stringing with natty gut

Hi guys, sorry I've been away from the boards so long. It's good to be back and reading the forum again. I've recently have gone to a full bed of natural gut (Babolat VS touch). I am using an oversize Prince Hybrid Hornet 03 because I like the maneuverability I get from this lighter racket, especially in doubles. I like to end up with a string bed tension of around 62# to start with and that usually settles in nicely after a few hittings to a comfortable 56 or 57# where I generally like to be with synthetic guts (multifibers). I tried the same principal with the natural gut. The finished string bed tension was 62#. When I went out to hit, I was not pleasantly surprised how lively and springy the gut was and I was having a hard time controlling the trampoline effect that was getting. I know that partly this was do to the larger racket head. I didn't experience this with the synthetics at the same poundage. When stringing with natty gut, should I be going even higher on the tension to achieve the same control (without sacrificing comfort)? I love the feel of the natty gut and I don't want to lose that. I notice the amazing playing characteristics of the natty gut, especially on touch shots. However, I would really like to fix that trampoline effect that I'm now getting with the tension at 62#. I once read that gut can be strung a bit higher and not sacrifice comfort and still gain control. Is it typical to string a bit higher with natty gut as opposed to synthetics and still retain the good playability and comfort associated with natty gut?

Try to hybrid gut in mains with co-poly in crosses(or even some syn gut, if you don't like poly). Co-poly will stiffen up the stringbed nicely and improve your control, while nat gut in mains will still be comfortable to hit with.

sidzej said:

Try to hybrid gut in mains with co-poly in crosses(or even some syn gut, if you don't like poly). Co-poly will stiffen up the stringbed nicely and improve your control, while nat gut in mains will still be comfortable to hit with.

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True but the downside is the the nat gut will break much sooner. Natty gut has more power so you probably want to add a few pounds of tension to retain the same control. The opposite is true for poly strings. Now you will just need to swing a little bigger and the nat gut will improve your game

I use VS Touch on all my frames and yes, i string it higher than synthetics. For example on my 98 sq in frames i string synthetics at around 60-61, when i string it with VS i string at around 64 Lbs. Also, i would suggest that you use dampener.

Thanks guys, your input was valuable. I sensed that I should string the gut a little bit higher. I have used hybrid stringing before with gut in the crosses and Black Code in the mains. The crosses with the gut were strung a couple of pounds tighter than the BC. That worked well for a while until the BC lost its tension and control began to be affected. This time I wanted to try a full bed of gut and I will string the gut tighter. This seems to be critical especially in larger head sizes.

Kot_Bigemot said:

I use VS Touch on all my frames and yes, i string it higher than synthetics. For example on my 98 sq in frames i string synthetics at around 60-61, when i string it with VS i string at around 64 Lbs. Also, i would suggest that you use dampener.

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LOL ok I'll bite - what's the (supposed) correlation between a dampener and the OP's issue with respect to loss of control using gut string?

COPEY said:

LOL ok I'll bite - what's the (supposed) correlation between a dampener and the OP's issue with respect to loss of control using gut string?

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You are right. No correlation what so ever. I agree

Hehe I was actually hoping someone else would attempt to explain it. It was readily apparent I wasn't going to get an explanation from you.

Use some strings savers may increase the tension by like 2 lb, but you also loss a bit of feel.