kabrac
Professional
Exactly. That's using your head son
Advices for manual tennis stringing machine
kabrac
Professional
I've strung oversize racquets with fan patterns on my Gamma Progression II. Fixed clamps do not make you faster. All of this stems from the ego of having a "professional" electronic machine with all the bells and whistles, heated leather seats, blah blah blah nonsense.
I started with an Alpha Pioneer DC Plus. The thing SUCKED. Heavy as the burden of a bad wife, string always slipped out of the linear gripper(fine on crank machines, sucks on a dropweight)....String always slipping through the clamps...NO. As for Alpha and their strings and manual cranks, I love them, and they offer really great support, maybe the best I've encountered.
Owned a Prince Neos 1000. Probably the best and most accurate machine I've strung on, but got in a bind and had to sell it to pay rent when I was in my 20's. Otherwise I'd still have it....long story but I worked at a tennis center....manager heard I was a good stringer....he got mad I was taking business away from him so he called me on my birthday to tell me he was cutting my hours in half....yeah......ended up dying of a heart attack years later. I stood over his casket, looked him over and nodded, remembering what he had done. I got the last laugh, the son of a *****. Not only that, I picked up one of his customers leaving his visitation
Anyway.....after that I strung on an electric Alpha. The clamps were of the same quality as the Pioneer DC Plus. String slippage. Had to constantly be cleaned.
Then bought the Gamma Progression II about 8 years ago and it is absolutely the best machine I have owned. Still going strong.
I still plan to find a good condition Stringway MS 200 somewhere down the road. But until then, I'm very satisfied with my Gamma.
That's a good budget.
In general, you usually get what you pay for with a stringing machine. The top end models aren't only expensive because of the electronics, but because of the value of the other components - string clamps, base clamps, turntable etc. Likewise the entry level machines tend to be less robust in these areas.
You are correct that there aren't many reviews of the Stringmasters on these forums, though there is a recent one here:
Stringmaster Deluxe with Wise
After some posts here, I bought a new stringmaster deluxe and attached my Wise v14 to it. I ordered it directly off their website and had it shipped to me in the US. The clamps and mounting system is much much better then my old alpha machine. Overall seems to be a huge improvement. I also...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com
That model has the same turntable and base clamps as the Tourna 700-ES, which has a strong following here. The base clamps in particular have garnered much attention. I don't recall seeing any on the Premium Stringer - you may have to rely on more Euro-centric forums for that.
The good news is that for what you're willing to spend, I think it will be relative hard to go wrong. You're out of the realm of the cheapest machines, but not trying to overstretch by adding electronics. By purchasing a drop weight or crank you do retain the option to add a Wise tension head later should you wish, such as the poster in the above thread. I made a similar upgrade myself.
My personal suggestions:
- fixed clamps
- some form of stand (whether a machine stand, a trolley with drawers, or a suitable table at the location. 99% of us stand when we string)
Just ordered my first drop weight machine. The little 200 from Gamma. I've been using a Wise that I bolted onto my old crank machine after the tensioner fell apart years ago. We recently had a bad storm here and lots of places were without power. Luckily I wasn't affected but it did make me think. I had a bunch of rackets to do at the same time and if I had no power I would've lost out on all that work. I'm excited to try it out!
Loss of power is no concern of mine. The relatively very few times that has happened to me never lasted a great deal of time. Further more, if power is out, stringing would be one of the least things I would be concerned about. Players can wait in any rare situation like that .
That and my Wise could break down for any number of reasons. Excuse me for wanting to provide a reliable service I guess......
esgee48
G.O.A.T.
If your area loses power and you own a pro shop, clients really don’t expect you to be able to string with electric. If they live in an area that has lost power, I don’t think that racquet stringing is foremost in their mind. Your priorities are skewed. If you really think that being able to string when you want to, buy a generator or get a Stringway Auto DW.
One good storm, or tornado, can change that real quick.
Just ask those in the Asheville area... or anyone else (particularly in the south) who's been affected by such occurrences.
I have never crashed my car, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
Look up "Appeal to Ignorance" fallacy.
Irvin
Talk Tennis Guru
I live in the south and we have storms all the time, we just don’t have many extended outages in my area. I got the battery generator to take to weekend sports tournaments. I can power video cameras, charge phones, charge portable fan batteries, and run fans 115 volt fans pretty much all day long. I even ran a crock pot one daywhen we needed an extra 115 outlet. Not a need3d item but one of those nice to have items. I could but never will take my stringer to an off site location and string.
Same. Just need ice for the beer.
I'll drink to that!
kayak4water
Rookie
I read the first 20 posts here.
FWIW, the YouTube video of the Klippermate guy stringing a racket in 25 minutes never fails to impress me. It keeps me honest and helps me remember, “‘Better’ is the enemy of ‘Good’”
FWIW, the YouTube video of the Klippermate guy stringing a racket in 25 minutes never fails to impress me. It keeps me honest and helps me remember, “‘Better’ is the enemy of ‘Good’”
Had fun doing my first racket on the Gamma. I haven't gotten around to doing my own yet, so haven't been able to test any difference in feel. I see a lot of people saying you loose tension with a drop weight; some even saying to go 10lbs higher. I find this hard to believe. But if true, where is the tension being lost? I did a quick test on the meter and it seemed to be bang on. So obviously the bar/weight is right. Which makes sense since, in my experience at least, gravity has been pretty consistant. Clamps held well. I don't see how it could ever be too wrong???
Yessir. Pick a tension and adjust from there and as you string your technique will also probably get a little better so there will be adjustments both ways.
Wow really? That's mad. I'm really interested to do two of my own sticks now, one on the Wise and one on the DW, to compare.
Rabbit
G.O.A.T.
When Katrina hit, we were out of power, ice, gas, and about everything else for a week and a half. Katrina hit in August. We're 3.5 hours from the coast as well. I'll have to say that I never once thought about stringing a racket in that week and a half OR playing tennis. Oh my Lord was it hot. The office had power, so my wife, Border Collie and I would sleep on the floor of my office. No fun!
esgee48
G.O.A.T.
Yes, you will make adjustments technique wise to go faster. Then you realize that being faster clamping, pulling strings thru frame or mains TOO fast is not good for frame or mains or grommets yada yada. Then you slow down. I think you will know you have arrived when you do 3 same frames, same string and tension and check at end of each racquet to get same tension (using Racquet Tune). Even better when you check 6 hours later and the numbers have only drop 0.1#.
A few folks at my club had no power for like 3 weeks. But they were still playing 3-4 times a week. We don't stop here, rain or shine haha.
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