travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I’ll be down here most of the year, including the next couple of months. I’m hoping to get back to Seattle more in the second half of the year.
Is there a poly that can maintain playability for 15-16 hours?
- Thread starter CiscoPC600
- Start date
Strings are a very personal and subjective topic. However, I have managed to essentially double the life of polys by hybriding two strings that age differently. I put textured polys in the mains that stiffen and lose power and spin when they die like ALU Power Spin or Tour Bite with crosses that just continue to lose tension and trampoline more like ALU Power, Pro Line II, or Tour Bite Soft. They seem to offset each other enough to remain playable until they break or just completely die, which is usually around 20-30 hours (I have gotten 40+ hours out of ALU Power Spin/ALU Power more than once).
Max Power Rough also lasts beyond 20 hours before I notice a significant drop in playability. It’s a very consistent string over it’s usable life, perhaps because it’s pre-stretched.
Max Power Rough also lasts beyond 20 hours before I notice a significant drop in playability. It’s a very consistent string over it’s usable life, perhaps because it’s pre-stretched.
Just learn to like dead polys.
I actually prefer them a little bit muted or dead feeling and string them at lowish tension. I'm probably at about 15-16 hours now on my current set of Ultra Cable. It's got some decent notching so I don't know how much longer it will last, but I used to get 20+ hours out of Spiky Shark and I think the Ultra Cable is going to be similar.
Broke the Ultra Cable today. It played the same right up until breaking. It didn't even get that more springy feel some polys get shortly before they pop. I'm not sure exactly how many hours I got out it, but it was conservatively 30+ hours. I'm sure if you have a large frame with an open pattern or play much on clay it would be quite a few hours less, but I've been quite pleased with it, so I'll probably stick with this one for a while, or maybe try a couple of the other square polys when my reel is done just to see if the others can improve on this one.
CiscoPC600
Hall of Fame
Hmm, interesting. Ultra Cable isn't shown as a good string for maintaining tension according to TW's tool or Stringforum's ratings. Did it go dead and stiffen up? You'd think once the edges wear out it'd play really different.
I'll add it to the list. I have 4G soft, Solinco Outlast, and Tourbite to still try..
With some polys, which I describe as muted but some would say dead, most of the tension loss occurs pretty quickly at the beginning. I think of it as a break in period. After that they play pretty consistently. At the tension I strung at I didn't notice any additional deadness or stiffening after the break in. This poly also didn't seem to play quite as dead as some of the other muted polys I've liked in the past. It was pretty lively for me. I have seen other feedback on the forum though where people complained about the tension loss on this string. I have tried to get some more info about those setups to see what might have caused that, but so far I haven't been able to pin anything down. Best guess is that the string might lose it if strung to high, or maybe stringing on a lockout machine might not perform as wall as a constant pull, or some combination of those things. Personally I have no complaints at all so far. Bought it on sale in a reel for $99 and on my Rossignol frame I can get at least 20 stringings out of the reel, so for $5 bucks a stringing and 30+ hours of play I'm pretty happy.
As for the edges, the edges on the mains didn't wear much. They stayed pretty square and grabby. The thing that I thought was interesting and unexpected was that the crosses in the hitting zone flattened out. I'm not sure if that will be a consistent pattern or not since this was my first full set that I played to breakage, but it seems like it's the way it's going to wear. I'm perfectly cool with it though since it seemed to allow the strings to move and snap back throughout the life of the strings even though they did notch pretty significantly before they broke. Also, looking at the broken strings just now, it seems there was still some life in them. There were three crosses in between the break. I've broken polys in the past that were so dead there was almost no separation in them after the break.
CiscoPC600
Hall of Fame
Great insight, thanks! What do you string yours at? And what are your frame specs? Lastly, is your hitting flat or more spin?
canta_Brian
Hall of Fame
I paired gut in my mains with rpm blast in crosses. Really liked it but can’t afford it as I only got 6-8 hours play out of the gut before it broke (centre of the centre main). So anyone know a sensible priced option to achieve a similar feel but with less cost and a little more durability.
hey there!
I'd go for a 15g vs or thicker gauge gut and go for a round poly such as Luxilon ALU power/ Poly tour pro/poly tour stike / luxilon 4g.
Rpm would really eat through your mains, wouldn't reccomend a shaped poly cross.
Also i'd look into babolat elastocross. From when i've used it i've consistenly gotten about 1/3 or 1/2 more time before the strings snap. So i'd absolutely recommend it
canta_Brian
Hall of Fame
Cheers for that. I will look some of those options up and see what I can find.
I strung it at 52/36. Frame is an F230 which is a 16x17 82 sq in frame. I don't have precise numbers, but I'd say it's about 12 oz and about 325 or so swingweight. Very flexible. Somewhere in the mid 40s or less for RDC. It's graphite and fiberglass. I really like these old Rossignol frames.
As for hitting style, I like to hit with a lot of spin. I occasionally hit flat, but the way I have this strung it's not the best for flat hitting. The launch angle is a bit too high for it, although I will occasionally go flat if I get the right ball to hit.
My next stringing is going to be a little tighter to help with the launch angle. I'm thinking 52/40 might be the ticket.
Rabe87
Professional
Your best bet is anything from Yonex pre-2016, they've gone more mainstream and their poly's seem to play like every other big name string now, but PTP, PTF, PTS and if you can find it because it's been discontinued, PTHS are all amazing in how long thet maintain their characteristics for.
I find Yonex strings really shine at sub 50 pounds, 40 is optimal.
I find Yonex strings really shine at sub 50 pounds, 40 is optimal.
Rabe87
Professional
You like saying feet.
CiscoPC600
Hall of Fame
signum pro Xperience plays pretty well into the 15-16 hour mark with 17g, 17L hybrid with SPPP crosses only lasted me about 8 hours of hard hitting but the good news is that the shape doesnt wear off so you still get good spin/playability into the later stages of the string’s lifespan. I’d say Signum pro makes quality strings that, similar to yonex, are prestretched during manufacturing process which allows them to retain playability throughout the life of the string. When the mains start notching, I jus shift the crosses a few mm up or down across the whole string bed and allow it to start a new notch.
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FIRETennis
Professional
Honestly, if you hit hard with topspin (4.5-5 NTRP), I do not think it's reasonable to expect "amazing" performance out of any string beyond 4 hours.... after that some strings will still be playable for practice several more hours until they break or completely bag out depending on racquet string pattern.
Personally, I want something that plays heavenly for 1-2 matches (3-4 hours / 3-4 sets) and can later be demoted to practice frame til break or ~10h.
I probably hit double the number of balls per hour in practice vs. a match and definitely hit harder in practice on average than in a match so once a frame becomes a practice frame, the string durability goes down quick.
The only strings that pass this test for me are in no particular order: Solinco Hyper-G, Tourna Big Hitter 7 Silver, Luxilon ALU Power & ALU Power Soft.
Personally, I want something that plays heavenly for 1-2 matches (3-4 hours / 3-4 sets) and can later be demoted to practice frame til break or ~10h.
I probably hit double the number of balls per hour in practice vs. a match and definitely hit harder in practice on average than in a match so once a frame becomes a practice frame, the string durability goes down quick.
The only strings that pass this test for me are in no particular order: Solinco Hyper-G, Tourna Big Hitter 7 Silver, Luxilon ALU Power & ALU Power Soft.
parasailing
Legend
If you are a hard hitter or one that hits with tons of spin, looking at maybe 8 to 10 hours tops before the strings no longer snap back and feel dead.
TagUrIt
Hall of Fame
I have my racquet strung in a hybrid with Tourna Big Hitter Blue Rough in the mains and Luxilon Natural Gut in the crosses. Both at 55lbs. Tourna is a really underrated quality string.
BlueB
Legend
Why gut in the crosses?
TagUrIt
Hall of Fame
I did some research and learned that whatever string you want to get the most use out of put that in the mains. The Tourna I use is shaped and also rough, so I can make big cuts very easily. I know most people put gut in the mains.
BlueB
Legend
Yeah... The gut is kind of wasted in the crosses, for several reasons.
FIRETennis
Professional
Do you find this setup has "easy spin" falling off a cliff after around 4 hours? I tried ALU Power mains with Syn Gut/Multi crosses and it was super plush and nice for a couple of hours then the spin dropped off big time and mains kept getting stuck on the gut.
TagUrIt
Hall of Fame
I have a total four racquets and get two strung once a month. I’ll play two of them at a time (newly strung) rotating each one every match. The other two will just sit in the bag. Tourna Big Hitter Blue Rough is actually a co-poly and I feel that I’m getting at least 15-20 hours out of each racquet before I see a difference in performance. I play 3-4 times a week 4.0-4.5 level. With my set up, yeah it’s pricey but it’s worth it to me.
Thomas O’Malley
New User
it depends how hard you hit theball and your level of play. If you dont hit with a great deal ofpower then poly will probably last you a lot longer than people claim.
If your above 5.0 and hit it hard then it depends on the string, but id say a general rule is probably about 10 hours or so. 15 is pushing it.
If your above 5.0 and hit it hard then it depends on the string, but id say a general rule is probably about 10 hours or so. 15 is pushing it.
use the same racket and kev/zx and find the launch angle high
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