Polyfibre strings here I come

parasailing · Mar 8, 2011

I will be testing the majority of the Polyfibre strings with the exception of Hexblade and Hightec.

I have tried both TCS and Viper and will be getting Black Venom which many have touted and Rapid TCS and Cobra which I haven't heard much talk about on the forum. All strings will be strung on Babolat Pure Storm Tour GTs at 53lbs of tension.

TCS 17 1.20 string - One of the first strings that I had a chance to try in both the 16 and 17 gauge version. Based on this initial test, I prefer 17 guage and will attempt to use 17 gauge or slightly thinner if 17 is not available.

The first hour of hitting, the string felt stiffer than I would like but started to soften up after about 2 hours of hitting and became a comfortable string with a lot of pop and decent spin production from then on. The string has good dwell time but became a bit bouncy and springy after a couple hours of hitting.

Viper 1.20 string - This string was one of the easiest poly to string and felt soft in the hands for a poly. After stringing the racquet, it only took about 30 minutes of hitting before the string settled in and felt really nice and plush. The string is neither harsh nor mushy. It had a very solid response and feel when making contact with the ball. I hit with this for about 1 hour and it offered good control, spin and good power. So far, I am liking the results from this string. Only question now is how long will tension be maintain and how long will this string last. Will update when I get more hitting time in.

As a side note, I had the highly touted Tourna Big Hitter strung up as well for comparision and I preferred the Viper over the Tourna Big Hitter Blue mainly because Viper had a more solid feel when striking the ball. I felt better control with Viper than Blue while Blue did offer more dwell time. Spin to me was about equal between the two string but Viper definitely had a more solid feel. Tourna Big Hitter Blue was like stringing up Luxilon Alu Power, a pain. Of course, price wise, Viper is almost twice Tourna so if you looking for value, then Blue would probably be the better choice.

Boricua · Mar 9, 2011

parasailing said:
I will be testing the majority of the Polyfibre strings with the exception of Hexblade and Hightec.

I have tried both TCS and Viper and will be getting Black Venom which many have touted and Rapid TCS and Cobra which I haven't heard much talk about on the forum. All strings will be strung on Babolat Pure Storm Tour GTs at 53lbs of tension.

TCS 17 1.20 string - One of the first strings that I had a chance to try in both the 16 and 17 gauge version. Based on this initial test, I prefer 17 guage and will attempt to use 17 gauge or slightly thinner if 17 is not available.

The first hour of hitting, the string felt stiffer than I would like but started to soften up after about 2 hours of hitting and became a comfortable string with a lot of pop and decent spin production from then on. The string has good dwell time but became a bit bouncy and springy after a couple hours of hitting.

Viper 1.20 string - This string was one of the easiest poly to string and felt soft in the hands for a poly. After stringing the racquet, it only took about 30 minutes of hitting before the string settled in and felt really nice and plush. The string is neither harsh nor mushy. It had a very solid response and feel when making contact with the ball. I hit with this for about 1 hour and it offered good control, spin and good power. So far, I am liking the results from this string. Only question now is how long will tension be maintain and how long will this string last. Will update when I get more hitting time in.

As a side note, I had the highly touted Tourna Big Hitter strung up as well for comparision and I preferred the Viper over the Tourna Big Hitter Blue mainly because Viper had a more solid feel when striking the ball. I felt better control with Viper than Blue while Blue did offer more dwell time. Spin to me was about equal between the two string but Viper definitely had a more solid feel. Tourna Big Hitter Blue was like stringing up Luxilon Alu Power, a pain. Of course, price wise, Viper is almost twice Tourna so if you looking for value, then Blue would probably be the better choice.

Eager to hear you response on Black Venom? Be careful strniging, we still don't know the toxicity of this stuff.

Boricua · Mar 9, 2011

parasailing said:
I will be testing the majority of the Polyfibre strings with the exception of Hexblade and Hightec.

I have tried both TCS and Viper and will be getting Black Venom which many have touted and Rapid TCS and Cobra which I haven't heard much talk about on the forum. All strings will be strung on Babolat Pure Storm Tour GTs at 53lbs of tension.

TCS 17 1.20 string - One of the first strings that I had a chance to try in both the 16 and 17 gauge version. Based on this initial test, I prefer 17 guage and will attempt to use 17 gauge or slightly thinner if 17 is not available.

The first hour of hitting, the string felt stiffer than I would like but started to soften up after about 2 hours of hitting and became a comfortable string with a lot of pop and decent spin production from then on. The string has good dwell time but became a bit bouncy and springy after a couple hours of hitting.

Viper 1.20 string - This string was one of the easiest poly to string and felt soft in the hands for a poly. After stringing the racquet, it only took about 30 minutes of hitting before the string settled in and felt really nice and plush. The string is neither harsh nor mushy. It had a very solid response and feel when making contact with the ball. I hit with this for about 1 hour and it offered good control, spin and good power. So far, I am liking the results from this string. Only question now is how long will tension be maintain and how long will this string last. Will update when I get more hitting time in.

As a side note, I had the highly touted Tourna Big Hitter strung up as well for comparision and I preferred the Viper over the Tourna Big Hitter Blue mainly because Viper had a more solid feel when striking the ball. I felt better control with Viper than Blue while Blue did offer more dwell time. Spin to me was about equal between the two string but Viper definitely had a more solid feel. Tourna Big Hitter Blue was like stringing up Luxilon Alu Power, a pain. Of course, price wise, Viper is almost twice Tourna so if you looking for value, then Blue would probably be the better choice.

Eager to hear you response on Black Venom! Be careful strniging, we still don't know the toxicity of this stuff.

Jeepers · Mar 9, 2011

How come your not trying hexablade?
Are you trying any of thier multifilaments/syn guts?

JackB1 · Mar 9, 2011

Liking Black Venom right now as a cross with a gut mains.

Didn't like TCS....felt "dead" to me.

J_aces · Mar 9, 2011

Jeepers said:
How come your not trying hexablade?
Are you trying any of thier multifilaments/syn guts?

I think he already tried Hexablade and talked about it somewhere

mctennis · Mar 9, 2011

JackB1 said:
Liking Black Venom right now as a cross with a gut mains.

Didn't like TCS....felt "dead" to me.

Did you try the Black Venom as a full bed before using it as a hybrid? I just bought a package of Black Venom is why I'm asking. I usually use a hybrid with gut mains a some sort of synthetic crosses. I just didn't know if I should use it first as a full bed or string it up as a hybrid as I normally do.
Thanks.

parasailing · Mar 9, 2011

J_aces said:
I think he already tried Hexablade and talked about it somewhere

Actually I haven't tried Hexablade but did ask about it in a different thread and was told that it had good control, didn't have as much pop, and decent spin production. Also, there has been quite a good discussion about this string but it appears no one has actually tried Cobra or Rapid TCS so I plan on testing those against the more popular and talked about Black Venom.

I was able to get another hour on the court today hitting some balls and I still like Viper. It still has that nice solid feel to the string and still hits with the same amount of spin and power I tried yesterday.

I also gave Tourna Big Hitter Blue another shot and it has soften up a bit and hitting with it feels better today but while it has gain some pop and more giving on shots, it has a lost a bit of control. Therefore, Viper is still my go to string until I get the other strings hopefully this Friday so I can provide some feedback on the new strings.

I got my 4th PSTGT so this should speed up the testing considerably on these poly.

JackB1 · Mar 10, 2011

mctennis said:
Did you try the Black Venom as a full bed before using it as a hybrid? I just bought a package of Black Venom is why I'm asking. I usually use a hybrid with gut mains a some sort of synthetic crosses. I just didn't know if I should use it first as a full bed or string it up as a hybrid as I normally do.
Thanks.

I am using it at a cross with gut mains and it's great! Try that.

parasailing · Mar 12, 2011

I got my package of Polyfibre strings - Cobra, Black Venom, and Rapid TCS yesterday. I have strung up Black Venom at 53lbs and looking forward to comparing it against Viper. I had to cut out Tourna Big Hitter Blue. Tourna Big Hitter Blue with many positive reviews on this board did not offer as much spin, comfort, or power as TCS or Viper.

JT_2eighty · Mar 12, 2011

Is PS Energy still softest poly for you so far?

jazar · Mar 12, 2011

I've tried Polyfibre Cobra and TCS so far, and have several of their other polyesters to try also.

My impressions of Cobra and TCS are that they are pretty powerful for polyesters; I strung them both 1kg higher than I normally go and still felt that was a little loose. Next time I try one of their other strings out I will definitely be going up in tension again. Each of them felt rather different to other polyesters; rather soft and more like a tightly strung multi or syn gut that a poly.

Murray_fan1 · Mar 12, 2011

Black Venom plays very similar to TCS but with slightly more pop. Spin production and feel are very similar which is great. While Black Venom does have better tension maintenance than some of Polyfibre's other offerings it still loses tension very quickly compared to other leading poly's out there.

parasailing · Mar 12, 2011

Glad we are finally getting some other reviewers to post to this thread.

JT - I would say Polystar Energy is probably the softest copoly when strung up initially but TCS is not far behind once you get about an hour or so of hitting as it softens up.

This morning I hit for about 2 hours on the courts switching between TCS, Black Venom, and Viper for comparison. Each of the strings are pretty soft so you can't really go wrong with using any of these three strings though Black Venom and Viper were soft from the get go whereas TCS took about an hour to soften up for me.

Black Venom seems to have good pop and has good bite to the ball allowing me to hit really nice backhand slices. My topspin forehand still felt better with TCS follower by Viper then Black Venom. I found that Viper allowed for me to control the ball better as I didn't get as many balls flying out of the courts compared to TCS and Black Venom.

Tension maintenance will be what separates these three strings. I still prefer Viper mainly because you can hit out on the ball and the ball tends to stay in more than either TCS and Black Venom.

All three are good strings but for now, I still prefer Viper.

highgeer · Mar 12, 2011

I love Viper 17. The gripe about tension loss is merited, but I prestretch it and it maintains tension very well. I have been trying Topspin Cyberflash besause the specs are close to Viper, and so far it is close (and I got a reel of it for $60).

Mike

parasailing · Mar 12, 2011

highgeer said:
I love Viper 17. The gripe about tension loss is merited, but I prestretch it and it maintains tension very well. I have been trying Topspin Cyberflash besause the specs are close to Viper, and so far it is close (and I got a reel of it for $60).

Mike

Do you find Cyberflash is a harsher on the arm than Viper? I tried it on a different racquet and it felt stiff. Cyberflash is a cheap string when you buy it in a reel or even a spool.

highgeer · Mar 13, 2011

Cyberflash is a bit harsher than Viper, but Not nearly as harsh as the stiff polys on the market.

Mike

Boricua · Mar 14, 2011

gut as cross

parasailing said:
Glad we are finally getting some other reviewers to post to this thread.

JT - I would say Polystar Energy is probably the softest copoly when strung up initially but TCS is not far behind once you get about an hour or so of hitting as it softens up.

This morning I hit for about 2 hours on the courts switching between TCS, Black Venom, and Viper for comparison. Each of the strings are pretty soft so you can't really go wrong with using any of these three strings though Black Venom and Viper were soft from the get go whereas TCS took about an hour to soften up for me.

Black Venom seems to have good pop and has good bite to the ball allowing me to hit really nice backhand slices. My topspin forehand still felt better with TCS follower by Viper then Black Venom. I found that Viper allowed for me to control the ball better as I didn't get as many balls flying out of the courts compared to TCS and Black Venom.

Tension maintenance will be what separates these three strings. I still prefer Viper mainly because you can hit out on the ball and the ball tends to stay in more than either TCS and Black Venom.

All three are good strings but for now, I still prefer Viper.

Hi! I used black Venom today and it seems rather soft for a poly and a good mix of power and control.

I wonder if gut as a cross would enhance the feel even more? What do you think what are the pros and cons of using gut as a cross with Black Venom as the main string?

parasailing · Mar 14, 2011

Boricua said:
Hi! I used black Venom today and it seems rather soft for a poly and a good mix of power and control.

I wonder if gut as a cross would enhance the feel even more? What do you think what are the pros and cons of using gut as a cross with Black Venom as the main string?

I still think it's a waste to put natural gut in a cross mainly because polys will always go dead for me before the gut breaks. I am still figuring out how tension maintenance will be for these Polyfibre strings.

I would go the other way around to see if you can tame the gut with a poly. Once I work through these polys, I will probably start trying out hybrid setups of my favorite natural gut with a poly cross to see how well it performs.

Boricua · Mar 14, 2011

parasailing said:
I still think it's a waste to put natural gut in a cross mainly because polys will always go dead for me before the gut breaks. I am still figuring out how tension maintenance will be for these Polyfibre strings.

I would go the other way around to see if you can tame the gut with a poly. Once I work through these polys, I will probably start trying out hybrid setups of my favorite natural gut with a poly cross to see how well it performs.

I use a lot of topspin. Will the gut as a main and the poly a a cross be effective for developing good topspin?

JT_2eighty · Mar 14, 2011

Boricua said:
I use a lot of topspin. Will the gut as a main and the poly a a cross be effective for developing good topspin?

Yes. One of the best spin setups out there, with great feel too. Next to Kevlar/gut, it's not that it "adds" spin, but the gut/poly setup is *effortless* spin. Coupled with the right technique, spin is incredible.

The first time I tried gut/poly I was accused of using spaghetti strings... this was against someone I had played against for years.

parasailing · Mar 14, 2011

I got a chance to hit about an hour tonight with both Black Venom and Viper. For the first time, Black Venom was the better string. I think it probably took about a hour of hitting before Black Venom settled in and started to produce a nice solid feel. The string felt like butter. It was soft and yet offered good power and control with decent spin produce.
TCS still produces the most spin for me out of the three strings currently tested.

As for Viper, it felt much stiffer today then the past two sessions I had a chance to hit with it even though tension maintenance is still good on the racquet. I hope it hasn't become boardy but next hitting session will give me a better indication.

For now, Viper plays great the moment you string it up whereas Black Venom takes about a hour for the stringbed to settle in.

parasailing · Mar 22, 2011

I logged another 2 hours of hitting this past weekend and was disappointed in both TCS and Viper for lack of playability. I got an average of 6 hours of solid performance from both racquets.

When initially strung, Viper had a nice solid and comfortable feel to it and played well for the first 6 hours. That feeling was no longer there this past weekend. It felt stiff and I did notice some loss in spin production, tension maintenance was still good though.

TCS manage to keep the comfortable feel but significant tension loss and a drop in spin production occurred.

I switched to using my Black Venom setup which I will continue to monitor to see if it past the 6 hour mark playability mark. I will be stringing up Polyfibre Cobra and Rapid to see how well these two strings compare pending better weather conditions this weekend.

Kevo · Mar 23, 2011

Rapid was very similar to TCS IMO. Nice feel, but too much variability from tension loss. Cobra was the best of the Polyfibre's that I tried. It's sort of a compromise between the feel and tension loss.

Boricua · Mar 23, 2011

Hosw does Black Venom compare to Polystar Energy in terns of softness and control?

parasailing · Mar 23, 2011

Boricua said:
Hosw does Black Venom compare to Polystar Energy in terns of softness and control?

Energy is slightly softer and so far, I think Energy is the softest poly out there. Again, only downside I see with this string is significant tension loss after a few hours of hitting. If I enjoy stringing racquets which I do not

, Energy would be a good deal given the price per string.

Black Venom has better control but less power. Spin is a little better with Black Venom. I will update the Polyfibre thread when I get more time on the court.

parasailing · Mar 23, 2011

Kevo said:
Rapid was very similar to TCS IMO. Nice feel, but too much variability from tension loss. Cobra was the best of the Polyfibre's that I tried. It's sort of a compromise between the feel and tension loss.

Just curious if you have tried Viper. I will be testing out both Rapid and Cobra and that should wrap up my Polyfibre review thread.

jgtthd · Mar 23, 2011

Black venom rough in my APD strung at 45 lbs was the worst string i have ever played with. Used for 30 mins then cut out.

Jeepers · Mar 23, 2011

How is black venom rough, rough? is it shaped? or twisted? or something?

jgtthd · Mar 23, 2011

Jeepers said:
How is black venom rough, rough? is it shaped? or twisted? or something?

Rough. Has groves on surface like alu power rough.
Its a TERRIBLE string though.

Jeepers · Mar 23, 2011

Strange, the normal black venom gets decent reviews

jgtthd · Mar 23, 2011

Jeepers said:
Strange, the normal black venom gets decent reviews

Yeah i know thats why i wanted to try it but it was honestly one of the worst strings i have ever hit with. Massively dissapointed.

parasailing · Mar 26, 2011

Another two hours of hitting today and Black Venom is starting to lose it's playability. It appears so far, none of the Polyfibre strings last very long.

For now, I would pick Black Venom over Viper mainly because it lasts about 8 hours compared to 6 hours for Viper. Viper to me plays really good but for the cost and hours, it does not represent a good value.

I will be ripping them out and moving on to Rapid and Cobra to see how they compare but so far, Polyfibre strings are great initially but lose their playability too quickly.

Kevo · Mar 27, 2011

I haven't tried Viper. I've basically written off the Polyfibre strings as promising, but needs work. None of the ones I tried except Cobra remained playable for me for more than 3 outings. Cobra definitely has promise, but it's feel isn't as much of a plus as the others, so I have decided not to try any more Polyfibre strings until they come up with something new that has a good number of solid reviews.

rodrigoamaral · Mar 27, 2011

Kevo said:
I haven't tried Viper. I've basically written off the Polyfibre strings as promising, but needs work. None of the ones I tried except Cobra remained playable for me for more than 3 outings. Cobra definitely has promise, but it's feel isn't as much of a plus as the others, so I have decided not to try any more Polyfibre strings until they come up with something new that has a good number of solid reviews.

did you try the black venom or the hexa blade?

parasailing · Mar 30, 2011

I tried out Rapid for about an hour and so not really impressed with the string, still have Cobra to string up. Spin wise, I feel it has less spin than TCS. I will try it this week to see if anything improves on it.

I agree that Polyfibre strings have a great initial feel but they either lose tension quickly or feel boardy.

JackB1 · Mar 30, 2011

parasailing said:
Another two hours of hitting today and Black Venom is starting to lose it's playability. It appears so far, none of the Polyfibre strings last very long.

For now, I would pick Black Venom over Viper mainly because it lasts about 8 hours compared to 6 hours for Viper. Viper to me plays really good but for the cost and hours, it does not represent a good value.

I will be ripping them out and moving on to Rapid and Cobra to see how they compare but so far, Polyfibre strings are great initially but lose their playability too quickly.

How do u know its losing playability?

Kevo · Mar 31, 2011

rodrigoamaral said:
did you try the black venom or the hexa blade?

Nope, haven't tried anything since Cobra. Like I said, I've already given Polyfibre enough of a look to satisfy my curiosity. Until they release something that gets a significant number of good reviews, I'm done with them. I really hate strings that don't play consistently. I like my racquets to feel pretty much the same way all the time. I certainly don't want to have to adjust to my string every time I go out to hit or play a match.

parasailing · Mar 31, 2011

JackB1 said:
How do u know its losing playability?

For me, it no longer provided the same amount of spin production compared to when I initially strung up the racquet. It also got a bit stiffer before I decided to cut it up. That to me was what I meant by playability.

kiteboard · Mar 31, 2011

hexablade is good with blue gear ultra. Hex as cross.

parasailing · Apr 9, 2011

I tried another hour with Polyfibre Rapid and decided to cut out the strings. To me, it doesn't have as much spin or power as TCS therefore it's time to move on to a new string. Only remaining Polyfibre string is Cobra. I hope this string fairs better than those that I have tested already.

mikeler · Apr 10, 2011

Just cut out Polyfibre Gutex which is VERY similar to Mantis Comfort Synthetic and WeissCannon Explosiv. It had too much trampoline effect in a full bed. Might be a decent cross string with a poly.

parasailing · Apr 23, 2011

I finally had a chance to string up Polyfibre Cobra and it was quite disappointing. I cut the string out after 3 hours of use mainly because it just felt like an ordinary poly string. It didn't provide as much spin as TCS nor was it as comfortable as Viper. Stringing was also quite difficult and thus added to my low opinion of this particular string.

If you had to go with a copoly from Polyfibre, I would stay with TCS. That seems to be the best of all the ones I have tried out, TCS, Rapid, Viper, Black Venom, and Cobra.

Polyfibre strings here I come

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