How to get the best string job for your game: by Kiteboard
The best string job depends on how each person plays, the frame they use, the style they use, their own preferences. The object is to match the frequencies of string and frame so that they achieve the best pocketed feel for their game. Any sting job creates a “pocket”. This pocket determines everything we feel after impact.
The ball is only on the bed for 4-7/1000th /sec., yet, the frame wobbles with a lot of vibration when string causes it to vibrate/and move with the pressure of the outgoing shot on the string bed. This pressure is the force of impact, and that varies with player skill and player power, frame mass, RA ( ra is just stiffness or stiffness measurement of any given frame when bent with a given force and measured in terms of racquet analysis), string stiffness/elasticity/molecular distribution all differ from string to string and sometimes even within the same reel the same string varies. Talk to John Isner about how he used to snap Technifibre redcode more often in the first section of the reel than the last section of the reel! (Plays with Kirschbaum pro line II/redcode hybrid now.)
All that feel you get is from the vibration after the impact, not during the impact. That is due to the very short impact duration. The impact is too short to feel by itself. The strings stretch, sing, vibrate, and so does the frame, stretch, sing and vibrate, but for a far, far longer time than the ball stays on the bed. Blink your eyes. Now see how many times you can blink them in one second: One-thousand-One. About 3-4 times? The ball would have left the string bed about 80 times per blink! So if the ball only stays on the string bed for such a short time, why is there such a huge difference in the way the shot feels?
Every string job feels different, even with the same string, same stringing machine, same tension, same stringer. Why is that?
As the frame is taken off the stringing machine, the string immediately begins to lose tension. No two frames are exactly alike either. Some strings lose way more than others, in a way faster time. Rpm blast is one of these although it’s listed as a stiff string at 280 by RSI:
http://www.racquetsportsindustry.com...ctor_2012.html
Any stringer will tell you that although rpm is listed as stiff, it feels soft when hit with, and it loses tension way too fast: RPM loses 17.37 lbs lost in 24 hrs. from a base of 62lbs strung on a 120 mph test. But, the tested and given stiffness rating does not always equate to controlled feel as a stiff string. Some strings listed as stiff don’t feel, nor play that way. And some strings listed as stiff have less control than the softer ones do. And gut is softer than almost all strings, yet has the most control when hybrid with a great poly cross. Why is that?
So if string loses tension so fast, even when not being hit with, how can any string job feel the same unless the frames are strung at the same time, with the same method? The answer is: they can’t. Although it takes a sensitive player to feel it, any frame strung first will lose tension faster and feel looser than the frame strung last, given a similar time hitting with each in the same time frame. The rates of vibration on each frame will also differ slightly as the string jobs loosen up, the frames themselves differ slightly, and their effect on the individual racquet frame will differ as well. The amount the string stretches, or elongates: will also effect what we call “trampoline”, or shots going too far long and out of the court. Here is an elongation table used by top stringers: This table shows just how much a given string will stretch, over a time with the same weight attached to each string for the same amount of time, and each string tested is struck with the same amount of force, and the stiffer strings vibrate at a higher frequency, yet, don’t necessarily lose tension slower on a linear scale than the softer lower vibrating string do, such as ashaway Kevlar 16g, which loses 27% tension over night compared to 8% for vs gut, yet, ashaway is 764 on stiffness, and vs gut is 109, which is way less vibration/frequency and is therefore way softer than ashaway kevlar. The reason why top stringers consult with it is to see which string should be strung at a lower/higher rate to match in a hybrid combination.
http://www.stringway-nl.com/en/TAonl... 10-2011.pdf elongation pdf But it does not tell the whole story to those interested in matching hybrids frequency wise.
Rate of vibration and how that affects feel/control/power/durability: Some of the vibration factors are : size or thickness of string expressed in mm, stiffness expressed in a number given by rsi ratings based on the individual string vibratory rate on test, tension, frame RA, frame size, frame lay up. Frames are hand made, and no two are exactly alike. That is why you prefer one frame over another over and over again: it vibrates more to your liking even though all the frames are supposedly identical, they never are.
How to achieve the most control in a given set up: Usually the softer strings have a lower rate of vibration, like gut, or synthetic gut. Although gut has the best tension loss numbers, synthetic gut does not hold tension well, and its rate of vibration changes rapidly compared to gut as it becomes looser faster than gut does and does not hold tension nearly as well. Tension is lost faster with harder hitters, and with those who use a more open string pattern and a stiffer frame at a higher tension strung. A string becomes looser as it loses tension and elongates/stretches out and its rate of vibration always lowers in pitch, so a set up that causes faster tension loss will need to be restrung faster. Gut loses tension less quickly than any other string although it is among the softest strings made. As syn gut stretches out, it embeds more, at impact, and more depth occurs. This does not mean more dwell time on the string bed. What difference is 1/1000th of a second going to make, anyway? This is partly why so many singles players change string jobs so often, while doubles players, who hit way fewer shots, serve only every fourth game, versus every other game, don’t spend money on string jobs, choosing to string only one frame per tournament rather than one every 8 games, as is often the case. Singles is far more competitive, more prize money, and more ego on the line than doubles so the doubles players don’t spend as much on string jobs.
No string has better hybrid control than gut, although a full gut job in today’s stiffer frames has too much trampoline and too many shots go out long because of the increased power and elongation and stiffer frames that impart more force at impact, such as the Babolats... The elongation tables will show you the tested numbers for each string type. That is why so many hybrid poly with gut, to dampen down gut’s elongation/trampoline issues. The stiffer strings in a hybrid job, whether in main or in cross, are strung at a slightly lower tension, to match vibratory rates with the lower vibrating, softer string. The higher rate of stiffness, the higher frequency of vibration with both frames and string and string tension as well….. So the poly is really there just to bring up the gut’s vibratory rate and dampen down its trampoline issues. Lower vibratory rates of any hybrid string job applies more force to the ball at impact, as the lower rate will allow the ball to sink further into the string bed before recoiling outwards. A great poly/poly hybrid for control is l-tec os premium 16g/4s 17g squoval shaped string as cross, and tour bite 18g/l-tec 4s. The l-tec 4s is a good cross for many different mains due to its pocketing effect.
If I were you, I'd string a couple frames with the same mains, and change the crosses only from l-tec 4s for power, to Volkl cyclone 18g for control.
