Cheap racquets and small grommet holes

Curtennis

Hall of Fame
my stringing business has been growing and I’m stringing more and different racquets every week.

I’ve strung 100 racquets all two piece and never ran into a problem. Until yesterdays 15 year old Prince.

I’m on the last cross and about to tie off and I just can’t. The grommets are all tiny and not a chance I slide another string in. (Other than where the mains were already tied off at)
F it, I’ll cut them out and do a one piece. But then I realized the last cross will end on the same side as the tied off main, I won’t be able to tie that off either!!! There’s only one suitable tieoff grommet on each side of the throat end of the racquet.

After way too much deliberation, I decide I can either string my crosses from bottom up or try to do some sort of ATW action. I’ve never done ATW before. but I engineered a decent plan in my head for what would make sense.

I pulled off a pretty good ATW, if I may say so myself, and voila! The two knots are on opposite sides of the racquet and zero problem. 90 minutes and two packs of strings later I’m done.

Never again….
Until my very next customer’s racquet. This is a typical $75 general sports store type racquet.
I noticed that the original string job only had two knots and once again, no grommets looked suitable for getting another tie off done after the main! So I do the same exact pattern again. Easy this time.

My question: am I going to have to check every time that the grommets can accommodate two piece stringing from now on? After 100+ other racquets this never came up and now it’s twice in a row.

Am I stupid and just missing something?
 

Irvin

Talk Tennis Guru
My question: am I going to have to check every time that the grommets can accommodate two piece stringing from now on? After 100+ other racquets this never came up and now it’s twice in a row.
Short answer is yes. i Not only determine the pattern before I start but where I’m going to tie off.
 

kkm

Hall of Fame
my stringing business has been growing and I’m stringing more and different racquets every week.

I’ve strung 100 racquets all two piece and never ran into a problem. Until yesterdays 15 year old Prince.

I’m on the last cross and about to tie off and I just can’t. The grommets are all tiny and not a chance I slide another string in. (Other than where the mains were already tied off at)
F it, I’ll cut them out and do a one piece. But then I realized the last cross will end on the same side as the tied off main, I won’t be able to tie that off either!!! There’s only one suitable tieoff grommet on each side of the throat end of the racquet.

After way too much deliberation, I decide I can either string my crosses from bottom up or try to do some sort of ATW action. I’ve never done ATW before. but I engineered a decent plan in my head for what would make sense.

I pulled off a pretty good ATW, if I may say so myself, and voila! The two knots are on opposite sides of the racquet and zero problem. 90 minutes and two packs of strings later I’m done.

Never again….
Until my very next customer’s racquet. This is a typical $75 general sports store type racquet.
I noticed that the original string job only had two knots and once again, no grommets looked suitable for getting another tie off done after the main! So I do the same exact pattern again. Easy this time.

My question: am I going to have to check every time that the grommets can accommodate two piece stringing from now on? After 100+ other racquets this never came up and now it’s twice in a row.

Am I stupid and just missing something?
Before you start stringing figure out where you’re going to tie off, and enlarge any holes as needed.
 

WYK

Hall of Fame
Never again….
Until my very next customer’s racquet. This is a typical $75 general sports store type racquet.
I noticed that the original string job only had two knots and once again, no grommets looked suitable for getting another tie off done after the main! So I do the same exact pattern again. Easy this time.

My question: am I going to have to check every time that the grommets can accommodate two piece stringing from now on? After 100+ other racquets this never came up and now it’s twice in a row.

Am I stupid and just missing something?

Many of the more affordable prestrung stuff is designed for one piece stringing. On some of them, you can ream out the grommets, on many there just is no space to do so.
So, yeah, always when you have a racquet in for stringing look it over. Note not just the pattern, but also the condition.
 

Curtennis

Hall of Fame
Yeah usually those big-box racquets are not really meant to be restrung and aren’t worth restringing.
Agreed. I’ve turned down a few.

One lady asked me to restring and regrip her kids racquet. Even with my low pricing I was looking at about charging $35-40. Sent her a link for a $60 Babolat that was a much better racquet instead.

Edit: I was also Terrified that pulling 60 lbs in her dollar store racquet would explode it.
 

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
If you do an ATW pattern, you shouldn't have both tie-offs at the bottom. One should be at the top and one at the bottom.
 

PRS

Professional
Yeah, those cheap racquets aren't made to be restrung, but some people insist on it anyway. Those I always put a cheap synthetic gut in, and having talked to one of the manufacturers, they usually say to just string it bottom up if you need to restring one. ATW is the better option, but on those cheap racquets it really doesn't matter.

However, there are some quality racquets that also are made with only two tie-off holes. Not sure what Prince racquet you had, but it may have been one of them. I think one of the old Babolat Pure Storms was like that as well if I recall correctly. In that case, definitely string the 'right' way going top down with the crosses, whether it's a natural one piece or ATW.
 
Top