Searah
Semi-Pro
i seeNXT sucks. NXT tour is a good string. Neither of them are polys.
J
i seeNXT sucks. NXT tour is a good string. Neither of them are polys.
J
the kevlar sawed through the grommets and destroyed 3 dozen of his racquetsnot sure if you talked about this already, but why did you decide to not use 16g kevlar in your 18x20?
the kevlar sawed through the grommets and destroyed 3 dozen of his racquets
but my current racket is using the wilson NXTDon't have the sad, everything is going to be ok!
J
but my current racket is using the wilson NXT
but my current racket is using the wilson NXT
but my current racket is using the wilson NXT
One of my friends and past USTA teammate only played NXT. He played D1 and was rated at 5.0 before. Unlike 5.0s like @J011yroger, my buddy didn't need poly as a crutch to keep the ball in the court.
Then again, Jolly hits a 150 mph FH ... accommodations must be made.
My buddy also played D1 and is one of the best 5.0s in the section and uses worn out 20 year old racquets with RIP Control and plays circles around me.
Thank god he doesn't have a Graphene and poly or he would be unstoppable lol.
J
My buddy also played D1 and is one of the best 5.0s in the section and uses worn out 20 year old racquets with RIP Control and plays circles around me.
Thank god he doesn't have a Graphene and poly or he would be unstoppable lol.
J
Reading your string thread you linked above ... it just turned into a beer conversation. I should have been here for that in 2010 ... Bass Pale Ale ... DUH!!! Putting it in Jolly terms, Sam Adams is to Bass Pale Ale what NXT is to NGR2. Of course, now I hardly ever have a drink. I think I used up my lifetime quota before my junior year in college.
What 20 year old racquet? Yeah, my worst beatings came from someone playing 15g Forten Sweet @60lbs. The thought of that guy with a shaped poly is scary.
Rip C never made my 2017 spring string trials. I think Mikeler made a comment about it being erratic ... I have enough erratic on my own.
RS Lyon final thoughts: As predicted, the RS didn't last long, but I managed to play some doubles before it broke.
I served pretty well with it, no better or worse than anything else. On volleys it was perfectly even but without much pop at all.
Towards the end it got a bit unpredictable, but what doesn't? It was honestly better than most polys at retaining its playability until the end.
I wish it were a touch softer, warmer, and lasted longer. Perhaps I should have strung it a bit looser.
All things considered, this is a very good string.
Sure I'm being picky, but it is expensive and with a high price point, you have to deliver. This would be a fantastic string at $12.
J
Solinco Hyper G: Initial Review
I hit with it for a few minutes from the baseline yesterday then played a doubles match this morning.
It's pretty nice! It has good bite and has a nice bit of softness without being mushy. Nice pop. The only knock on it is that it's a bit unpredictable, if you are the kind of player who loads the ball up with spin and aims for a safe target, this is the stuff for you.
Serves were fine, good pop and action. And I appreciated the little bit of softness and jump off the stringbed on volleys.
Value was great for $12 it is fairly priced.
I can't comment on durability yet and will see how it holds up. In my experience textured poly loses a lot of bite after you knock the edges off by hitting a little.
Best Solinco string I have ever played for sure. Just maybe not for the precision player. Hopefully it doesn't drop off a cliff performance wise like some others have.
J
My buddy also played D1 and is one of the best 5.0s in the section and uses worn out 20 year old racquets with RIP Control and plays circles around me.
Thank god he doesn't have a Graphene and poly or he would be unstoppable lol.
J
You're getting soft and warmer in your old age... I can't remember the last time I heard you utter those words.
Something tells me you’ll hate it lolOh boy, I'm still scarred from trying super smash spiky 10 years ago.
J
Has Polly started her new thread yet?
Polly's Jollies
@J011yroger - string breakage question: are your poly strings breaking due to notching? i.e. cuts deep enough into the string to weaken it, then breaks at the notch?
Yea, they notch about half way then can break at any time.
Have you ever tried gut/poly hybrid?
I'm not a string breaker like you, but my gut/poly notches much more slowly than FB poly. Coated gut apparently slides over poly easier than poly over poly (at least for some brands).
poly crosses and gut mains last minutes.
You hit harder than Federer?
Gut/poly playability is definitely different than full poly (or full gut!). I really dig it, but definitely not for everyone.
That said, I'd bet that you wouldn't break a set of 16g Tough Gut mains and 16g MaxPower crosses in less than a few hours. Unless purposefully shanking
I get more playability from Tough Gut/MaxPower than from FB poly or FB NG.
Are saying you are willing to roll the dice to get the full raw experience?
Personally. I do not like string savers, vibration absorbers, or overgrips. Prefer raw, but hot and humid conditions sometimes requiree an overgrip.
Maybe try the wilson champions choice hybrid with stringsavers.
Lol next we'll be recommending the super fat Lux 4GS for a 18x20 PMPRPM blast 1.35? Nadals choice and if it lasts 2 hours and you dont cut it out your arm will probably fall off
Lol next we'll be recommending the super fat Lux 4GS for a 18x20 PMP
RPM blast 1.35? Nadals choice and if it lasts 2 hours and you dont cut it out your arm will probably fall off
Are saying you are willing to roll the dice to get the full raw experience?
Personally. I do not like string savers, vibration absorbers, or overgrips. Prefer raw, but hot and humid conditions sometimes requiree an overgrip.
Maybe try the wilson champions choice hybrid with stringsavers.
Lol next we'll be recommending the super fat Lux 4GS for a 18x20 PMP
If Big Banger Original got drunk one night, and in a moment of weakness shagged Wilson Enduro Gold, Luxilon 4G would be the closest thing I can imagine to their love-child.
The string is a paradigm of mediocrity, and their marketing campaign and top tier pricing should be a case study for those who wish to charge more than anyone else for something that isn't quite as good as everything else.
They say it doesn't lose tension, they say it plays very similarly from start to finish. I say that isn't much of an accomplishment if it isn't particularly good.
Bragging that you ran the same speed and didn't get tired for your entire race isn't particularly impressive if you were just jogging along at a leisurely pace.
On to the real review.
I strung the 4G in a full job, at 48lbs in my BLXPS90.
The first thing I did was grab a main string with my fingers and pull it; the string hardly snapped back. My initial reaction to this was "Dafuq?". Of what value to a hitter is a poly that doesn't snap back? I say none.
At 48# in my frame this thing should be lively as all get out. It wasn't. It had a little less pop than most good polys do when they are totally dead and just about to break.
I could hit the ball pretty much wherever I wanted to with the stuff, as long as I didn't need to hit a real dipper or sharp angle.
It has some grip to it, but bite isn't the right word. Real poly like ALU or Orig, or Ace digs into the ball, biting into the felt and holds onto the ball until it leaves the stringbed. This string doesn't have that, it feels like it just kind of sticks to the string a bit because the string has a bit of a rubbery property. If you have ever played with Enduro Gold, Pacific Poly Force Extreme, or Polyfibre TCS then you know exactly what I am talking about.
In fact, the closest string I have ever played to this is Pacific Poly Force Extreme. Except the Pacific feels amazing, and volleys stellarly; this doesn't.
It feels kind of dead, kind of rubbery, kind of plasticy, really underwhelming, but not harsh or bad, just blah.
Groundstrokes are ok with it, it has enough grip to get a little bit of spin on the ball; the slower you hit the better it works, but when you start to swing faster you eclipse the stuff's threshold for grabbing the ball and it kind of just stops adding spin to the ball. My shots seemed to gravitate to a flatter trajectory, not a bullet, but maybe 3' net clearance with a little hump because if I launched it any higher I couldn't get enough on it to get it to come back down without deliberately looping the ball. When the time came to starch a ball, you were on your own. I got a few eye high forehands that I decided to lay into, and it seemed like the string looked at me with the scrunched up eyes look a woman gives you when she says "You want to do what?". I think the 4G shines brightest on the backhand slice, seemed to be really nice if you put some weight into it, but not so much on the block slices.
I give it a B- on groundies.
In the forecourt it is ok, my only minor complaint was that it doesn't have quite enough oomph on stretch half volleys. Everything else I could get used to in a week or two. The string did one really weird thing: on backhand block slices, or backhand block volleys especially on but not limited to slowish balls, the ball would leave the stringbed at a MUCH lower trajectory than expected. I have no idea why, but balls which I thought would clear the net by 6" hit the middle of the net. This was no fluke either, happened on 15 or so balls. It was totally normal on anything I leaned into but for sure I had to make an adjustment before we started playing doubles. It was nothing that couldn't be adjusted for so really just a curiosity. It didn't have much feel up at the net or in the forecourt, but it is a poly, and rare is the poly which does. I have been volleying with poly for a pretty long time, so I have low expectations in that department, and it wasn't bothersome to me at all.
I give it a B in forecourt/volleys.
Serves were pretty darned nice. Clean clean clean ball. Not a nasty kicking nail spitting ball, but went where I wanted and bounced or spun a bit. I wasn't getting the big air on the bounce, nor the big steam, but it was certainly serviceable. (pun intended)
I give it a B+ in serving.
Returns were OK, about the same as groundstrokes. A little more pop when I was stretched out and needed to put a swing on the ball would have been nice.
I give it a B- in returning.
I hit with it for about half an hour, played some loose assorted serving points then played 3 sets of dubs. It is notched pretty deeply, especially in the top of the bed where I hit when I serve. I will hit with Mr. Pickle9 tonight and see if it breaks, but the stuff doesn't seem much more durable than ALU. He will be able to hopefully give some feedback on the quality of my shots compared to my normal setup.
The string certainly isn't terrible, it is playable for sure. Better even than most of the crap out there. It would be ideal for the teaching pro or serious rec player who had strokes which were more classic, and wanted to just string his sticks and forget about them, have them play the same all the time because it didn't really matter since he usually played with people he was much better than, but still have them not suck if he needed to play a set here or there.
I know a lot of people who fit that description, and I would sincerely recommend this string to them, if it was $9. But it isn't $9, it is $17, and I see no earthly reason for someone to buy it at that price. The stuff doesn't play any better than dead ALU, so if you want a string that doesn't lose tension, and plays the same all the time, string with something good, let a friend play with it while it is good, then once it dies have him give it to you, and you will be thrilled.
J
That’s the reason I hate string savers. the pop out and become deadly projectilesDoesn't matter, the string savers pop out, it still breaks, blah blah blah.
J
Nadal uses Babolat Duralast.
J
Pretty sure he used duralast earlier in his career (pre 2010). After that he switched to blast, seemed to have been designed for him by babolat. And definitely 1.35 as they didnt sell it retail for ages after it came out. 2016 he trialled BBO briefly but now is back.
https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/nadals-string-and-tension.443596/#post-7627342
People who have actually strung his racquets have said he uses RPM Blast 15. Do a search and you'll come across plenty of pics too. Rafa used Duralast long long time back...switched to BBO in early 2016 but came back to RPM..
Pretty sure he used duralast earlier in his career (pre 2010). After that he switched to blast, seemed to have been designed for him by babolat. And definitely 1.35 as they didnt sell it retail for ages after it came out. 2016 he trialled BBO briefly but now is back.
Whatever you want to believe champ.
Next are you going to tell me Andy Roddick used Pro Hurricane?
J
How much would you bet?
Next time I'm in NYC, I'll provide the strings if you provide the court
Will you be able to hit the ball back to me on one bounce?
I'm not really sure what this means, but assuming your groundies regularly make it past the service line and/or you aren't practicing your drop shots, then yes
lol, it's a pseudo resume filter, to weed out the 2 bounce kings.. suresh and 2good4u/o50champ come to mind... lol, should create a poll for this.... "when i say 2 bounce king, who comes to mind?"I'm not really sure what this means, but assuming your groundies regularly make it past the service line and/or you aren't practicing your drop shots, then yes
lol, it's a pseudo resume filter, to weed out the 2 bounce kings.. suresh and 2good4u/o50champ come to mind... lol, should create a poll for this.... "when i say 2 bounce king, who comes to mind?"
i'm glad i'm not sipping on my coffee while reading this...I tried in a full bed of ALU. Felt like wearing a condom. Better than getting chlamydia but not very good.
J
Solinco Hyper G: Initial Review
I hit with it for a few minutes from the baseline yesterday then played a doubles match this morning.
It's pretty nice! It has good bite and has a nice bit of softness without being mushy. Nice pop. The only knock on it is that it's a bit unpredictable, if you are the kind of player who loads the ball up with spin and aims for a safe target, this is the stuff for you.
Serves were fine, good pop and action. And I appreciated the little bit of softness and jump off the stringbed on volleys.
Value was great for $12 it is fairly priced.
I can't comment on durability yet and will see how it holds up. In my experience textured poly loses a lot of bite after you knock the edges off by hitting a little.
Best Solinco string I have ever played for sure. Just maybe not for the precision player. Hopefully it doesn't drop off a cliff performance wise like some others have.
J
I agree with everything you said. But, being a 4.0 player, I have to say, the strings are plenty predictable and consistent, even though I string at 40 lbs in a 18x16 Wilson Blade. In terms of durability it's actually perfect, in the sense that, the playability is fine right up till it popped. It fact, it was a surprise to me when it popped. And indeed it's a fair price to boot. And I do prefer it over Tour Bite.
How do you compare it against Luxilon ALU Power Spin?
It's softer and less bitey than the lux. As far as power the HG has more bounce off the stringbed but on a full swing the Lux has a meanness like nothing else on earth.
I like regular ALU more than spin but they are both great.
J