suggested.
Vince / Masha were using Topspin 15L or 16.
The liquid (or maybe even gel) would be what damps the vibration.
Champs990411
Rookie
I had a few issues of Junior Tennis magazine from around 94-95 and they had probably 100+ pics of nationally ranked juniors. Optic yellow string was *very* in.
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vsbabolat
G.O.A.T.
Backhanded Compliment
Legend
My first aluminum frame was the McEnroe Plus
Moved to the Max200g in 1984 (it was one of the earliest models)
Moved to the Max200g in 1984 (it was one of the earliest models)
Vanhalen
Professional
This. We had different strokes then. More traditional, less low to high, strings rarely broke. If I used PSG it would snap within 9minutes.
Wow, may i ask how many years have you played tennis?
I played roughly 15 out of last ~20 years or so, on and off.
I recently started to lose interests in tennis a bit (mainly due to injuries/aging of last 5 years or so).
I need an inspiration to keep me going.
Rabbit
G.O.A.T.
Wow, may i ask how many years have you played tennis?
I played roughly 15 out of last ~20 years or so, on and off.
I recently started to lose interests in tennis a bit (mainly due to injuries/aging of last 5 years or so).
I need an inspiration to keep me going.
I started playing in 1972 and have been playing ever since, 45 years now. I just turned 59 and was finally, thankfully, bumped down to 4.0.
The good old 80's I used to use Toa Gold which was my favourite at the time, but it broke so fast, then I moved onto Prince Topspin which I used to love, but again it broke so quick, my parents were sick of paying for my re strings so I ended up using Price Pro Blend which was a kevlar type string, used to last much better. But to this day I have fond memories of the Toa Gold and Prince Topspin.
slice bh compliment
G.O.A.T.
Century made/distributed a great nylon. Cheap, durable. Felt fine to me. I would get it by the reel. Cannot remmeber the name, but it came in 15 light, which was just right for me.
Toa gold. Leoina 66, Leoina 77.
Babolat fine play and super fine play. Cool colors.
Africord! Solid red. Looked so perfect in the maxply.
Blue star.
Blue twist was awesome.
Vistor Imperial in a cubic can. Wish i still had a can or two.
Prince topspin. Prince pro blend (kevlar main).
Gosen made a good syngut.
Of course psg, sans duraflex.
Tecnifibre answer and 515 came along late in the eighties or maybe early nineties?
As a player, I used vs or pacific gut mains and various crosses....anything cheap. Like the reel of century whatever. Or dunlop made a syn gut like fine play. So did zebra, which my tema got for free by the reel.
As a young coach and stringer, i used all gut if possible. Or Tecnifibre when i was able to get it at cost.
There actually were polys back then. People hated them. i was one of them.
Many frames did not have bumperguards. We all had the babolat malliot witt tape. Everyone called it babolat head tape. The light blue looked awesome on wood. Or anything like a rossignol f200. White looked great on anything, especially a slaz vilas v24.
We used leather pads on a lot of frames. Made them from grip scraps. Sometimes pro shops had the cheesy little round ones. Or the little clear plastic bubble ones.
TournaGrip was popular. The big foamy vibrasorb things were popular. "For me to poop on."
To put a vs stencil on a non-gut stringbed was sacrilege. Two stripes on the bottom (first and third crosses) was a badge of honor. Many faked it. The bow brand gut was incredible. Weird circle logo on top. Did not survive humidity, but it was cool because of Edberg.
Toa gold. Leoina 66, Leoina 77.
Babolat fine play and super fine play. Cool colors.
Africord! Solid red. Looked so perfect in the maxply.
Blue star.
Blue twist was awesome.
Vistor Imperial in a cubic can. Wish i still had a can or two.
Prince topspin. Prince pro blend (kevlar main).
Gosen made a good syngut.
Of course psg, sans duraflex.
Tecnifibre answer and 515 came along late in the eighties or maybe early nineties?
As a player, I used vs or pacific gut mains and various crosses....anything cheap. Like the reel of century whatever. Or dunlop made a syn gut like fine play. So did zebra, which my tema got for free by the reel.
As a young coach and stringer, i used all gut if possible. Or Tecnifibre when i was able to get it at cost.
There actually were polys back then. People hated them. i was one of them.
Many frames did not have bumperguards. We all had the babolat malliot witt tape. Everyone called it babolat head tape. The light blue looked awesome on wood. Or anything like a rossignol f200. White looked great on anything, especially a slaz vilas v24.
We used leather pads on a lot of frames. Made them from grip scraps. Sometimes pro shops had the cheesy little round ones. Or the little clear plastic bubble ones.
TournaGrip was popular. The big foamy vibrasorb things were popular. "For me to poop on."
To put a vs stencil on a non-gut stringbed was sacrilege. Two stripes on the bottom (first and third crosses) was a badge of honor. Many faked it. The bow brand gut was incredible. Weird circle logo on top. Did not survive humidity, but it was cool because of Edberg.
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jmacdaununder2
Legend
'What will we be stringing in the eighties; what should we be stringing now?' Apologies to The Monitors, if they're still kickin'.
