Babolat Tonic+Longevity Randomly Breaking in Bag

[TimothyO]

On three occasions I've had freshly strung Tonic+Longevity mains break in my bag after very little use (one or two sessions). In one case I don't even remember using that particular frame.

On two occasions it was the same stringer and same machine but the third time was a different stringer and different machine (but in all cases is was the same type of CP machine). In all cases the location was within one main of a main tie-off.

I'm thinking it's due to the fact that Longevity is Babolat's lower grade gut and might have more flaws in it. I break VS Touch faster as the poly crosses cut through it faster than Tonic+Longevity but I don't have this random breaking problem with VS Touch.

I know there are other threads about random gut breakage but has anyone else had significant issues with Babolat Tonic? I've gone back to VS Touch since I'd rather at least play with a string bed and break it myself than have it break randomly in my bag.

 

[Deleted member 120290]

I personally have never had an issue with Tonic+ Longevity or Ball Feel breaking prematurely. As far as quality I would bet that 99% of tennis players would not be able to tell the difference between Tonic Ball Feel and Touch.

However if you have experienced premature breakage 3 times, I wouldn't risk it.

 

[Rjtennis]

That's pretty strange, I've never heard of people having problems with Tonic. With the BT7 coating that's odd that it is breaking prematurely.

I would agree that you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between VS and Tonic. The only difference is gauge consistency.

 

[parasailing]

Having tried both, there is a slight difference in texture between Tonic and VS. I find that Tonic is not as smooth when you take it out of a bag but other than that, I never had any issues with it breaking in a bag unlike some of the cheaper low grade gut you find on ****.

I don't use Tonic anymore mainly because they don't offer 17g version.

 

[TennisCJC]

I have not used Tonic BallFeel in the last year but used several sets in last 3 to 4 years and considered this a very tough durable gut. I never had an issue with premature snapping. I always got more quality time out of Tonic than any multi or syn gut I tried. Normally, Tonic mains with poly cross would not snap until around 20 hours or so.

I have noticed a recent trend where lots of "good" guts seem to be snapping. Tonic, Pac Tough Gut, Pac Classic all have reports of early breakage. Maybe we aren't feeding the cows a proper diet for optimizing gut durability.

 

[neverstopplaying]

I probably bought about 15 pkg of gut this year: VS Team, Klip and Pacific. One of my regular hitting partners and myself were using gut-poly setups. I believe that I string carefully and I had over half them snap on mishits, or more commonly snap in the bag overnight, possibly following a mishit. it is very frustrating to take a racqeut out of hte bag with 2 hours of hitting on it only to hit the gut has snapped - and its not an exception.

I'm probably hitting harder than I used to but I never experienced this years ago.

Due to recent TE, I'm making a comeback with full multi and doing fine.

 

[Rjtennis]

I probably bought about 15 pkg of gut this year: VS Team, Klip and Pacific. One of my regular hitting partners and myself were using gut-poly setups. I believe that I string carefully and I had over half them snap on mishits, or more commonly snap in the bag overnight, possibly following a mishit. it is very frustrating to take a racqeut out of hte bag with 2 hours of hitting on it only to hit the gut has snapped - and its not an exception.

I'm probably hitting harder than I used to but I never experienced this years ago.

Due to recent TE, I'm making a comeback with full multi and doing fine.

You can lower the tension with the top cross and tie off on a cross to help with breakage due to mishits near the top of the frame. If you are susceptible to shanks near the top hoop gut can definetly break. I string my VS mains at 54 so maybe that helps with durability.