Oehms Strings Playtest

haqq777 said:
I haven't. I have seen a lot of positive feedback for them here and they have some good specials going on as well. Have you tried them? Any recommendations? Pretty intrigued by Firewire.
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I have not tried them, but I'm really intrigued by Durafluxx (majority consensus seems to be its a slightly livelier and comfier Tour Bite) and Firewire. Not sure about Black Knight cause there's like 3 comments on it on the whole internet lol
 
haqq777 said:
I haven't. I have seen a lot of positive feedback for them here and they have some good specials going on as well. Have you tried them? Any recommendations? Pretty intrigued by Firewire.
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Firewire is soft, arm friendly, big spin but erratic and would have liked more control. I still have a couple of pack laying around
 
topspn said:
Firewire is soft, arm friendly, big spin but erratic and would have liked more control. I still have a couple of pack laying around
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Once again, I'm on the wrong side of the big pond :(

Have you tried the other Tier One offerings? Given your estimation, I think I'm more likely to try Black Knight and Durafluxx
 
Can anyone compare black pearl classic to Genesis black magic? I wonder if this is the same string given the available string gauges that are available are identical save for 1.26.
 
Just bought a reel of black pearl rough 1.21 after the glowing reviews here. Will give it a go tonight! Strung it at 21/20 in my PT57A. Curious to see how it plays!
 
Jouke said:
Just bought a reel of black pearl rough 1.21 after the glowing reviews here. Will give it a go tonight! Strung it at 21/20 in my PT57A. Curious to see how it plays!
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I'll be interested in your thoughts as I have it in my Radical Tour 630 Zebra (I have the Black Pearl Extreme in the other Zebra)...
 
mscream said:
Got the reel of Black Pearl Rough now, as well as another set of Penta. Got 5 and 4h out of them before breaking (within the same 60 min session):

gMEHKrv.jpg


Penta feels nice but the playability is shorter than Black Pearl rough. Because both strings broke within the same session, I had to use my 3rd racquet that still has an at least 4-month old Kirschbaum Max Power Rough string job and that actually was still very playable. I'm playing regularly now with a 6.0+ player, and the impact on string job durability is quite apparent :D. I'm probably going to use Max Power Rough more often or I need to use thicker gauges. The problem is so many strings get notched right away and the crosses start sawing into the mains, which means they get stuck into the grooves quickly with no snap back.
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Have you given up on the OEHMS Strings or do you use them still?
 
Has anyone tried Matador Strike... I was going to string it in my Tec Tfight 315 Limited 18M (2013) but went with Weiss Cannon Red Ghost instead, as there was more info about this string so felt like I knew more what to expect.

I think I'll be trying the Matador Strike in a bunch of Wilsons I have (as a control string) in order to compare them
 
@Classic-TXP-IG MID Yes, I have tried it. It's very soft and comfortable for a poly, my stringer told me that it stretched quite a bit during stringing. It was not bad (played well with it), but not quite my cup of tea; In terms of round polys, I like RS Lyon much better (played with it at the same time), and from Oehms I liked BP Rough and Penta better. Compared to RS Lyon it had less spin and less feel/pocketing. Given the softness, I'm not convinced it would hold tension very long given my style of play. KB MP Rough is comfortable as well and has better spin/control/tension maintenance.
 
haqq777 said:
I eventually liked the BP Rough best myself for the best blend of playability, spin comfort and control. Were you able to try Alustar TT extensively? I had such high hopes for it to be similar to RS Lyon, but alas. Nowhere close.
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Good to hear, that means I'm off the hook it others don't like it :D

I tried Alustar for several hours in parallel with RS Lyon; as you said, not like it at all. I thought it played stiffer, with less spin and without the typical Lyon "thack!" feel on hitting.

BP Penta was surprisingly good for 2h, a bit more lively than Rough, but loses tension very quickly. Great from the baseline.

Volcano Heat was not bad but I did not feel that it had any stand out qualities.

BP Classic I liked less than Rough and Penta, felt firmer than both and for me less control/pocketing and spin.

Right now I would rank them Rough > Penta > Extreme, Volcano Heat, Matador > Alustar, BP Classic.

Again, BP Rough might not be the perfect string but for 40 Euros a reel I doubt that I would find anything better at that price, although the price doesn't really matter to be honest, I'm more interested in value. I actually thought that it's competitive with much more expensive strings as well. I have the 1.21 mm version, which is probably a bit too thin for me now, next time I'm in Europe I will get the other gauges as well for comparison. I actually tried it at 35 lbs in a DR98 on clay, was quite an experience!
 
Right now, I'm rotating between RS Lyon, KB MP Rough and BP Rough, I have a reel of each. Their qualities are quite orthogonal, my ideal string would probably a mix of all three: the feel and pocketing of RS Lyon, the control and tension maintenance of MP Rough and the spin/bite of BP Rough :D
 
mscream said:
@Classic-TXP-IG MID Yes, I have tried it. It's very soft and comfortable for a poly, my stringer told me that it stretched quite a bit during stringing. It was not bad (played well with it), but not quite my cup of tea; In terms of round polys, I like RS Lyon much better (played with it at the same time), and from Oehms I liked BP Rough and Penta better. Compared to RS Lyon it had less spin and less feel/pocketing. Given the softness, I'm not convinced it would hold tension very long given my style of play. KB MP Rough is comfortable as well and has better spin/control/tension maintenance.
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Thanks :)

Just by chance have you ever tried WC Red Ghost? If so, how would it compare to BP Rough... or any of the others from OEHMS?
 
For those of you that tried it;
What is your take on the Sonic Speed?
Is it in the same range in terms of comfort/soft/plush as the matador that I gather was all these things?
 
@mscream how about the bp extreme. I'm tempted to buy bow because they have a megadeal 2x200m for 50€. How was that one?

Poslano z mojega SM-G950F z uporabo Tapatalk
 
I m playing about a month with black pearl rough 1,22 in a wilson clash 100 in 22 kilos.It plays better than volkl cyclone 1,25 , weiss cannon scorpion 1,22 and YPTP 1,20. More spin and stability and less string movement.Maybe this racqet needs a shaped string for more control.I see that there is a promotion in their site of 2 packs in price of one in volcano heat, black pearl classic and extreme .As i ve read black pearl rough plays better .But is there any of these 3 that plays similar to rough?
 
I found them to play quite different, maybe extreme but it's not that close. There is not Alu Pearl Rough, which sounds worth trying out...
 
mscream said:
I found them to play quite different, maybe extreme but it's not that close. There is not Alu Pearl Rough, which sounds worth trying out...
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So black pearl rough is finally the best in durabillity spin and control ? Thought i would try one of the other three in promotion, but 200 meters is too much if they cannot be close to rough.(considering also the softness for my hand)
 
I would describe it as a better Volkl Cyclone in terms of spin, control and feel. Durability was average but I didn't notice any large tension drops similar to Cyclone. Generally extremely fun to play with. For the price, definitely extremely hard to beat! Will get myself another reel when I'm in Germany soon. Given the price, might blind buy the "Alu" version.
 
I bought a reel of Black Pearl Rough only because the stuff is so cheap. Found a pretty nice string, though. Compared to my normal string of Big Hitter Black 7, when strung at the same tension it was lower powered and had a less spin, but for a flat hitter like me, it was excellent. I've been messing around with using it as a cross and as a main, but thus far, the value is super high on Black Pearl Rough.

It says "rough" but it's more just textured. There aren't giant, sharp ridges or sides. Not super slick or smooth, but it also doesn't destroy fingers when stringing a full bed of it in an 18x20 frame.
 
mscream said:
I recently bought a selection of Oehms strings to find out if there is something worth considering. Also, very few people here play with those or post reviews so it's a good exercise to review strings without being biased by other people's opinion. Some of the descriptions actually sounded intriguing and worth testing, such as Alu Star, Black Pearl Rough and Volcano Heat. There are also some exotic strings, Crystaline in particular, which is a transparent poly without any additives, not even colour pigments. Some of those sound/look remarkably similar to other known strings.

MT6u9bE.jpg


The strings are:
  • Black Pearl Rough 1,21 mm
  • Black Pearl Extreme 1,23 mm
  • Black Pearl Classic 1,23 mm
  • Black Pearl Penta 1,25 mm
  • Matador Strike 1,24 mm
  • Volcano Heat 1,24 mm
  • Alu Star 1,20 mm
  • Crystaline PP 1,18 mm
  • Sonic Speed 1,24 mm
One of the main reasons I got interested in Oehms strings was Alu Star - from the image below it should be obvious why!

1hl94r5.jpg


I will start with RS Lyon vs. Alu Star side by side in my DR98s, possibly in a blind test. Not sure if I could actually tell them apart in my racquets.

Racquets: (2) Yonex DR98 310 g (lime) with Wilson Premium Leather Grip, 3 g at 12.

I will respond to this post to add reviews.

Comparison

Power
RPM Blast Rough > Signum Pro Tornado <[elastic]> Solstice Power > Black Pearl Rough > Hyper-G, Alu Star > RS Lyon, Max Power Rough, WC B5E > Toalson Devil Spin, Ultra Cable

Control
RS Lyon > Max Power Rough, WC B5E, Ultra Cable > Solstice Power, Black Pearl Rough > Alu Star <[linear]> Signum Pro Tornado > RPM Blast Rough

Spin
WC Ultra Cable > Solstice Power, Black Pearl Rough > Max Power Rough, WC B5E, Hyper-G > RS Lyon, Alu Star

Feel/Touch (highly subjective)
RS Lyon > Solstice Power, Black Pearl Rough > WC B5E, Max Power Rough, Solinco Revolution > Hyper-G > Signum Pro Tornado, Alu Star > WC Ultra Cable > RPM Blast Rough

Playability Duration
Max Power Rough, WC B5E > Black Pearl Rough <[8h+]> RS Lyon, Solstice Power <[5-8h]> Signum Pro Tornado, Ultra Cable > RPM Blast >> RPM Blast Rough [2h]

Stiffness (related to comfort)
Luxilon 4G, Toalson Devil Spin <[Too stiff]> WC B5E, RPM Blast, Solinco Revolution > Solstice Power > Hyper G > Black Pearl Rough, Max Power Rough, Alu Star > RS Lyon > Signum Pro Tornado, RPM Blast Rough

Similar strings (that I have played with)
Solstice Power -> Black Pearl Rough
RS Lyon, WC Silverstring -> Alu Star

Oehms Ranking
Black Pearl Rough > Alu Star

Summary

Black Pearl Rough 1.21
Very positively surprised by this string. Plays fairly soft with a long dwell time yet maintains a crisp, precise feel without a sudden loss in tension. In that regard it has all the traits I like in a string. In my opinion it resembles Solstice Power in construction and playing characteristics but the edges are not as pronounced and do not wear out as quickly. It also last longer; I played 8.5h with Black Pearl Rough without breaking them and I think I could have gotten 2h more out of them. Out of 4 sets of Solstice Power 1.20 mm, one I broke around 5h another around 8h. This string is also very resistant to movement - at no point were the strings ever stuck out of position. Power level is slightly below Solstice Power but higher than RS Lyon, MP Rough etc. It's a very comfortable string, at no point did I have any issues with a sore arm etc., much more comfortable than B5E for example. It has similar crispness but because it's less stiff it has a noticeably higher deflection and longer dwell time, which for me leads to better pocketing. Spin is great, this string grabs the ball very well similar to Solstice Power, I would put the spin potential on a similar level, although I get good string out of almost any string. There is no denying that I played great with string (for my level) and I actually preferred it over MP Rough, which I had in my other racquet. I think if had gone with a higher tension at 55/52 I would have played even better. Overall great offering from Oehms, thumbs up! Given the price, I will almost certainly get a reel. Should be great for players who prefer a lively, crisp string that bites into the ball and still plays very comfortably. Could be a very good string for a junior as well.
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Are these as good as solinco polys ? as good of spin and power ?
 
Nostradamus said:
Are these as good as solinco polys ? as good of spin and power ?
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Black Pearl Rough is easily my favourite out of all the Oehms strings I have played. Went through a whole reel. It's similar to Cyclone and Solstice Power, lively, crisp and with a texture that really grabs the ball. I think it's better than Cyclone because it holds tension longer. That's why it would be worth trying for people who like Cyclone. I played with it alongside many other strings but always went back to that one. I'm sure in a blind test many people would pick that one over strings that costs 2/3x as much. Only available in Germany though. Was about to buy another reel before I saw that there is an "Alu Pearl Rough" version now.

Black Pearl Penta was really fun to play with, especially on clay. Very powerful poly, not stiff, good spin potential. Let's you really whack the ball. Didn't last very long before it "exploded" in my racquet lol (breaking multiple mains at the same time).

I have only played with Revolution, Diamond rough and Hyper-G. Out of all Solinco strings, I liked Hyper-G the best but overall I prefer other strings (bit too muted for my liking, see below).

Right now I'm rotating between reels of Kirschbaum MP Rough, Y-tex Square-X, RS Lyon, and then various sets I have lying around (Grapplesnake strings on the way). Not a huge fan of strongly shaped strings (kills the feel IMO) but like some texture that helps grab the ball. Definitely have enough string to last for a while but there is still room for a string like BP Rough ;)
 
Hmm, that new ALU Pearl Rough looks like it's just a silver version of Black Pearl Rough. Same type of grooved poly. Very interested in seeing if anyone has tried it yet. I really like Black Pearl Rough.

Btw, Oehms is available through everyone's favorite "Rainforest" retailer for about 50 bucks a reel. Ridiculous value.
 
itsstephenyo said:
Hmm, that new ALU Pearl Rough looks like it's just a silver version of Black Pearl Rough. Same type of grooved poly. Very interested in seeing if anyone has tried it yet. I really like Black Pearl Rough.

Btw, Oehms is available through everyone's favorite "Rainforest" retailer for about 50 bucks a reel. Ridiculous value.
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Which gauge did you play with? Only used 1.21 mm so far
 
I thought that BPR has similar characteristics to Cyclone (crisp, powerful, spin friendly) but better feel and last longer.
 
aludoan said:
Would it be okay for me to impulse buy a reel of BPR without trying it? Any disappointments?
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I went through a whole reel myself and will buy another one, so I would say yes, but don't hold me accountable in case things don't work out :laughing:
 
And what is your verdict on BPR? Better Volkl Cyclone as someone described it earlier?
For my game I srsly need some pocketing feel. This week I tried RPM Blast and it is so muted and dead that i just cant feel the ball in stringbed. With tons of spin and pace it softens up, but I cant keep that kind of play for whole match. Next to test is cyclone which is supposed to have livelier feel and more ball pocketing. If BPR feels same as Cyclone with better play duration it would be next poly to test on my list :) .
 
Martves613 said:
And what is your verdict on BPR? Better Volkl Cyclone as someone described it earlier?
For my game I srsly need some pocketing feel. This week I tried RPM Blast and it is so muted and dead that i just cant feel the ball in stringbed. With tons of spin and pace it softens up, but I cant keep that kind of play for whole match. Next to test is cyclone which is supposed to have livelier feel and more ball pocketing. If BPR feels same as Cyclone with better play duration it would be next poly to test on my list :) .
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I was an avid cyclone user but it has been a while. My thoughts could be muddied...cyclone had more direct feel and crispness. BPR seems to have a greasy coating kind of like Luxilon ALU and a bit muted compared to cyclone. I haven't played with RPM Blast that much so I can't state any comparisons.
 
Martves613 said:
And what is your verdict on BPR? Better Volkl Cyclone as someone described it earlier?
For my game I srsly need some pocketing feel. This week I tried RPM Blast and it is so muted and dead that i just cant feel the ball in stringbed. With tons of spin and pace it softens up, but I cant keep that kind of play for whole match. Next to test is cyclone which is supposed to have livelier feel and more ball pocketing. If BPR feels same as Cyclone with better play duration it would be next poly to test on my list :) .
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If you are really interested in pocketing sensation, I would strongly recommend RS Lyon or Grapplesnake Tour Sniper. I have been playing a lot with the latter recently, great string.
 
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