Holdfast44ID
Semi-Pro
Hi all,
Bear in mind that I have just switched to the Clash Tour racquet after having mainly played with variants of the Wilson Pros Staffs over the years. I have played with Babolat a few times but never stuck with them. As I'm still trying to get used to the Clash Tour, it is kind of difficult to review string! I'm trying to find the best setup & tension for this frame so take whatever I write with a grain of salt! For the second time, I tried Grapplesnake Cube (mains) @ 45 lbs. and Liquid (crosses) @ 46 lbs. in one of my Clash Tours (comes in at 11.7 oz. with just a new replacement grip and a dampener). When I opened up the pack of Cube, the string had sort of an extra-light, plastic-like feel to it (very unusual) and I could feel the sharp square edges. Cube is the stiffer string and Liquid is the soft cross string. I had no problems stringing this up but I felt I needed to be careful not to kink the Cube string. When I kinked one end, it seemed like it would break off. So don't kink it in the middle of your string job.
On the court, I was able to feel the strings bite into the ball and could vary between hard flatter shots, shots with moderate spin, and sharp/dipping crosscourt spin shots on the fh side. I tend to hit flatter on my bh side but was able to generate nice spin on attacking cross court & down the line shots. Slice backhands felt average, although the slice bh has always been one of my best shots (need more time with the stick). Volleys felt much better/consistent with pop & spin if I attacked them vs going for low power, touch volleys. While I was able to hit some decent serves (flat/spin), I still don't feel dialed in with serves using the Clash Tour yet. I would say that the Cube/Liquid hybrid feels too stiff for me, even in the Clash Tour. I could feel the string bite the ball but didn't feel much pocketing.
I'm getting a couple of sets of the CES Neon Dust / Liquid Neon Dust hybrid strings, which I have read are softer than the Cube/Liquid hybrid & are the latest offering from Grapplesnake. I'll try CES Neon Dust / Liquid Neon Dust at around 46 lbs. as I tried it at 55/57 one time and that was way too high, even for the Clash Tour. I will also try out Irukandji as a cross string but probably never in a full bed (don't think it is designed for full bed use?).
Cube/Liquid might work out for you if you like to use a lot of spin and don't mind a stiffer feel. I just prefer a softer setup. I'll see how CES Neon Dust / Liquid Neon Dust works out at a similar tension.
Bear in mind that I have just switched to the Clash Tour racquet after having mainly played with variants of the Wilson Pros Staffs over the years. I have played with Babolat a few times but never stuck with them. As I'm still trying to get used to the Clash Tour, it is kind of difficult to review string! I'm trying to find the best setup & tension for this frame so take whatever I write with a grain of salt! For the second time, I tried Grapplesnake Cube (mains) @ 45 lbs. and Liquid (crosses) @ 46 lbs. in one of my Clash Tours (comes in at 11.7 oz. with just a new replacement grip and a dampener). When I opened up the pack of Cube, the string had sort of an extra-light, plastic-like feel to it (very unusual) and I could feel the sharp square edges. Cube is the stiffer string and Liquid is the soft cross string. I had no problems stringing this up but I felt I needed to be careful not to kink the Cube string. When I kinked one end, it seemed like it would break off. So don't kink it in the middle of your string job.
On the court, I was able to feel the strings bite into the ball and could vary between hard flatter shots, shots with moderate spin, and sharp/dipping crosscourt spin shots on the fh side. I tend to hit flatter on my bh side but was able to generate nice spin on attacking cross court & down the line shots. Slice backhands felt average, although the slice bh has always been one of my best shots (need more time with the stick). Volleys felt much better/consistent with pop & spin if I attacked them vs going for low power, touch volleys. While I was able to hit some decent serves (flat/spin), I still don't feel dialed in with serves using the Clash Tour yet. I would say that the Cube/Liquid hybrid feels too stiff for me, even in the Clash Tour. I could feel the string bite the ball but didn't feel much pocketing.
I'm getting a couple of sets of the CES Neon Dust / Liquid Neon Dust hybrid strings, which I have read are softer than the Cube/Liquid hybrid & are the latest offering from Grapplesnake. I'll try CES Neon Dust / Liquid Neon Dust at around 46 lbs. as I tried it at 55/57 one time and that was way too high, even for the Clash Tour. I will also try out Irukandji as a cross string but probably never in a full bed (don't think it is designed for full bed use?).
Cube/Liquid might work out for you if you like to use a lot of spin and don't mind a stiffer feel. I just prefer a softer setup. I'll see how CES Neon Dust / Liquid Neon Dust works out at a similar tension.
