RD (Racketdesign), I wish you all the best on launching this new brand.
I am of the niche (don't know if it's really a niche now) that loves the 300G. I have to admit, I am surprised at how popular the racquet seems to be in my area as well (Oregon). A couple months after I got my set, I started seeing them all over the place at various locations and all the racquet stores in Portland have told me lately that they sell at least 5 a week easily for the last year or more.
Anyways, what I love about the racquet is that I feel I can use my full strokes with little or no compromise, and keep it under control while getting just the right pace I want. I guess I feel more control despite hitting like I would blast the ball off the court with many other racquets. I like the balance it offers by uniquely being a light racquet with a bit of power, but mainly control. Sure, my excessive efforts are how I end up controlling spin, but I personally like that a lot and feel I have a good grasp of spin control and placement. I mostly use the Luxilon Alu-Power (16L) and TiMO Banger (17) strings too (I can already hear some people cringing, but I swear it feels fine for me, maybe I'm hitting the sweet spot a lot, who knows).
What I would look for in a racquet to replace the 300G... I wouldn't want it to really go "Player racquet heavy" because I feel it really serves its niche being light and those that want more out of it would either be better suited going to another model or adding lead tape. Therefore, maybe a slight increase in weight, but not much. However, added weight might become mandatory for what I want improved.
The tradeoff so far as I can tell with going light weight and with the hotmelt process is that the racquet can feel either stiff or at least "unstable." I don't have too much problem with this, but it's most noticeable on serves and volleys. For me, a huge way for a racquet to be superior to a 300G while maintaining most of its attributes is to get the racquet to be a bit more flexible/stable on volleys. The light weight makes it good for volleys, but the lack of stability gives it a "stiff" and "control-lacking" feel at net. So if you could figure a way to modify a design similar to a 300G to maintain stability, at least in volleys, I think that would be huge. The "stiff" feel doesn't come up to me in serving unless I'm off a bit. I'm really happy with the types of serves I get with the 300G, but you definitely have to work harder for certain things and without modification, serves are generally going to be very light without so much weight--at least that's how I feel about it. But with the lightness and spin control, I'm happy with the variety I'm getting on the serves with slice, flat, kick, and a sort of flat serve with a lot of slice on it to give it a funky kick (which might have to do with the lightness-factor on the ball).
In fact, if you could design a racket that's practically a 300G with added flexibility and stability, that would be great. But I don't know much about racquet technology and I'm guessing it might be inherent in the lightweight nature of the racket. I would probably be asking the impossible if I stated the desire as: A 300G for the most part, but feeling like a lighter but just as "warm"/smooth Pro Staff Tour 90 at net (make that WAY LIGHTER lol).
In tennis years, I'm not an old timer... so I haven't had the wonderful experiences people have mentioned of older generation dunlop rackets. But maybe I represent a demographic you are interested in catering to.
Next to the 300G, I love the 200G Muscle Weave models--the feel was wonderful imo. I like the 200G HM as well, but I'll admit it's a racket I have to play with for at least 15 minutes to get the hang of (and yet I can go to almost any Pro Staff fairly quickly and be fine). The 200GXL was a cute racket, but not my fav... It's a racket I would recommend to friends who are intermediates and just starting to get truly serious with tennis--it's a fun racket to hit with and I thought it felt great--but for whatever reason, something held me back from loving it, but I certainly was carefree in hitting with it.
I hope that gives you another decent illustration of what some 300G devotees like in that sort of racket.
Again, best wishes on the new venture! I'll do my best to give the rackets a try if they are available to me (whether online or locally).
-Chanchai
