a question on "dead" strings

[canadave]

Hi there,

I play with WeissCannon Silverstring 1.20 in my racquet. I've been playing with the same set all year....started out at tension of 59 pounds, and obviously it's quite a bit lower than that now. Last night, the strings really felt "dead" to me, in terms of the sound and feeling of them. They're quite clearly not what they used to be (I was expecting that of course, seeing as how I've been playing with them all season long).

Let's assume for the sake of my upcoming question that the tension now is somewhere around, oh, say, 45 pounds. Let's also assume that my perception of the strings isn't a mirage, and that they are indeed well and truly what most players would call "dead strings" at this point.

My question therefore is: if I had the exact same strings, brand new, strung into my racquet at 45 pounds, would they feel exactly the same (i.e. "dead")? Or, would it feel "lively", but just not as much tension obviously?

 

[PimpMyGame]

Hi canadave.

Old strings not only lose their control but also their power. Therefore if you were to restring at 45 you would certainly feel a great difference, the main one being power IMO.

If you liked the strings at 59 then my suggestion would be to restring at 59 or thereabouts. And FWIW, I guess that with strings that have been in the racket longer than 6 months, the tension may be even lower than 40.

 

[canadave]

Thanks. Yeah, I should clarify: I wasn't actually contemplating restringing at 45--I'll definitely restring at my regular tension. I was just curious about the potential differences between old strings at low tension and new strings at low tension.

Out of further curiosity, if it's power that's lost by old strings, what exactly (i.e. physics-ly) causes the power loss? Stretching? Molecular degradation? Sunspots?