Discho Black Mamba 1.23
Stringing: Without question this is one of the most stubborn, stiff and recalcitrant strings that I've ever dealt with. Honestly, it's second only to Alien Black Diamond in terms of diabolical stringability. Nonetheless, the Alien stuff is truly a great poly even though it's deadly to string up, so I'm not basing anything off of this. Anyone thinking that this stuff is the same as SP Hyperion or Genesis Black Magic......you've got to be kidding me. Strung at 47/47.
Groundstrokes: This string plays how it feels and strings, but only from a power and feel standpoint. It is not a harsh string at all, but it's not soft. I would say that Hyperion is slightly softer, but not by much. It's about as soft as maybe Cyberflash, but without the other qualities. It has very little power anywhere in the court. You really need to work the racquet to get your shots to work how you want them to. There is a very strange feeling to it, something that I have only experienced with X-1. It honestly feels as though the racquet is strung at different tensions all across the string bed. if you hit the ball a bit lower in the stringbed to get a sharper angle, there is no power. If you hit it a bit above the sweet spot, there is a bit more power, but not by much. The string really takes the sweetspot of even the deadest polys and shrinks it. To put it another way, the strings just feel dead right from the get go. Normally, I would say that there is a type of player that would like this, but no play style would benefit from the way it played for me.
Overall: 7/10
Serves: Same as the groundstrokes. This is not a server's string as there is no help whatsoever on a power or spin standpoint. It's simply just a dead feeling string and seems to take away pace that you already would have had even with a syn gut. Since I rely heavily on my serve, this is a definite no.
Overall: 6/10
Volleys: Too stiff. There is no feel from the stringbed. The same applies here about the "uneven" stringbed. You have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not your volley is going to go where you want it. Now, I know I play with gut crosses in my go-to setup, but even then, mushy Black Magic is more reliable.
Overall: 6/10
Durability: It may be too early to tell since not enough time has passed, but this seems to be a rather durable poly. There is no notching whatsoever, but honestly, after feeling it, that's not surprising. The crosses were sliding all over the place though. Either way, the strings felt dead even after they broke in, so I really can't imagine what it will be like once they die.
Overall: Too early.
I don't believe in reviewing something and not being honest, so I won't be doing that. This is not a string for me. I'm not going to use any hyperbole here, so I'm just relaying exactly what I think. I know that some people like it, but for groundstrokes this reminds me from a feel standpoint of Signum Pro Hyperion. Similar spin off of both wings as well. The difference is, Hyperion is easy to string, doesn't move about and is very playable at the net and on serves. For groundstrokes though, it's very similar. Not that soft, stiff feeling and very low powered. In all other aspects, it isn't even close. It doesn't feel plasticky like Black Code, but it plays just as poorly.
Overall: 6.5/10