How often should you restring anyway?

[*Val*]

I heard as a general rule as many times a year as you play a week minimum. The latest frame I play with is the Dunlop Aerogel 4D 300 and I bought that around August/September last year. Thought it was time for a restring because the (original) strings seemed to have lost their pop and were moving around too much, and I kept hitting long (it had amazing control to begin with, and I definitely noticed a change). So dropped it off for fresh restring at 59lbs with the same Dunlop synthetic strings.

The guy rings me at the shop going 'you want this racquet restringing' I'm like '...yeah' and he's like 'the string's aren't broken' and I'm like '...' and he goes on to say 'I think you're crazy, I've started restringing it and this last string had like 58 pounds tension still in it'. I just repeated, a bit annoyed, that I felt it had lost it's original control.

Surely after near a year it was time for a restring (though admittedly I hadn't used it week in week out, but I'd used it enough), and don't strings lose tension even when you don't use it? The strings (being original factory) could have been on there for an indeterminable amount of time (who knows when it was manufactured), slowly losing tension. I was convinced it ought to get a fresh restring for the new season. Is this guy crazy? I was under the impression that the factory strings get strung at around 58/57lb (range for this racquet 55-65) and so I imagined it had dropped by at least a few lbs by now. And even if some of the strings were still around 58 can't they still lose their original quality and feel?

Kinda hacked off at this guy, maybe it's time to find a new restringer who's less of a d ouche?

 

[Valjean]

The actual tension of a stringbed pulled at 59 isn't going to be 58, even fresh off the machine; plus, you don't remove the existing strings one at a time! He's having you on... If he's persistent, tell him the USTA still recommends you restring a minimum of twice a year...

 

[chaddles]

As a stringer, you should always follow your clients requests. If the string has been in it that long then it will have certain signs of use & age, and a fresh set of string will feel and play great. I encourage my night comp clients to restring at the start of each season (every 6 months) or a month or so out from finals which some guys like.

Thing is you seem to be more up to speed with strings than your stringer!!!

 

[*Val*]

As a stringer, you should always follow your clients requests. If the string has been in it that long then it will have certain signs of use & age, and a fresh set of string will feel and play great. I encourage my night comp clients to restring at the start of each season (every 6 months) or a month or so out from finals which some guys like.

Thing is you seem to be more up to speed with strings than your stringer!!!

Yeah I was kinda taken aback by him challenging me about it, so I was wondering whether I got it wrong. I think the guy's just a dbag though, seems to bizarrely dislike receiving business! But yeah that was my instincts, especially since they were the factory strings; I think I even heard some people won't play with factory strings and instead restring it fresh straight away, partly because they could have been on there for a long time losing tension in storage (and so that they can choose own strings/tension).

 

[GlenK]

The guy sounds like a whack job to me. Look for another stringer. It is crazy how long some guys play without re-stringing. Some of my own customers go months without restringing.
Then when they do they play great for a few weeks then right back to their "normal".
They seem to have difficulty connecting the dots!!!

But as the old saying goes, the customer is always right. Even as weird as it seems..

 

[Overheadsmash]

This is an interesting thread. If you want your stick restrung you should be able to get it done. Of course, the guy was probably just trying to be honest and save you some money.

I put some Dunlop Comfort Synthetic in my 12 year old daughters Dunlop Aerogel 600. She plays about twice a week and after two months all the pop was gone. I could actually see the difference in her shots. So, I just tossed in Babolat tonic gut 15 in the mains and some Head Fibergel Spin in the crosses and her ball is jumping off those strings beautifully now. same stroke, huge difference especially her spin.

So yeah, you are due for a re-string. I had a great stringer who had a nice babolat machine, but I play so much and so do my kids that I just went out and bought a machine.

 

[gmatheis]

Did you ever think that the stringer was trying to be an honest guy and prevent you from wasting money when he didn't think it was necessary?

Now don't get me wrong, if you want it restrung that's fine. I'm just thinking maybe this stringer was trying to be a good guy rather than just being greedy and cutting out what he thought were perfectly good strings just to make a buck.

 

[Lex]

I think it is a bit odd that the stringer would question why you wanted to re-string the frame.

There could be a number of reasons why you wanted to re-string:
1. Hate the current string
2. Hate the current tension
3. Strings could be "dead"
4. Want to try something new/different

 

[chaddles]

Did you ever think that the stringer was trying to be an honest guy and prevent you from wasting money when he didn't think it was necessary?

Now don't get me wrong, if you want it restrung that's fine. I'm just thinking maybe this stringer was trying to be a good guy rather than just being greedy and cutting out what he thought were perfectly good strings just to make a buck.

From the description Val gave about the strings, it's pretty clear they were definitely due for a restring. Sounds like the stringer doesn't know much about strings and the life of strings, which is very concerning in itself. If you are any sort of stringer, you can quite easily tell by moving the string and asking a few simple questions to the customer about the playability.

 

[*Val*]

Did you ever think that the stringer was trying to be an honest guy and prevent you from wasting money when he didn't think it was necessary?

Well yeah. Could have technically gotten more use out of those strings but the performance/drop in control was easily noticeable.

Does anybody know what sort of tension the factory strings are strung at, for a racquet with a range of 55-65lbs? I am pretty sure I read it was at 58/57 sometime, but am struggling to find verification. It was perfect when new so I didn't want to go for anything too higher so settled at 59, so I'm hoping it wasn't originally strung tighter than that.

 

[i3602u]

Hey

As a stringer my self I have to say always do what the customer wants. If they want it restrung that's what they get.

The only time I would say something before restring is if there is damage to frame and might break while stringing

Phil

 

[6-2/6-4/6-0]

If you're not a string breaker, use gut and then you just need to restring when you break it - otherwise it lasts a darn long time and still has the vast majority of the playability that it had 48 hours off the machine...