Effects of String Fraying?

I had a thin multifilament, NXT 17, and after 6 hours it started fraying horribly. and as it frayed the feeling of the stringbed became increasingly stiffer. It also felt like there was a huge loss in power. The strings felt less "mushy" and comfortable, and became stiff and shocking.

Perhaps its all mental, but im interested in knowing whether or not fraying effects play.
 

tennis005

Hall of Fame
I also felt the same thing when mine started fraying. The strings became stiff and uncomfortable.
 

Tennis_Crazed

Semi-Pro
multifilaments fray...when they fray its inevitable that they feel different, cause its changed in its shape and form
 

Sublime

Semi-Pro
It feels stiffer, because the tension has gone up.

Lets say you have a multi made up of 100 different fibers and you string it at 60lbs. The feel of that string bed, is the feeling of each of those fibers holding .6lbs of tension. Each time one of those fibers breaks, that tension gets redistributed to the other fibers. So to keep the math simple, lets say half of the fibers break. Now each remaining fiber is holding 1.2lbs of tension. So it's resiliency and elasticity will be like you strung the original un-frayed string at 120lbs. This is why it has more shock and feels less mushy.
 

SW Stringer

Semi-Pro
It feels stiffer, because the tension has gone up.

Lets say you have a multi made up of 100 different fibers and you string it at 60lbs. The feel of that string bed, is the feeling of each of those fibers holding .6lbs of tension. Each time one of those fibers breaks, that tension gets redistributed to the other fibers. So to keep the math simple, lets say half of the fibers break. Now each remaining fiber is holding 1.2lbs of tension. So it's resiliency and elasticity will be like you strung the original un-frayed string at 120lbs. This is why it has more shock and feels less mushy.

It may feel stiffer because the string diameter has gone down. The tension can never go up. If you string the same racquet with the same string at the same tension but use a 16 gauge string one time and an 18 gauge string the next time, the string bed stiffness will measure higher with the 18 gauge string every time, simply because the diameter is smaller.

Personally, when people feel the stiffness of the racquet increase over time and interpret it as a tension increase may actually be the feel of the racquet changing as the strings elasticity diminishes with time. What had more "pop and zing" (ball cupping ability) begins to play more 'boardy' as the dynamic elasticity (resiliency) dissipates .
 

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
I think what Sublime is trying to say is that the string reaches the limit of its elasticity faster, so it feels stiffer. It doesn't actually get tighter. This is the reason that with some strings, the thinner gauge of the same string is stiffer than the thicker gauge (not all strings).
 

KenC

Hall of Fame
I think what Sublime is trying to say is that the string reaches the limit of its elasticity faster, so it feels stiffer. It doesn't actually get tighter. This is the reason that with some strings, the thinner gauge of the same string is stiffer than the thicker gauge (not all strings).

I don't know if the word stiff is the best way to describe a multi that is losing its elasticity. There must be a word that defines diminished playability, combined with loss of feel.

Interesting your statement about thinner gauges feeling more "stiff" at the same tension than the thicker gauges. TF MultiFeel 17g feels slightly more firm than the 16g at the same tension. In my experience the 17g seems to give me slightly more spin AND control compared to the 16g at the same tension.
 
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