Diary of a Racketaholic

tim-ay

Legend
I hope you get those UP’s soon. Will be great to see your thoughts.

I swore I wasn’t going to change rackets during this league’s season, but I’m going to play my next match with the UP. I hope I keep the head demons away because I’ll have the 98+’s in the bag too. I actually didn’t find it that hard to switch back and forth with them a little on Sunday, but in fairness the UP wasn’t out of my hands very long. I’m patiently waiting for Friday to see if there is a deal. If not, my wife is on board to get another for me for Christmas. I was going to order one regardless on Friday, but damn, she asked what I really wanted and in a weak moment I told her a UP. I suppose I could carry 3 of them ....... lol. But maybe i need to be patient as long as she orders it Friday deal or no deal.

I can already see the tour sniper getting some wear at ~3.5 hours on it. It’s still playing great though, which is tour sniper seems to play solid until in breaks, so no big surprise. Hope I get at least 8hours out of it. But that probably wont happen. That’s one advantage of the ezone over the UP.
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Ok I had a thought - what’s the stock unstrung SW on the Ultra Pro 16x19? Are we seeing 315ish or lower?

And this may really get Gads head spinning, but if the SW is low enough- what would happen if one was to extend this frame a little?

And then add a touch of lead at 3? Could the balance be around 6pts?

Could be something.
 

AA7

Hall of Fame
Ok I had a thought - what’s the stock unstrung SW on the Ultra Pro 16x19? Are we seeing 315ish or lower?

And this may really get Gads head spinning, but if the SW is low enough- what would happen if one was to extend this frame a little?

And then add a touch of lead at 3? Could the balance be around 6pts?

Could be something.
i think that's about right... mine strung (un-mod) was 315ish..
 

Vicious49

Legend
I think it was @Power Player who recommended the S7T. Once it settled in a bit I ended up liking it more than I initially did but still prefer my HyperG. If for no other reason than it's what I'm used to and the S7T wasn't enough to blow me away and make a permanent switch.

I did pick up some Gamma TNT that I'm going to try to hybrid in my UTs. As I haven't messed with hybrids too much I'll probably do 1 racquet with the TNT in the mains and the other with TNT in the crosses so I can get familiar with the differences. If I end up liking one of them I may pick up some TF Triax and hybrid that with Hyper G to see how it feels.

I have also experimented recently with removing the counter weight from one of my UTs as someone recommended in here. I realized I prefer it more HL than that so switched it back. I messed around a bit more with lead as well and finally settled on my current specs of 343 grams with a balance of 6 points HL.
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.
ha! so true.. it is a great all-around string.

On BP, I am looking to test out 4g soft, tour sniper (possibly alpha).. Tour sniper supposed to be pentagonal shaped but it plays smoother than that.. 4g soft I am curious b/c i also want to see if round poly helps even more for the flatter shots...

OK, since we’re so similar in frame and string tastes then between us both we should be able to figure out an optimal string setup for these Pro Lab beauties. My thinking on the Lyon as I said before was just to see how these open string patterns would fare with a non-edged string, because while I’ve been playing Hyper G for awhile and its trustworthiness and pocketing/ball grab is my baseline, I really began playing Hyper G (and Tour Bite) because I was playing tighter patterns then and that spin/ball grab helped in that department. With a 16m BP or UP, the pattern should provide more than enough spin on its own and doesn’t need the extra help of the edged string. Also, I read in the regular Blade v7 thread someone saying his 18/20 was best with a smooth poly string very low for ultimate predictability, and he felt the edged strings would cause the occasional flier on the slice, etc. Smooth poly made the response far more trustworthy. That coincided with the idea I was having anyway about the edged poly and the slice. ... that being said I have no idea if this will actually make any difference, I just want to see and judge for myself.

The frame feel is so sensational on the BP (and I’m assuming the UP) that you have a wide net - even a very stiff string will feel good, and you can use something like that for comfy crispness, or one can go the softer route for the full Hugh Hefner silk robe experience.

Ok I had a thought - what’s the stock unstrung SW on the Ultra Pro 16x19? Are we seeing 315ish or lower?

And this may really get Gads head spinning, but if the SW is low enough- what would happen if one was to extend this frame a little?

And then add a touch of lead at 3? Could the balance be around 6pts?

Could be something.

I still have some 3D buttcaps I bought off a guy that allows for extending your sticks (twss) but when I tried this on my Ultra Tour, thinking 27.25 would be perfection, it just wasn’t, somehow the magic went away. This was weird, considering how much I love XLs, but with the Ultra Tour it was like I needed the tighter length and whippiness to really pull out the frame’s best qualities - total control, change of direction, depth control, spins, etc). So I don’t think I’m going to mess with the UP at all - the modding also requires one to remove the W buttcap and these Pro Lab sticks are so beautiful it would feel like a violation to do that. All this being said, @travlerajm has found bliss with extending his UT but he’s on a totally different level of mad science than me.
 

AA7

Hall of Fame
for the full Hugh Hefner silk robe effect.
hahahh. Very good description of smoothness that I am looking for in my round polys...

So.... yes and yes to your post...ha.. meaning.. Yes...i think you are definitely onto something here with round poly... and Yes that's how I landed on HG as well. I really went for it due to v7 18m. Lower launch angle and looking for spin help made me explore it and it fit all that like a glove for me. so I stuck with it... but this BP is a different beast...

RS Lyon is always a solid choice too... forgot about that one.. Are you trying RS Lyon 1.25 or 1.20?
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
OK, since we’re so similar in frame and string tastes then between us both we should be able to figure out an optimal string setup for these Pro Lab beauties. My thinking on the Lyon as I said before was just to see how these open string patterns would fare with a non-edged string, because while I’ve been playing Hyper G for awhile and its trustworthiness and pocketing/ball grab is my baseline, I really began playing Hyper G (and Tour Bite) because I was playing tighter patterns then and that spin/ball grab helped in that department. With a 16m BP or UP, the pattern should provide more than enough spin on its own and doesn’t need the extra help of the edged string. Also, I read in the regular Blade v7 thread someone saying his 18/20 was best with a smooth poly string very low for ultimate predictability, and he felt the edged strings would cause the occasional flier on the slice, etc. Smooth poly made the response far more trustworthy. That coincided with the idea I was having anyway about the edged poly and the slice. ... that being said I have no idea if this will actually make any difference, I just want to see and judge for myself.

The frame feel is so sensational on the BP (and I’m assuming the UP) that you have a wide net - even a very stiff string will feel good, and you can use something like that for comfy crispness, or one can go the softer route for the full Hugh Hefner silk robe experience.



I still have some 3D buttcaps I bought off a guy that allows for extending your sticks (twss) but when I tried this on my Ultra Tour, thinking 27.25 would be perfection, it just wasn’t, somehow the magic went away. This was weird, considering how much I love XLs, but with the Ultra Tour it was like I needed the tighter length and whippiness to really pull out the frame’s best qualities - total control, change of direction, depth control, spins, etc). So I don’t think I’m going to mess with the UP at all - the modding also requires one to remove the W buttcap and these Pro Lab sticks are so beautiful it would feel like a violation to do that. All this being said, @travlerajm has found bliss with extending his UT but he’s on a totally different level of mad science than me.

Ah ok. Holicism cured for now then. I still wait for the perfect frame. For now I await my Babo weapon to show up later today.

totally agree on round poly. Thats my preference even though I love Silver 7 tour in tight patterns. Shaped works well in those I find.

But Tour Sniper plays like a round string. Rounder than Hyper G for sure. It has a lot of RS Lyon traits - especially softer feel and control.
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.
Ah ok. Holicism cured for now then. I still wait for the perfect frame. For now I await my Babo weapon to show up later today.

totally agree on round poly. Thats my preference even though I love Silver 7 tour in tight patterns. Shaped works well in those I find.

But Tour Sniper plays like a round string. Rounder than Hyper G for sure. It has a lot of RS Lyon traits - especially softer feel and control.

Good to know TS plays rounder. Maybe it can be a best of all worlds situation if it has some ball grab but not too much. Definitely gonna give it a go.

So which is more crisp, so I have a reference - Lyon or Sniper? From the sound of it both are plenty comfy. (As I already know Lyon is from past experiences)
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.
hahahh. Very good description of smoothness that I am looking for in my round polys...

So.... yes and yes to your post...ha.. meaning.. Yes...i think you are definitely onto something here with round poly... and Yes that's how I landed on HG as well. I really went for it due to v7 18m. Lower launch angle and looking for spin help made me explore it and it fit all that like a glove for me. so I stuck with it... but this BP is a different beast...

RS Lyon is always a solid choice too... forgot about that one.. Are you trying RS Lyon 1.25 or 1.20?

1.25. Trying 21 kg, which is about 46.3 pounds. Hoping for pocketing and feel but not too muted/slippery in the already comfy BP. If it fails it’s fine and I’ll move on to the next, but it seems like it could be a nice fit.

Might end up putting Sniper or Confidential into the standard Blade v7 18m I picked up, or also Lyon but wanna see how it plays in the BP first.
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Good to know TS plays rounder. Maybe it can be a best of all worlds situation if it has some ball grab but not too much. Definitely gonna give it a go.

So which is more crisp, so I have a reference - Lyon or Sniper? From the sound of it both are plenty comfy. (As I already know Lyon is from past experiences)

Good question - they both have a similar feel - the Lyon may be a slight bit crisper. They both have that slightly hollow but plush feeling, I’m not sure how to describe it. Not hollow in a bad way, but you may know what I’m saying.

To me Tour Sniper is a better RS Lyon. I waited for years for a string like that. I really think you will enjoy it. I think its a much better string for long term health than Hyper G and really plays great if you value control. Hyper G has excellent spin but there is not a major drop off with TS.

My opinion is Tour Sniper for stiffer frames and Silver 7 for softer ones. I think with the Silver 7 it can be subbed out with Hyper G and boils down to preference there. The beauty of TS though, is it plays great in soft frames as well and will boil down to how crisp you want your stringbed to be. I literally went between TS and S7T for months in the Blade before I narrowly picked S7T just because I like the feel a little more. Similar experience with my UTs which I still go back and forth with on those 2. But S7T in the Yonexes feels great but gets a bit too harsh for my tastes after a while. The TS is a great match for the ezones.

Don’t want to guide you wrong so maybe you start with a string you know inside and out and then string the other with TS. Thats what I did.

If you play confidential in the Blade v7 and dont find it to be kind of dull and muted than we may have different taste. For me confidential would be too dead feeling for the Blade. I like a livelier feel to my strings.
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.
Good question - they both have a similar feel - the Lyon may be a slight bit crisper. They both have that slightly hollow but plush feeling, I’m not sure how to describe it. Not hollow in a bad way, but you may know what I’m saying.

To me Tour Sniper is a better RS Lyon. I waited for years for a string like that. I really think you will enjoy it. I think its a much better string for long term health than Hyper G and really plays great if you value control. Hyper G has excellent spin but there is not a major drop off with TS.

My opinion is Tour Sniper for stiffer frames and Silver 7 for softer ones. I think with the Silver 7 it can be subbed out with Hyper G and boils down to preference there. The beauty of TS though, is it plays great in soft frames as well and will boil down to how crisp you want your stringbed to be. I literally went between TS and S7T for months in the Blade before I narrowly picked S7T just because I like the feel a little more. Similar experience with my UTs which I still go back and forth with on those 2. But S7T in the Yonexes feels great but gets a bit too harsh for my tastes after a while. The TS is a great match for the ezones.

Don’t want to guide you wrong so maybe you start with a string you know inside and out and then string the other with TS. Thats what I did.

If you play confidential in the Blade v7 and dont find it to be kind of dull and muted than we may have different taste. For me confidential would be too dead feeling for the Blade. I like a livelier feel to my strings.

Ah ok so you tried confidential in the blade... I actually think we’re aligned in that I loved the crisp feel of s7t and would totally try that in other sticks including the blade v7 but remember that string irked my elbow so I’m too afraid to try it again. If you liked Sniper in the blade and think Confidential was too dull/muted then I’ll probably try sniper in it, or Lyon depending on how I feel about coming back to Lyon in the BP.
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Ah ok so you tried confidential in the blade... I actually think we’re aligned in that I loved the crisp feel of s7t and would totally try that in other sticks including the blade v7 but remember that string irked my elbow so I’m too afraid to try it again. If you liked Sniper in the blade and think Confidential was too dull/muted then I’ll probably try sniper in it, or Lyon depending on how I feel about coming back to Lyon in the BP.

If you get crazy, try the S7T in the Blade v7 at like 48#s. Any pain, cut it out of course. But my god, what an explosive feel the sweetspot has with it. Seriously awesome. I love it a lot on the Ut too. Like - a lot. Those 2 frames are so comfortableI I feel like I could put steel in them and have no issues though. The S7T feels amazing in the Ez100 too but that combo is a little risky for the arm. Tour Sniper in it is really nice. I also am going to put TS in my Pure Drive - Hyper G stiffened up after I mushed it out and it just feels awful now.

I think TS feels a lot like Lyon so you will be happy there. It’s one of the best strings on the market if you like control polys with a plusher feel.
 

mad dog1

G.O.A.T.
Ah ok so you tried confidential in the blade... I actually think we’re aligned in that I loved the crisp feel of s7t and would totally try that in other sticks including the blade v7 but remember that string irked my elbow so I’m too afraid to try it again. If you liked Sniper in the blade and think Confidential was too dull/muted then I’ll probably try sniper in it, or Lyon depending on how I feel about coming back to Lyon in the BP.
S7T crossed with Lyon or GhostWire is quite comfortable.

my BP 18m has hyper g 1.20/rs lyon 1.25 and it feels and plays very well.
 

tim-ay

Legend
I like that description of tour sniper- it does make you think of the word hollow. But it’s such a strange yet great feeling. And I really like the sound. Alpha makes a great sound too. I love serving with TS. Makes me feel like I’m breaking something. It’s like eating a frito or something.
 

Lozannois

Rookie
Tracking info now stuck on:

Customs clearance2020-11-21 11:53International Postal System

Sigh.

I have exactly the same as you!
Look!

Your item is being held in Customs at 9:39 am on November 21, 2020 in ZURICH-URDORF, SWITZERLAND.

Are you in Switzerland too?
 

Lozannois

Rookie
I can't speak to performance but if you are a feel fetish (can't claim credit; it's PP's creation)... you will "feel" the feelings you never felt before... :-D :X3:

Looking forward! The VC95 has a very nice kind of buttery feeling in the sweetspot and the sweetspot is quite big for a 95 inch stick... Control is top notch and power and spin are more than sufficient if you don't string too high...
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
I know you BP’d, but did you also UP? I must’ve missed it.

I did not, I meant to type UT, but then I realized its the same frame basically and probably feels amazing like the UT.

Got my PA+ today. Looks awesome. I have no idea the weight or when ill get it strung but its here. The base grip is thick as usual, but ill give it some hours and see if it compacts before I swap a skin feel out for it. I have grapplesnake strings coming, so if they show up ill hit up a racquet store and have them do the honors for now.
 

mad dog1

G.O.A.T.
I did not, I meant to type UT, but then I realized its the same frame basically and probably feels amazing like the UT.

Got my PA+ today. Looks awesome. I have no idea the weight or when ill get it strung but its here. The base grip is thick as usual, but ill give it some hours and see if it compacts before I swap a skin feel out for it. I have grapplesnake strings coming, so if they show up ill hit up a racquet store and have them do the honors for now.
I got my PAs used so they were already broken in. My new BP needed a good number of hours to break in. My new PS needed a good 5 hours before it started really feeling good. Now the BP has butter dripping off of it and the PS is feeling just right. Not sure if your new PA will also need time to break in.
 

taylor15

Hall of Fame
I did not, I meant to type UT, but then I realized its the same frame basically and probably feels amazing like the UT.

Got my PA+ today. Looks awesome. I have no idea the weight or when ill get it strung but its here. The base grip is thick as usual, but ill give it some hours and see if it compacts before I swap a skin feel out for it. I have grapplesnake strings coming, so if they show up ill hit up a racquet store and have them do the honors for now.
Have UP and UT. Can confirm, same amazing feeling
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
I got my PAs used so they were already broken in. My new BP needed a good number of hours to break in. My new PS needed a good 5 hours before it started really feeling good. Now the BP has butter dripping off of it and the PS is feeling just right. Not sure if your new PA will also need time to break in.

Break in for me is almost always 1 string job with a lot of heavy hitting on it. I need to find some folks here who can help me with the latter part.
 

mad dog1

G.O.A.T.
Break in for me is almost always 1 string job with a lot of heavy hitting on it. I need to find some folks here who can help me with the latter part.
Yeah. 1 string job is enough time. Problem arises when the frame doesn’t feel that great initially and you’re hitting with a frame you are already happy with. Then the desire to power through the break in period isn’t there. Happened to me with the BP 18m. I was grooving with the PA and the BP felt pretty stiff and lifeless on the first hit. But my perseverance paid off and now it feels so silky smooth.
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.
,


These policeman at the border don't realize they are holding creations that come directly from God They should be ashamed ☺
Free the UPs!!! Free the UPs!!!

Let them play.

MadeupBountifulLeafhopper-size_restricted.gif
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Yeah. 1 string job is enough time. Problem arises when the frame doesn’t feel that great initially and you’re hitting with a frame you are already happy with. Then the desire to power through the break in period isn’t there. Happened to me with the BP 18m. I was grooving with the PA and the BP felt pretty stiff and lifeless on the first hit. But my perseverance paid off and now it feels so silky smooth.

Yeah for me the BP felt pretty nice right off the bat. I really liked the frame, but when I compared it to how I played with the UTs control or the Pure Drives power ands spin, it just sat in the middle and didn’t do anything that special. Really cool racquet, but I want to play with what gives me the best odds of winning.
 

mad dog1

G.O.A.T.
Yeah for me the BP felt pretty nice right off the bat. I really liked the frame, but when I compared it to how I played with the UTs control or the Pure Drives power ands spin, it just sat in the middle and didn’t do anything that special. Really cool racquet, but I want to play with what gives me the best odds of winning.
Not sure how different the 18m compares to the 16m but the 18m was very firm initially.
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.
When I first got the BP I was writing in the BP thread that I felt like the frame was surprisingly firm, felt more like a 64 or 65 RA to me. Now I laugh at such foolery. The break-in on this has been unbelievable and far beyond any stick I've tried. By comparison the UT felt "my god" from the very first ball. Expect the UP to be similar.
 

Faris

Professional
My PA arrived today... also my Yonex test strings... I was going to string them up together initially but will just string the new Yonex strings in my Ezone 100 so I can give an honest review... I've played with 2019 PA many times before so it'll have to wait for now. But it's getting strung up next chance I get. I have a basic gamma drop weight and I'm not an expert stringer by any means so I have to mentally prepare myself before starting..
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
OK, since we’re so similar in frame and string tastes then between us both we should be able to figure out an optimal string setup for these Pro Lab beauties. My thinking on the Lyon as I said before was just to see how these open string patterns would fare with a non-edged string, because while I’ve been playing Hyper G for awhile and its trustworthiness and pocketing/ball grab is my baseline, I really began playing Hyper G (and Tour Bite) because I was playing tighter patterns then and that spin/ball grab helped in that department. With a 16m BP or UP, the pattern should provide more than enough spin on its own and doesn’t need the extra help of the edged string. Also, I read in the regular Blade v7 thread someone saying his 18/20 was best with a smooth poly string very low for ultimate predictability, and he felt the edged strings would cause the occasional flier on the slice, etc. Smooth poly made the response far more trustworthy. That coincided with the idea I was having anyway about the edged poly and the slice. ... that being said I have no idea if this will actually make any difference, I just want to see and judge for myself.

The frame feel is so sensational on the BP (and I’m assuming the UP) that you have a wide net - even a very stiff string will feel good, and you can use something like that for comfy crispness, or one can go the softer route for the full Hugh Hefner silk robe experience.



I still have some 3D buttcaps I bought off a guy that allows for extending your sticks (twss) but when I tried this on my Ultra Tour, thinking 27.25 would be perfection, it just wasn’t, somehow the magic went away. This was weird, considering how much I love XLs, but with the Ultra Tour it was like I needed the tighter length and whippiness to really pull out the frame’s best qualities - total control, change of direction, depth control, spins, etc). So I don’t think I’m going to mess with the UP at all - the modding also requires one to remove the W buttcap and these Pro Lab sticks are so beautiful it would feel like a violation to do that. All this being said, @travlerajm has found bliss with extending his UT but he’s on a totally different level of mad science than me.
I’m actually back at standard length on my UT for the time being and playing great. It posed for an updated photo shoot below. But the itch to return it to 27.25” to get a little extra sumpthin’ on the serve is still there.
 

JGads

G.O.A.T.

mad dog1

G.O.A.T.
When I first got the BP I was writing in the BP thread that I felt like the frame was surprisingly firm, felt more like a 64 or 65 RA to me. Now I laugh at such foolery. The break-in on this has been unbelievable and far beyond any stick I've tried. By comparison the UT felt "my god" from the very first ball. Expect the UP to be similar.
Same experience here with my BP. I was thinking there was no way the BP could possibly be 59RA and had to be closer to 65RA as well. All of the UTs in my bag were purchased used so I don’t know what they felt like brand new.
 

flex

Semi-Pro
I still have some 3D buttcaps I bought off a guy that allows for extending your sticks (twss) but when I tried this on my Ultra Tour, thinking 27.25 would be perfection, it just wasn’t, somehow the magic went away. This was weird, considering how much I love XLs, but with the Ultra Tour it was like I needed the tighter length and whippiness to really pull out the frame’s best qualities - total control, change of direction, depth control, spins, etc). So I don’t think I’m going to mess with the UP at all - the modding also requires one to remove the W buttcap and these Pro Lab sticks are so beautiful it would feel like a violation to do that. All this being said, @travlerajm has found bliss with extending his UT but he’s on a totally different level of mad science than me.


Are those the XTP buttcap or same/similar concept?

Do you need tools to install it?
 
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