Gut Hybrids Techniques Question

[Blakefan17]

I'm a fairly experienced stringer and usually play with full beds of poly and have rarely dabbled with hybrid beds. I received a few packets of VS gut as a gift over the holidays and thought I would throw them in a few of my sticks in a gut mains / poly crosses hybrid. I string on a Gamma X2.

I was curious if any of you budget minded and experienced gut hybrid stringers have any nifty techniques to make a 40 foot set of gut fit in the mains of two racquets. My initial thought was that I could string one stick with gut mains / poly crosses and then use the short length to string in the crosses of another stick but gut crosses strikes me as a waste.

Or I could just sting a full bed and crank up the tension a bit, but I'm afraid my wallet won't like the results. Not a huge string breaker though so who knows maybe it would be fun

 

[jim e]

I am assuming that you would have an os size racquet that has an 18 main string pattern. Some of those need 21 feet of string.
Use the entire set for the 1st racquet, placing the listed amount of string on one side for the main strings,but I would make a few inches less, as string will stretch and you can bridge if you have starting clamp. When you get to the end mains, the excess you can cut at knot so you would have some extra string for the 2 nd racquet.
For the second racquet, be sure that you have a starting clamp to bridge string to tension head if necessary. BTW gut plays very nice at relatively high tensions unlike synthetic strings.
If you have a 16 main racquet, there should be no issues at all to string 2 racquet mains.

 

[2nd Serve Ace]

Vs stretches an absolute crazy amount, so think you'd be fine cutting it in half and doing 2 mains with it.

 

[Blakefan17]

Good intel thanks both. I usually use the newer Blade v7 with the tighter 18x20. I think that the mains on the blade are close to 20 feet but I've never checked cause I string one piece full bed off the reel usually. I've never had an issue where I needed to my starting clamp to bridge the string to the tensioner but that is a smart call!

Another question though - I usually string stiffer poly at lower tensions like 50lb or less. How large of a variance would be acceptable with gut in the mains and lower tension poly in the crosses?

 

[LocNetMonster]

You shouldn't have a problem doing two sets of mains with one 40' package. As for tension, tricky question and one you'll have to figure out by trial and error. IME, going from full poly to gut mains, stringing the mains 15% higher than the crosses seems works for me.

 

[struggle]

I think you'll be fine cutting it in half.

I usually string16/17g NG mains and 18g poly cross at 60/56m fwiw.

16x20 racquet 100in (currently).

 

[Rabbit]

Here's something I've done in the past. String the mains leaving the two outside mains unstrung. Then, do a box of your first cross, outside main, bottom cross other outside main and then string it like an ATW with the poly. The result is gut mains with the two outside mains and all the crosses are poly.

 

[esgee48]

[1] Mains tie off at the throat so Rabbit's idea would have the new last main tie off at the top. See if you have another hole that can accommodate a knot for the cross.
[2] NG stretches like crazy and 20' will work. Just make sure you have enough on the 'short side' to barely reach your gripper minus 4". By the time you get to the 9th main, the NG will have stretched at least 6-8" more.
[3] I use a totally different method which uses {2] above, but with the entire set of mains prestrung without tension. When all the mains are tensioned is when I cut the rest off. Many times with multis like NXT, I will have at least 22' left. Just take your time pre installing the mains.

 

[djNEiGht]

do you have a starting clamp? You can use as a bridge if the string doesn't reach the gripper. Just hope it's also long enough to tie. But as many have said...20' should be good.