Nuances in the Placement of Lead Tape

[rustyheadcsse]

I'm deep into some tinkering with customization, trying some things, trying to figure out both what works for me and also getting some practice in so that I can help others with customizations as a part of my home stringing business.

My big question is about the concentration of lead tape. When playing with a tool like the TW University customization tool or the USRSA's Morphinator, you'll get instructions for the amount of lead needed at a specific location to reach your desired specs. Say the placement calls for exactly 4g at 12 o'clock, or 68.58 cm. This would be 16 inches of standard 1/4" lead tape. If you set one racquet up with a single 8 inch layer of lead tape on each side of the frame, centered exactly at the 68.58 mark, that would get you to your 4g spec. My question is, how much differently would the same frame play set up with say, 4 layers of 2 inch long lead tape centered at the 68.58 mark? In what ways would that play differently? How does the concentration of the weight that is being added impact the playing characteristics of a frame?

 

[Grafil Injection]

The difference will certainly be most noticeable around 12 o'clock, but not an extreme difference. Swingweight will increase about 3.5x the weight if it's near 12 (so 14pts), but more like 3 times if spread out (12pts).

 

[Mischko]

When you spread it, on most racquets, it can easily feel clunky, or the upper hoop can feel like a wide shovel, or both, then you centre it more, either a simple double layer, or one slightly wider below and another slightly shorter on top

On old school racquets, with a more pointy upper hoop, flat beam and smaller head size, like a 95, that might not be the case at all

Reason for clunkiness is probably that many racquets already have more than enough mass on the sides, high enough twistweight, so when you spread your lead it becomes too much, and your racquet won't turn so easily anymore

And as for becoming shovel-y it usually happens on elyptical profile racquets, with a wider string spacing and a wider upper hoop already, like an Aero 100 or similar

So you definitely want to experiment, but start with more centrally placed lead tape

 

[workerONE]

Briffidi has a spreadsheet that lets you see what would happen if you put weight at any given point

Briffidi Racquet Matching - Google Drive

docs.google.com

 

[rustyheadcsse]

Briffidi has a spreadsheet that lets you see what would happen if you put weight at any given point

Briffidi Racquet Matching - Google Drive

docs.google.com

Good to know this exists! But I’m asking more specifically about how the weight is applied. In the Briffidi example it calls for 4.4g at 34.9cm. There are basically an infinite number of ways to add that amount of weight to that location. You could do a single layer of 2.2g strips on either side, centered over 34.9cm but running for 10-11cm on either side of that centered point. You could do 4 layers of .55g strips on either side, centered over 34.9cm but running for ~3cm on either side. Those concentrations of weight should produce a different feeling depending on how the lead is applied.

 

[Chairman3]

Good topic.

I have often wondered this myself and did quite a bit of searching, on here, that yielded no meaningful conclusions.
I've also never done enough field testing to make a determination, mostly because I don't have a swingweight measuring device or other tools.
So I could never get a baseline and then start moving it around.

 

[esgee48]

I divide the -4.2 in strips into approximately 1 in segments and center and stack those at the places listed. SW is based on MR^2 where M is the mass and R is the distance between the sticking point and a point 10 cm above the tail of the frame. This answers OP‘s question if he can do the math.

 

[Steve Huff]

It's good to know these things, but unless you're stringing for pro's, I doubt you'll get much call for it. And, as for how much you can charge for it, it's really not worth the amount you can charge--usually. I've strung well over 10,000 rackets, and I've been asked to change the weight on maybe 50 of them. I have matched rackets, but that normally involves asking which racket they like the best and trying to match the others to it. I've never had a player ask for a certain SW, Balance etc. I have had HS players using a Team or Lite version of a racket ask me to weight it up to match the regular version (normally Babolats), so they can use the racket for their backup. It's nice to have this knowledge, but as a home stringer, it definitely won't pay for the time you spend doing it.

 

[lelopez]

You can shorten the length by getting 1/2g per inch 1/4"wide lead tape, then stack 2 layers on top of one another. I use that type of tape exclusively since I'm typically adding more than just a few grams. It is twice as thick as your standard 1/4" lead tape, so effectively it is the same as stacking layers.