2019 Wilson Blade
- Thread starter TennisCounrty
- Start date
Znak
Professional
djNEiGht
Hall of Fame
ahahah...that is pretty bold
Znak
Professional
You are correct, v8 late 2021
Pneumated1
Hall of Fame
Anyone hit Lynx Tour 1.25 in the V7 Blade 18x20? I have that, Cyclone 1.25 yellow, or Hyper-G 1.20. Will hybrid one of those with Ghost Wire crosses. Or does this frame deserve better? Gut/poly?
I’ve used lynx tour 1.30 and I thought it was pretty decent. The strings are kind of dead so you can hit out on it as much as you want and get some good directional control as well. The one thing I didn’t like about it was that it doesn’t really give you much for free. Doesn’t give you free pop or spin, so I feel like it’s a baseline basher type of strings. Gut/poly is really nice with the blade, extra smooth feel and dwell time on the strings can’t be compared to. The downsides of gut/poly is that sometimes the ball would just randomly shoot to the back fence even if you made perfect contact. It might be the feel flex coming playing a role but there were times where I hit the ball and it felt super good off the string bed only for the ball to hit the fence.
djNEiGht
Hall of Fame
the v7 18m has been really nice with the string beds i've used.
full bed SG - honest string. doesn't help you but gives out what you put in enough to get you going
vSquare/Ghost - nice sharp dippers and decent feel
SG/z-poly - crisp feeling and great feed back. had to work for the spin but was much better than full bed SG
Lynx Tour...as @RFfan88 said is dead so could work for you if you really swing out. In an 18m might be a very low powered string bed. I've used LT 1.25 in a Prestige Mid and took me a while to like it. break in was different. Needed some mileage to get going.
full bed SG - honest string. doesn't help you but gives out what you put in enough to get you going
vSquare/Ghost - nice sharp dippers and decent feel
SG/z-poly - crisp feeling and great feed back. had to work for the spin but was much better than full bed SG
Lynx Tour...as @RFfan88 said is dead so could work for you if you really swing out. In an 18m might be a very low powered string bed. I've used LT 1.25 in a Prestige Mid and took me a while to like it. break in was different. Needed some mileage to get going.
Did you try the HG 1.20 yet? I pretty much exclusively hit with that in v7. It gives me the slight boost in launch angle for that frame along with really helping with getting the ball to drop nicely.
Pneumated1
Hall of Fame
@RFfan88, @djNEiGht, @AA7 ... thanks to each of you for the feedback. I don't like dead strings, so may hold off on the Lynx Tour until spring/summer. I thought the V7 Blade 18m would be overly muted, but I find the feel sublime. And although I requested for it to come unstrung, it came with a full bed of NXT DurMax 15. I'm amazed how remarkable it plays with that string and gauge. I'll probably go with Hyper-G or Cyclone/GW when this NXT busts and adjust softer or stiffer from there. Thanks again.
djNEiGht
Hall of Fame
I tried briefly a set of thin HG/Lyon on one of my v7s that I got used. It was okay but probably was not so fresh. I think that a 17L might work well for you to liven up the string bed of the 18m racquet. Oddly enough when I tried the Radical 360+ MP, it had Lynx Tour but in orange. It felt lively It was also a thinner gauge so I might still give the orange and/or thinner LT a try.
Hyper G 18 is my favorite string at the moment after trying about 10 different softer to mid stiffness string, but "lack of feel" doesn't bother me. Hyper G 17 was second favorite and the first string I had used... hundred dollars later and I'm basically back where I started. Some people had said Hyper G isn't good since it's too muted so I started exploring. Found some good strings but hyper g had everything.
yes. basically summarizes my journey... @parasailing and I tried many many strings and corresponded but both of us landed on HG as well. it's a good fit. every time I get excited about trying a new string in v7, it just basically ends up reinforcing how good a fit HG is.
Pneumated1
Hall of Fame
That's what's throwing me. I demoed the Gravity Tour around Christmas, and it had a full bed of usable Lynx Tour (more broken in than fresh), and I liked it. And I hit the frame one day in freezing temperatures. But I also bought a Gravity Tour to experiment with beside my new V7 Blade 18m. My main frames, UP 16x19s, get more premium setups. Think I might just throw the LT back in the Gravity Tour and string it low with a GW cross and go Hyper-G in the Blade for starters.
I like muted frames, and now that I've learned that the V7 Blade is not too muted for me, even with full multi, I have no concerns trying out Hyper-G 1.20 in the Blade. Thanks.
Power Player
Talk Tennis Guru
Hyper G soft is the bomb. Feels more consistent and has some crispness to it. I prefer it to regular Hyper G, but have not tried it in the v7 Blade, only the Blade Pro so far.
Classic-TXP-IG MID
Hall of Fame
If you go with Hyper-G and like it, next time try the 18 gauge version (1.15mm) as it seems better on all metrics for me (according to TW string info). Better spin, softer, etc... and because the string is square, it's really thicker than 1.15mm. Played really well in my Prince Phantom Pro 93P 18x20, and I'll be trying it in other 18x20s.
Yes. It does.. i found performance very very similar but feel is crisper. Hg soft is great... and also i am pretty sure its better for your arm as stifness index is significantly lower.
World Class Forehand
Rookie
HG 1.20mm (17g) for both works out great for me.. never tried 16.. i have tried 16l and preferred 17g. HG soft I tried for about 5 hours or so... and don't get much play time lately to put it through extensive test but so far (from what I played) i think HG soft is probably slightly preferred.
Power Player
Talk Tennis Guru
The crispest poly you can handle is the best string for the v7. Hyper g soft is crisper than hyper g so that and silver 7 tour are my top 2. Tour sniper and tour bite right in the mix as well. If you string all the time cant go wrong with alu.
World Class Forehand
Rookie
Thanks for your replies - I ordered Hyper G soft 17g
Ordered 2 Blade 18x20 v7 from TWE and based on all the discussions about QC I used their matching service. Below is the result, actually it's better then expected
| Wilson Blade 98 18x20 V7.0 Racket (3) | ||||
| Racket | Weight | Swingweight | Balance | Stiffness |
| 1 | 307,4 | 307 | 32,5 | 63 |
| 2 | 307,3 | 300 | 32,2 | 63 |
| 3 | 307,1 | 305 | 32,5 | 65 |
| 4 | 308,8 | 301 | 32 | 64 |
| 5 | 308 | 309 | 32,8 | 64 |
| 6 | 306,9 | 298 | 32,2 | 63 |
SinneGOAT
Hall of Fame
A string like that adds about 17-18 grams.
My mistake, was in a hurry when writing. What I meant was +30 to +35 to swingweight. But good to know also the weight increase.
Power Player
Talk Tennis Guru
33 SW points on average is added with a 1.25 gauge poly.
galapagos
Semi-Pro
How much is the service? Overall the QC of Wilson makes me so scared of buying any racquet to be honest ;p but it all started from Wilson ;p 2 and 6 are nice . Rest are horrible ;p 4 is ok’ish ;p
The service is 20 euros, first time I use this service. Maybe I have been lucky in the past... I have bought many used rackets, most recently 2 Clash 98's (different sellers) that were very similar in weight and balance. But looking at the measurements for the blades swingweight seems to be the parameter that differs the most.
Reason for using the matching service this time is that the listed swingweight for the v7 is on the limit of what I think I can handle. (And the feedback in this thread seems to indicate a lot of overspec frames...) How noticeable would a strung swingweight of 330 vs 335 be (nr 2,6 compared to nr 3 for example)?
Only issue with nr 2 and 6 is that the strung stiffness will maybe be below 60? Value comfort but coming from a Clash 98 I don't want a stick with too low power.
DJTaurus
Hall of Fame
300-310
thompenator
New User
Mine are in that range, I have 2 at 300 and a third at 308.
Do you notice a big difference in playability between them?
thompenator
New User
I only bought them just before Christmas and with the lockdown in the UK I haven’t even strung them yet. It’s looking like it could be March or even April before I’ll get to try them. I expect the 308 one to take some getting used to as I’m more used to 300 or less.
For poly’s, I don’t usually like “shaped” since when fresh I find the launch angle to be more irregular and then I knock the edges off after about an hour of play.
For dead poly’s, Spiky Black Shark is really good. So is BBO Rough.
For an interesting more lively string job and that has the benefits of a shaped poly without some of the downsides, Prince has a poly-poly hybrid with the triangle shaped string for mains. Works surprisingly well. For medium poly’s , I really like Head Hawk
For a crisp poly, which are my personal favorites, it’s hard to beat Proline X.
For dead poly’s, Spiky Black Shark is really good. So is BBO Rough.
For an interesting more lively string job and that has the benefits of a shaped poly without some of the downsides, Prince has a poly-poly hybrid with the triangle shaped string for mains. Works surprisingly well. For medium poly’s , I really like Head Hawk
For a crisp poly, which are my personal favorites, it’s hard to beat Proline X.
Znak
Professional
Thanks!
JOSHL
Hall of Fame
Mine is 330 strung so I assume it’s around 300 as well.
McGradey
Semi-Pro
You will get a tad more free depth from the 16x19 (and a tad less predictability), but basically you need to swing faster and the spin will come with the 18x20, and if you time the ball better you’ll find easier depth.
Very possible to get massive spin with poly at lower tensions in this frame. Get a spin string like Cyclone, Tour Bite or Hyper G in there and go to town.
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Znak
Professional
Tested my 2nd racquet, 305g, 32.2cm, 302 SW unstrung. Funny I always preferred the other racquet, is it actually possible to notice a 3g and 3 pt difference in SW or is it just in my head?
(Strung with grapplesnake GC is was 324g, 33.3cm, 338 SW)
Very late to the party, but I recently purchased the 16x19 version for an "extended demo" and hit with it the first time this evening. Loved the buttery feel and control. The SW is much higher than my last racquet and my arm/shoulder started to tire towards the end of the session, but overall very pleased with it. I thought I might have had it strung up too high with Hyper-G Soft 17 at 55 pounds, but I thought it worked pretty well. My ball was dropping just in the lines, which doesn't always happen lol
Fxanimator1
Hall of Fame
“$h1t!” The sooner Wilson abandons that ridiculous fuzzy-feel paint, the better. Just because Roger likes it everyone has to like it.
SinneGOAT
Hall of Fame
I personally think it’s garbage, which is why I’m trying to find out what the name of the paint is so I could buy some from like a Lowe’s or Home Depot or something. Bring back the 2013 paint and it’s golden.