PV Audio's Playtest Thread

mctennis

Legend
I'm tempted to try Gut/Co-Focus after a full poly setup to see if gut hybrids will be a "rocket launcher"

I have that set up in one racquet and I don't like it. For some reason it feels really stiff and sort of dead feeling. Not a lot of control vs other set ups I've used. I'm surprised it feels like this considering how many ++++ comments I have seen about the co-focus string. Post your comments how you like the hybrid set up once you have tried it for a few hours, not after 15 minutes of playing.
 

pvaudio

Legend
Alrighty, popped a string over semester break. Can't decide if I want to do my ALU playtest, or just put in Scorp/Nvy and go to town...
 

pvaudio

Legend
Hit with an IG Prestige Mid with full ALU Rough yesterday. That thing was just nasty. How he kept hitting the ball out with that much spin available, I have no idea (just kidding man) :lol:
 

pvaudio

Legend
Hmm, can't decide if I want to do my full ALU playtest just yet, or if I want to try B5E in the Prestige Pro. I'm leaning towards the latter since I already am biased against ALU since it's very expensive AND while very unique, it's not the very unique feel that I particularly look for. I liken it to Tornado: unmistakable feel, but unless that's what you like, then it likely won't be your choice. Truthfully, at least at the rec level, I am 100% convinced people are dead set on ALU simply because they don't know so many other options exist. However, if it's bitten you, nothing else will do.
 

pvaudio

Legend
Is BHS the same as the old Cyber Flash, or the new one?
They are not the same string. They don't even look similar. BHS actually is metallic looking whereas Cyberflash is a dull grey. Big Hitter Blue and Cyber Blue, however, I'm pretty positive those are identical.
 

pvaudio

Legend
See, I think that Thunderblast alters every poly in a hybrid to give it more feel. Nvy, which is simpler, simply complements just about all poly (aside from the very responsive ones in which case it mutes them). I have not tried Thunderblast in this frame, so I can't compare. Having used it, however, I do prefer Nvy. It's just a bit more neutral.
 

mrmo1115

Hall of Fame
Can anyone give me a comparison of a poly/gut combo they've used where they used it poly/gut then gut/poly with the same 2 strings?
 

mikeler

Moderator
^^^I have both B5E and Scorpion in that config. Look on page 1. :)


The way you wrote that first made me think you were pairing B5E and Scorpion.

I tried some of PVAudios twine gut paired with B5E in both configurations. The B5E sawed through the gut main in 3 sets. The other way around was probably my all time favorite setup, just slightly better than poly with multi crosses though. Gut crosses are a waste of money in my opinion.
 

alidisperanza

Hall of Fame
The way you wrote that first made me think you were pairing B5E and Scorpion.

I tried some of PVAudios twine gut paired with B5E in both configurations. The B5E sawed through the gut main in 3 sets. The other way around was probably my all time favorite setup, just slightly better than poly with multi crosses though. Gut crosses are a waste of money in my opinion.

Just slightly better? Dear GOD man, you've gone MAD!!!!:twisted:
 

Bahama Scott

New User
PV. Been gone for awhile and have been using the WT and Scorpion but tried a full setup of some Bab RPM and actually like the lower power and better control....strung at in high 50's. So I am thinking about changing. Want control and spin...I hit with and serve with spin. Considering: a full bed of Whispertouch; a full bed of Scorpion; or a hybrid Scorpion and Cofocus; or hybrid Tourna Poly Big Hitter Blue Rough 17g / PerforMAXX WhisperTouch.
Would you give me some direction? These or others and also the tensions?
I play mostly doubles...baseliner but like the net too. A decent 3.0
PS. I struggle with my current hybrid just being a little overpowered and if I don't stroke just perfect the balls sail on me.
 

rdis10093

Hall of Fame
mystery string is volk cyclone just fyi. my friend said to string it very tight, but that still did not help so much. It played tight, but it did not have that great of control and to much power. spin was also no so great.

the hunt still continues. Also you have something close to a 17g syn in stock?
 

pvaudio

Legend
^^^It was Cyclone Tour 17g, I recognized it the moment you handed it to me. I hated that stuff and although with the white Bab syn gut it looked like Revenge/Recoil, it sure as heck wasn't going to play like it. :)

And yep I have many different 17g syn guts. Dunlop S-Gut, Prince Syn Gut Original, Prince Syn Gut Duraflex, Gosen OGSM, Forten Sweet, Wilson Stamina, Pro Supex FT Ruff, and a bunch of multifilaments.
 

g4driver

Legend
It was pretty good, actually! As expected, gave up some power for some extra spin. Ball bite was fantastic.

Better than the ThunderBlast cross? I have a set of NvY at home which is why I ask.

pvaudio and mikeler,

I have B5E and Silverstring in reels thanks to pvaudio's great playtesting. I am trying to lower the Wilson Steam 99S' stiffness the best I can with strings while staying with this frame. Love the frame, but my elbow doesn't like most frames over RDC measurements of 66, especially with fully poly.

Any suggestions? I have Tonic Gut 16g / Yonex Poly Pro Tour 16g in one frame, going to cut out the full bed of Yonex Poly Pro Tour in the other one as it's too stiff, and try Tonic Gut / Silverstring or B5E. I figure SS will last longer, maybe I am wrong to assume.

FYI: It takes me 12 hours to break 16g NRG or X-One crosses with B5E mains in a Wilson Pro Open strung at 55/55. Since I don't break strings as fast as you guys or couch, I'd love any more ideas you guys have.

I have been using B5E/X-One for 18 months and loved that combo, but it will not work in the Wilson Steam 99s with the 16x15 pattern.

Thanks guys.

P.S. Mikeler, you will get the B5E on Thursday according to the UPS manager. Sorry for the delay.
 

mikeler

Moderator
pvaudio and mikeler,

I have B5E and Silverstring in reels thanks to pvaudio's great playtesting. I am trying to lower the Wilson Steam 99S' stiffness the best I can with strings while staying with this frame. Love the frame, but my elbow doesn't like most frames over RDC measurements of 66, especially with fully poly.

Any suggestions? I have Tonic Gut 16g / Yonex Poly Pro Tour 16g in one frame, going to cut out the full bed of Yonex Poly Pro Tour in the other one as it's too stiff, and try Tonic Gut / Silverstring or B5E. I figure SS will last longer, maybe I am wrong to assume.

FYI: It takes me 12 hours to break 16g NRG or X-One crosses with B5E mains in a Wilson Pro Open strung at 55/55. Since I don't break strings as fast as you guys or couch, I'd love any more ideas you guys have.

I have been using B5E/X-One for 18 months and loved that combo, but it will not work in the Wilson Steam 99s with the 16x15 pattern.

Thanks guys.

P.S. Mikeler, you will get the B5E on Thursday according to the UPS manager. Sorry for the delay.


I'm not a gut/poly expert so I'll defer to others on your questions. Thanks for the B5E. I just got a set of black Thunder Blast returned to me this weekend, so I can test B5E out with DM crosses, Thunder Blast crosses and NvY crosses.
 

pvaudio

Legend
pvaudio and mikeler,

I have B5E and Silverstring in reels thanks to pvaudio's great playtesting. I am trying to lower the Wilson Steam 99S' stiffness the best I can with strings while staying with this frame. Love the frame, but my elbow doesn't like most frames over RDC measurements of 66, especially with fully poly.

Any suggestions? I have Tonic Gut 16g / Yonex Poly Pro Tour 16g in one frame, going to cut out the full bed of Yonex Poly Pro Tour in the other one as it's too stiff, and try Tonic Gut / Silverstring or B5E. I figure SS will last longer, maybe I am wrong to assume.

FYI: It takes me 12 hours to break 16g NRG or X-One crosses with B5E mains in a Wilson Pro Open strung at 55/55. Since I don't break strings as fast as you guys or couch, I'd love any more ideas you guys have.

I have been using B5E/X-One for 18 months and loved that combo, but it will not work in the Wilson Steam 99s with the 16x15 pattern.

Thanks guys.

P.S. Mikeler, you will get the B5E on Thursday according to the UPS manager. Sorry for the delay.
Tonic/SS should be a great hybrid. I personally do not think that B5E works well as a cross. SS, however, makes a very solid cross even though it's not my favorite. It has a very solid feel which is hard to explain.
 

g4driver

Legend
Tonic/SS should be a great hybrid. I personally do not think that B5E works well as a cross. SS, however, makes a very solid cross even though it's not my favorite. It has a very solid feel which is hard to explain.

Thanks pvaudio.

Played a match tonight. Won the first set 6-2 with the gut / poly, went down 1-3 in the next set, hitting too long, and won 5 games straight to finish after switching frames to full poly frame. Just could not dial it in against this pusher, got mad at myself and played better. ;)

Ordered 5 sets of Tonic as, I know gut is the best long term option.

Will keep you posted on the Tonic / SS after I hit with it on Saturday. Out of town till Friday afternoon now .
 

alidisperanza

Hall of Fame
Tonic/SS should be a great hybrid. I personally do not think that B5E works well as a cross. SS, however, makes a very solid cross even though it's not my favorite. It has a very solid feel which is hard to explain.

I've played Tonic/SS. It's got a great feel. Good control. Great pop. Solid is a good way to describe it. It's got a rather firm bed.
 

alidisperanza

Hall of Fame
Any recommendations on the softest gut/poly you could suggest would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks much.

Hmm, I tend to play stiffer polys with gut to temper the bed but three strings I'd research/look into are Pro Line II, the Head Sonic line, and for the softest end PolyStar Energy.

Realistically though, I'd drop the tension a bit on your poly and go with something that will hold tension for a while/ not die out. PV has a bit more experience than I do with different types of gut/poly. I tend to stick to SilverString and stiffer.
 

JT_2eighty

Hall of Fame
Hmm, I tend to play stiffer polys with gut to temper the bed but three strings I'd research/look into are Pro Line II, the Head Sonic line, and for the softest end PolyStar Energy.

I'd stay away from PS Energy as a cross to gut... it loses tension too quickly and I found it to be way too unpredictable with my gut. Every day was a different experience, not what you want in a string.

I would honestly say MSV Co-Focus is an amazing cross to gut. Not only due to all the threads about it, as I've used it too, and it really is soft and predictable. It does soften over time as well, which most polys tend to do the opposite, but this means you can string it at or near the tension you like your gut, knowing the co-focus will get softer. I'm not a fan of stringing crosses more than 3lbs lower than my mains, even though its ok to do so.

If it weren't for the 16x15 pattern you are using, I'd suggest WC Mosquito Bite as the all-time great soft poly cross. It holds tension wonderfully, but that's going to break fast in the 99S. (only comes in 1.16mm)

Co-Focus comes in many gauges and colors, so you can tweak it to your needs. 1.27mm is their thickest offering, which is also the best for tension stability, and still nice and soft and spinny. They also make "Focus Hex Soft" in 1.30mm. I've not tried it yet, but it's probably nice too, as regular Hex is definitely stiffer than Co-Focus.
 

pvaudio

Legend
why do you always buy reels?
I definitely don't always buy reels. I will buy a reel if I a. will use it myself or b. if it's a tremendous value or c. if I know I can sell it to customers. For example, my reel of Tornado was bought from England and cost less than half of what it does here. You can get 4.5 sets here for the cost of the reel there. Since I a. like it and c. resell a lot of it, it repaid itself almost immediately. My reels of WC polys are all for me. The other reason is that I like variety. It's very easy (if you know who to ask) to find reels which were damaged in shipping so that they're no longer fit for retail sale. Since this obviously doesn't damage the string, I tend to scoop these up for like 70% off (all of my Signum Pro (aside from Tornado), Genesis and Polyfibre products are like this). So there are quite a few reasons.

My most expensive strings I do not have in reel form aside from a 330ft reel of ALU simply because it's the one string I can't convince people to try something new over.
 

Doubles

Legend
I definitely don't always buy reels. I will buy a reel if I a. will use it myself or b. if it's a tremendous value or c. if I know I can sell it to customers. For example, my reel of Tornado was bought from England and cost less than half of what it does here. You can get 4.5 sets here for the cost of the reel there. Since I a. like it and c. resell a lot of it, it repaid itself almost immediately. My reels of WC polys are all for me. The other reason is that I like variety. It's very easy (if you know who to ask) to find reels which were damaged in shipping so that they're no longer fit for retail sale. Since this obviously doesn't damage the string, I tend to scoop these up for like 70% off (all of my Signum Pro (aside from Tornado), Genesis and Polyfibre products are like this). So there are quite a few reasons.

My most expensive strings I do not have in reel form aside from a 330ft reel of ALU simply because it's the one string I can't convince people to try something new over.
Help your buddy out?
 

bosssauce

Banned
I definitely don't always buy reels. I will buy a reel if I a. will use it myself or b. if it's a tremendous value or c. if I know I can sell it to customers. For example, my reel of Tornado was bought from England and cost less than half of what it does here. You can get 4.5 sets here for the cost of the reel there. Since I a. like it and c. resell a lot of it, it repaid itself almost immediately. My reels of WC polys are all for me. The other reason is that I like variety. It's very easy (if you know who to ask) to find reels which were damaged in shipping so that they're no longer fit for retail sale. Since this obviously doesn't damage the string, I tend to scoop these up for like 70% off (all of my Signum Pro (aside from Tornado), Genesis and Polyfibre products are like this). So there are quite a few reasons.

My most expensive strings I do not have in reel form aside from a 330ft reel of ALU simply because it's the one string I can't convince people to try something new over.

I didnt know you had customers. Who do you get the 70% off from
 

swfh

Semi-Pro
The other reason is that I like variety. It's very easy (if you know who to ask) to find reels which were damaged in shipping so that they're no longer fit for retail sale. Since this obviously doesn't damage the string, I tend to scoop these up for like 70% off (all of my Signum Pro (aside from Tornado), Genesis and Polyfibre products are like this).

In my culture we share secrets with each other... :)
 
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