Disappointed with the PB10

henryshli

henryshli

Semi-Pro
I've always been a tour 90 kind of player but I'm also a racket tart and like to hit various rackets for fun. Recently purchased a Powerbridge 10 because of comments on thid forum and because it is supposed to be control orientated I thought it should be easy enough to get used to......wrong!

I'm really struggling to hit with the racket and I'm hitting long consistently. The racket feels extremely powerful and I don't feel I have control at all. I've never had that before and I've tried many rackets over the years.

Has anyone had a similar experience with the PB10? If so any advice? Many thanks.
 
henryshli said:
93sq mid.....
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I kind of agree with you here. I recently demo'ed the PB10 Mid due to all the rave reviews. Don't get me wrong, it's a good racket, but not for me. Being mainly a Yonex user, the headshape and overall geometry of the PB10 is pretty much the exact opposite of what I am used to.

Volkl makes quality products, but the overall feel turned me off on this one. I am no expert on mid frames (usually 95-98 sqin), but I have hit with a K90, and much prefer it over PB10.
 
henryshli said:
I'm really struggling to hit with the racket and I'm hitting long consistently. The racket feels extremely powerful and I don't feel I have control at all. I've never had that before and I've tried many rackets over the years.

Has anyone had a similar experience with the PB10? If so any advice? Many thanks.
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If you are hitting long consistently, shouldn't you raise tension?
 
henryshli said:
Thanks, it's currently strung at low 50s same as my k90s so higher tension is possible....do you know if the PB10 is very string sensitive?
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Yes it is. String higher and it should help. Having said that, the PB10 mid has a useful amount of pop, so it may eventually not be the right one for you. But string closer to 60.
 
Footwork and a controlled swing is key for the PB10 mid to be a real weapon. Nothing comes easy with this racquet. It is string sensitive too. It played well for me in a full copoly mid-low tensions and it played excellent with a gut main/poly cross.
 
henryshli said:
Has anyone had a similar experience with the PB10?
Click to expand...

I didn't care for the PB10 either. Some may like it but I found it far too polarized and flexy. You can absolutely annihilate the ball with the PB10 but if I had to choose a small headed stick, I'd be going for the BLX90.
 
I don't buy any racquet without playtesting it. Reviews are misleading in my experience too. Even if someone has playtested tons of racquets and strings, that person would never know what would really work for myself.
Having said that, I owned a PB 10 mid, and hit a lot with the K90 (loved it) in the past. They are two very different animals to hit with. If I could handle the weight, I would stick to the K90.
 
I tried it long time ago and it was a.w.f.u.l. I couldn't believe how much hype was created back then.
 
well the pb10 mid is a very demanding stick.....you have to be pretty good to get the most out of it. despite that though i did love the butter soft feel. but alas too demanding
 
PB10Mid is a fantastic stick imo, esp if you are 5.0 or higher and like your sticks super polarized. A poly hybrid works great, I settled on WC Mosquito Bite / Gosen at 50/52.5. WC Scorpion was great too, more powerful.

In general I find the racquet low powered. The ball can launch tho if the timing/footwork is off. Footwork is the most important thing.

The racquet works better if you swing fast through contact with topspin, esp if your opponent hits with pace. Flat shots work good too. This racquet eats up pace and dishes it back with a feel that is pharmaceutical-grade luxurious.

If your opponent hits soft, slices/dices, or if it's windy, personally I would switch to a more forgiving frame.
 
I love my two sticks. I don't get why everyone is hating on this racket.

I love the control and feel I get with it.

I feel like I can put the ball where I want to most of the time.
 
henryshli said:
I've always been a tour 90 kind of player but I'm also a racket tart and like to hit various rackets for fun. Recently purchased a Powerbridge 10 because of comments on thid forum and because it is supposed to be control orientated I thought it should be easy enough to get used to......wrong!

I'm really struggling to hit with the racket and I'm hitting long consistently. The racket feels extremely powerful and I don't feel I have control at all. I've never had that before and I've tried many rackets over the years.

Has anyone had a similar experience with the PB10? If so any advice? Many thanks.
Click to expand...

The Wilson 90 & PB10 Mid are completely different rackets imo. Everytime I use a 90 I can't get the ball speed I want but I feel the great control so I end up playing a more control oriented game to win points. The PB10 Mid is very powerful considering the specs and headsize, yet there is still very good control. It swings very fast and produces a low trajectory, heavy ball, and volleys feel very precise with good pop. I totally go on the offensive when I am using the PB10, everyone was commenting how much more aggressive my game was when I started using the PB10 mid. I was playing some 5.0's in dubs back around the time I switched and they start yelling stuff like "oh ****!" whenever a short ball landed on my side, since I would usually blast it at the net guy. I also find it very easy to hit dropshots and drop volleys with the PB10, something I cannot do nearly as well with the APDGT. For me the PB10 mid is more suited for an aggressive, attacking game. I did find it a bit string sensitive, at 55-57lbs it worked very well, at 59lbs now it is totally unsuable for me. Will be trying 52lbs when I get more strings.
 
Big_Dangerous said:
I love my two sticks. I don't get why everyone is hating on this racket.

I love the control and feel I get with it.

I feel like I can put the ball where I want to most of the time.
Click to expand...

In the right hands this stick becomes an asset, in the wrong hands it is a liability :)
 
EDK said:
....In general I find the racquet low powered. The ball can launch tho if the timing/footwork is off. Footwork is the most important thing.

The racquet works better if you swing fast through contact with topspin, esp if your opponent hits with pace....
Click to expand...

Yes I'm experiencing the launch tendency of the PB10! I do have a fast swing but I don't swing hard, I let the racket do all the work but finding the PB10 twisting ( or feels like it's twisting) in my hand at contact and then the ball would go longer than expected in a heavy top spin shot or launching when I'm (trying) to hit flat.

I will definitely watch out for lazy technique
 
Thank you very much everyone. Your comments have been extremely useful! Such a nice change from the "pro discussion" section :-D

Conclusions:
- totally underestimated how demanding the racket was going to be, pay more attention to technique

- plays very different to other control oriented rackets (I was expecting similar behaviour which was wrong)

- try other string setups, possibly higher than my normal tension

Even though I might not ever be comfortable enough to play competitively with this frame I still want to get the most out of it to see why some players love it so much so I know what I'm missing out on!
 
henryshli said:
Thank you very much everyone. Your comments have been extremely useful! Such a nice change from the "pro discussion" section :-D

Conclusions:
- totally underestimated how demanding the racket was going to be, pay more attention to technique

- plays very different to other control oriented rackets (I was expecting similar behaviour which was wrong)

- try other string setups, possibly higher than my normal tension

Even though I might not ever be comfortable enough to play competitively with this frame I still want to get the most out of it to see why some players love it so much so I know what I'm missing out on!
Click to expand...

If you have read the pb10mid club thread then there is a lot of good info. The main one being that the pb10mid needs a small amount of lead at 10&2 as the racket is so manouverable and cuts thro the air so quickly, sometimes leaving the face slightly open at contact and you get those unsightly launches of the ball.

For me personally the previous incarnation the dnx10mid was a better stick, more steel like stability, less power it seemed, more feedback, I found the pb10mid to be too muted, often looking up to see where the ball was going as I could hardly feel it off the strings.......

I strung mine at around 54lbs with full poly, I won all my matches for a month but alas it was not for me, moved to the dnx10mid and then to the very similar Becker Legend/Melbourne with a slightly bigger head.

As you have said you cant compare the volkl and the wilson as they are worlds apart.
 
jfish said:
In the right hands this stick becomes an asset, in the wrong hands it is a liability :)
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Yeah, some guy in my league kept telling me how good my game is. He said that my strokes are like butter, whatever that means lolz. I was just like, wow thanks.

He said everyone he played thought I was really good as well, and told him to watch out for me.

I guess you just need to have the right game for this stick. The funny thing is, I can certainly stand to lose like quite a bit of weight, so my movement and footwork aren't exceptional all the time. But I love my sticks. I went from rackets to rackets for while, but these sticks I've stuck with for over a year now, and I just love them. I have no plans to change to a different racket, or try one out, unless I win another TW racket bracket contest. :)
 
I'm finding it odd how people are saying it's an issue of the level required to use the frame. The tour 90 is more demanding in every way people generally tend to measure the difficulty of using a frame, less power (at least in terms of trampoline), heavier, smaller head and i think the string pattern is tighter.

The issue with the pb10 was that yeah it has decent control and I'll admit for serve required less effort and concentration, but when you compare a stock pb10 and a stock tour90 stability, plow, control, spin and most importantly; though this category is subjective feel, the tour 90 destroys it in every way. Also if you're hitting heavier balls with a pb10 than a tour 90 with stock frames it's because you can't utilise the mass of the tour 90, there is no way given the specs of each frame that the pb10 could hit heavier balls at equal racquet head speeds.

Lastly the reason i bought the pb10 was due to getting occasional elbow pain from serving with the tour 90 and given the flex and rave reviews including comfort i thought perfect.... Out of the 10 or so frames I've used over long periods of time the it ranks 7th for comfort, well below the tour 90.

To be fair I don't think it's a bad frame, just nothing to write home about.
 
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The PB10's oblong head shape makes the mains approximately as long as most 95/98"s. The longest mains are 12.75". My other 93" frames (POG and Diablo) longest mains are 12.375". That's quite a difference and more consistent with larger head frames. The longest crosses on the PB10 Mid are about .5" shorter than most similar sized sticks which seem to be ~9.5" versus 9" for the PB10 Mid. These difference need to be accommodated for in your tension selections to get something that feels right to you. I would suggest raising your mains by 5 pounds and perhaps dropping your crosses by 2 and see how you like it and adjust from there.

I own both the PB10 Mid and the K90 and while they will never feel alike, they are both great sticks with strengths in different areas. It took me several string jobs to find the right combo on the PB10 Mid and I think it was mainly due to the head shape and how it played originally when I was using my "regular" tensions.
 
Fellow PB10 owners: I need some help....

I have a PB 10 with these specs:
98 sq.in / 10.4oz / 0.9 in-hl / 19mm

Which PB 10 is this? An older model than the one you are referring to above (with it's 93 sq. in head)?

I am trying to use this racquet, but it feels way different from my Volkl v1 Classic, which I love. The Classic feels smooth, soft, with a lot of feel.

The PB 10 (which I've never actually played more than a few points with) feels hard like a board, with much less feel. I have it strung with VS gut at 55lbs. I am a good 4.0 player with solid strokes and an all around game. I'm hoping the PB 10 will give me more power and am working on improving my game and fitness- I've lost 22 lbs and am feeling way better in the court and getting to way more balls and also improving my technique.

I read raves about the PB 10, but am not sure that is the same model I have.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
martyrpctc9307 said:
Fellow PB10 owners: I need some help....

I have a PB 10 with these specs:
98 sq.in / 10.4oz / 0.9 in-hl / 19mm

Which PB 10 is this? An older model than the one you are referring to above (with it's 93 sq. in head)?

I am trying to use this racquet, but it feels way different from my Volkl v1 Classic, which I love. The Classic feels smooth, soft, with a lot of feel.

The PB 10 (which I've never actually played more than a few points with) feels hard like a board, with much less feel. I have it strung with VS gut at 55lbs. I am a good 4.0 player with solid strokes and an all around game. I'm hoping the PB 10 will give me more power and am working on improving my game and fitness- I've lost 22 lbs and am feeling way better in the court and getting to way more balls and also improving my technique.

I read raves about the PB 10, but am not sure that is the same model I have.

Any help would be appreciated.
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The PB10 Mid is the one that is popular among some that enjoy "players frames." The specs you list are for more of a tweener racquet. The head size is too big and the stick is far too light. More like a team version of a C10 Pro than a PB10 Mid. There were a few different iterations of the PB10 a few years back but I don't know whatever became of them.
 
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Mine is a PB 10 Light

I did some more research and found (along with jogging my memory) that it's the PB 10 Light

I'm going to give it a longer tryout and maybe add some weight and see what I can do with this racquet. I've given up on it after only a few balls so often, that I really don't know what it feels like to play a set with it.
 
henryshli said:
I've always been a tour 90 kind of player but I'm also a racket tart and like to hit various rackets for fun. Recently purchased a Powerbridge 10 because of comments on thid forum and because it is supposed to be control orientated I thought it should be easy enough to get used to......wrong!

I'm really struggling to hit with the racket and I'm hitting long consistently. The racket feels extremely powerful and I don't feel I have control at all. I've never had that before and I've tried many rackets over the years.

Has anyone had a similar experience with the PB10? If so any advice? Many thanks.
Click to expand...

i played with the dnx 10 mid (almost the same specs) and i was disappointed. I strung it full bed with luxilon flouro at 53. i found it low power plus some balls flying in the air, small sweetspot but when you hit in the center it's an AMAZING racquet. it's hefty and not very head light. are you ever try the VOLKL PB 10 MP this one is a winner, HUGE control with all the power you need with a good technique. Almost a perfect player's racquet. p.s french is my first language so don't check my english mistake! :oops:
 
I love my PB10 Mids. I definitely have to string it up tight to get the control I want. I run a full bed of poly (Kirschbaum PL2) 60# mains and 57# crosses. I've tried several times to go lower, but unless it's cold outside, I can't make it work. Perhaps if I tried for longer than 1 hour....
It is tough to use in really windy conditions (like this morning), but if you set up right and keep those eyes on the ball, the rewards are excellent. Plenty of plow-through and pace even with my string set-up. I'm not a great player by any means, but I have long swings on both sides and that makes good use of this stick.
It gives me great feedback, and is sweet at the net.
My serves have less pop, but I seriously crush my overheads (I definitely have some issues with my serve).
 
Hooked said:
The PB10's oblong head shape makes the mains approximately as long as most 95/98"s. The longest mains are 12.75". My other 93" frames (POG and Diablo) longest mains are 12.375". That's quite a difference and more consistent with larger head frames. The longest crosses on the PB10 Mid are about .5" shorter than most similar sized sticks which seem to be ~9.5" versus 9" for the PB10 Mid. These difference need to be accommodated for in your tension selections to get something that feels right to you. I would suggest raising your mains by 5 pounds and perhaps dropping your crosses by 2 and see how you like it and adjust from there.

I own both the PB10 Mid and the K90 and while they will never feel alike, they are both great sticks with strengths in different areas. It took me several string jobs to find the right combo on the PB10 Mid and I think it was mainly due to the head shape and how it played originally when I was using my "regular" tensions.
Click to expand...

Hmm, this is a very interesting observation about how the extra oval/oblong shape results in longer mains and shorter crosses. I didn't like the way my stringbed felt on the previous string job. The shop (a reputable one too) got the tension wrong and upped it a few lbs, I also had a cross that was thicker than the mains, low powered, and dead feeling. This time I have better strings and at a lower tension but the way I string my crosses results in tighter crosses - I use long slow pulls on the crosses and straighten as it pulls. This string job feels better than the previous one but still does not feel as good or as even as it used to be. I think the lower cross string tension I was getting from the shop happened to be going together well with this frame's shorter cross strings. I'm gonna have to try 3-4lbs lower on the crosses next time with my method which should fix things right up. Thanks for this!
 
A simple way to translate tension from one frame to another is to measure the longest main and longest cross of both frames and multiply the quotient to the tension to achieve the same relative stiffness.

For example; if you have determined that 58 pounds on frame A is the best for your game but have decided to switch to frame B, simply multiply 58 by the length of string B divided by the length of string A. You will need to do it for both the mains and the crosses.

Let’s assume frame A has 12” mains (longest ones) and 10” crosses and frame B has 13” mains and 9” crosses. To figure out the tensions for frame B, you mutiply 58 x (13/12) for the mains and 58 x (9/10) for the crosses. This yields tensions of 62.8 for the mains and 52.2 for the crosses on frame B. These tensions should provide roughly the same string bed stiffness that 58 pounds does on frame A.

Remember that longer strings require more tension to achieve the same relative stiffness as shorter strings so your tensions generally need to go up if you increase head size and down if you decrease head size. Some exceptions will be racquets like the PB10 Mid where the frame has a different enough shape that measuring the strings and doing some quick math will likely save you a lot of time, money and frustration. With the PB10 Mid, you may need to increase the mains and decrease the crosses to get it to feel right for your game.

A proactive stringer should suggest these changes if you tell them you are changing racquets but most stringers in my experience take a more passive approach and rely on you to tell them what tensions to pull at. Some more inexperienced stringers may have little or no idea how a racquet change affects stiffness and pull tensions. Cover yourself either way and use this simple method to make sure you get what you are looking and paying for.
 
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In looking at my C10 Pro, it too has crosses that are relatively short. 9.5" - longest. Same as my POG Mid which is a 93" frame. The longest mains on the C10 Pro are 13.0". Second only to my POG OS which is a 107" frame with 13.25" longest mains. Relatively long mains and short crosses seem to be part of Volkls DNA - at least on these two frames.
 
Good points there, Hooked. That stringing technique may come in handy down the road if I'm trying to help someone who's a little more picky about getting different racquets dialed in together.

That layout of the C10's string bed is something I've noticed, too. I've tried stringing my mains at higher tensions than my crosses to see what results come from that, but I've found good comfort and performance in my Volkls when I string my mains and crosses the same and in the range of 60-62 lbs. with 17 ga. syn. gut. There may be further noodling with different tensions down the road, but we're doing great for now like this.

A buddy of mine got some demos last year, including a PB10 mid, and I was sort of psyched to finally get a quick test drive with it myself. I have a couple of different mids of my own and like them a lot, but when I tried this demo, the sweet-spot in it seemed just about non-existent. I think it was strung with some old poly, but even so, I couldn't relate to that racquet at all... except for maybe the grip shape. I suppose it's safe to say that my "tennis dna" has become very much accustomed to the C10.
 
My PB10s always felt quite under-powered compared to K90s. I had to drop tension to maintain the usual depth.

I have noticed that PB10 plays well with classical strokes. If i try a more western grip and modern stroke style, i consistently drop balls short.
 
fuzz nation said:
A buddy of mine got some demos last year, including a PB10 mid, and I was sort of psyched to finally get a quick test drive with it myself. I have a couple of different mids of my own and like them a lot, but when I tried this demo, the sweet-spot in it seemed just about non-existent. I think it was strung with some old poly, but even so, I couldn't relate to that racquet at all... except for maybe the grip shape. I suppose it's safe to say that my "tennis dna" has become very much accustomed to the C10.
Click to expand...

The PB10 Mid is a little trickier to find the right string/tension than the C10 Pro which in my experience is a little more forgiving. The best I have been able to achieve on the PB10 Mid so far is Weiss Cannon SuperCable Pro 16 mains @ 60 and Weiss Cannon Black 5 Edge 16L crosses @ 55. Still on there and I'm really enjoying it. However, the C10 Pro is a special stick and I would put it above the PB10 Mid in terms of all-court playability. Out of the dozen or so racquets I own and string on a regular basis, there are three that NEVER leave the bag; Prince Diablo Mid, Volkl C10 Pro and Bab AeroPro Drive Cortex (my doubles stick modified with .6oz added in the handle to increase the stability and swing weight). The others move in and out as I try different strings and modifications trying to find the right fit. The PB10 Mid is close with this latest string job, but not quite at the level of these other three.
 
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