Paint quality on new racquets..

[Hangman]

Is it just me or is the paint quality on new racquets seem to not be as durable as racquets from older years. I have several >15 year old Prince CTS racquets that have excellent paint quality. I play rough with them and scrape the sides and tops of the heads on the ground reaching for low balls and they seem to suffer very minimal paint chips and scratches. With my new Textreme series of racquets, I just barely look at them in a bad way and the paint just falls off. This goes the same for my 2014 Wilson Pro Staff 90 as well. I just add on some head guard tape and when I removed it a couple of days later, it peeled off the lettering on the paint. This has never happened on my old racquets.. It justs eems like the paint on the newer racquets are laser thin, whereas the my old CTS racquets have much thicker paint with a good layer of clear coat over them.

 

[joohan]

Depends on a company. Angell racquets have better paint than most of the cars do, Fischer racquets were not too shabby either, Dunlops were usually very good.

 

[Hangman]

Yeah, I guess I should have said Prince paint jobs, since all my new racquets have been Prince racquets with the exception of the Pro Staff 90.

 

[Attila_the_gorilla]

For me it seems a lot of times the glossy finish has poor adhesion with the undercoat or whatever layers are below. I have a couple of matte finished frames which don't seem to have paint issues.

 

[Backhanded Compliment]

For me it seems a lot of times the glossy finish has poor adhesion with the undercoat or whatever layers are below. I have a couple of matte finished frames which don't seem to have paint issues.

depends.. angells glossy is awesome just far and away the best

i find many matte pjs to be chippy... like babolat but pacific has good paint too.

 

[erroljr]

I have an XT Prestige S with some lead tape on. When I pulled some of the lead tape off, some of the text paint came right off with it

 

[Pleb123]

I have an XT Prestige S with some lead tape on. When I pulled some of the lead tape off, some of the text paint came right off with it

Exactly the same thing happened to me with the Head XT Prestige S on the glittery "G" at 12 o'clock .

 

[Doppelganger]

I've had some Yonex racquets chip like crazy. I guess they are notorious for that though. I am picking up a Head this week, hopefully it's a little better in that department!

 

[6august]

Exactly. My Ti Radical paint remains mint despite being used as my primary racquet - while the IG Radical, my secondary racquet, can be damaged from being pulled out from the bag~!

Among recent racquets, the Dunlop Biomimetic line has the best paint quality. Few days ago I accidentally dropped my racquet to the concrete floor and couldn't believe in my eyes when there's no single scratch!

 

[SpinToWin]

I have an XT Prestige S with some lead tape on. When I pulled some of the lead tape off, some of the text paint came right off with it

Exactly the same thing happened to me with the Head XT Prestige S on the glittery "G" at 12 o'clock .

This has been a problem since the YT version where they had HEAD in shiny lettering at 12 in the hoop. Lead tape would remove that completely, very poor quality.

 

[scotus]

Exactly. My Ti Radical paint remains mint despite being used as my primary racquet - while the IG Radical, my secondary racquet, can be damaged from being pulled out from the bag~!

Among recent racquets, the Dunlop Biomimetic line has the best paint quality. Few days ago I accidentally dropped my racquet to the concrete floor and couldn't believe in my eyes when there's no single scratch!

Ti Radical has one of the best paint jobs in my opinion. Not only was the paint strong, the mixture of black and grey colors camouflaged the scrapes so well that the racquet looked new all the time.

 

[scotus]

Yeah, I guess I should have said Prince paint jobs, since all my new racquets have been Prince racquets with the exception of the Pro Staff 90.

As one of the Prince engineers who visited here years ago to answer our questions made it abundantly clear with his flippant attitude, Prince no longer cares about the quality of the paint job. The best you can do is protect it with head protection tape.

 

[YarikA99]

All of the new yonex racquets that I've had, vcore tour f 93, AI 98, and DR 98, had poor paint right above the throat and it keeps wearing off just from being in my bag

 

[Backhanded Compliment]

All of the new yonex racquets that I've had, vcore tour f 93, AI 98, and DR 98, had poor paint right above the throat and it keeps wearing off just from being in my bag

I hate that... the old max 200g's had a problem with paint scuffing off just from being in the bag.

 

[Racketdesign]

The nylon based material made paint adhesion on the 200g a tricky thing. Slippery stuff that nylon. Feels good though

 

[JohnBPittsburgh]

I have several Textremes and the only one I have had trouble with is the 100P I have had 2 chip during stringing. One TT100T took a nasty cut out of the ground, filled it in with a black sharpie. The rest, all could be sold as mint. Oh, and my very first O3 White, I threw it in the air end over end (I was an idiot and just started playing...didn't know if I was going to stick with it or not) and it has a small scratch down to the graphite (same thing with a Kblade Team, and my Angell TC-100) But I don't smack the ground like the TW playtesters I am careful...but accidents happen. Also, my Max 200G hasn't seen much court time, it still is in mint condition, with all the labels/lettering intact!!

 

[robbo1970]

I recently picked up a new HM300G. Clearly one of the re-issues.

I was appalled by the paint work. The other Dunlops I have (Bio's) have excellent paintjobs. Strong thick paint, perfect graphics. This HM300G is such a disappointment in comparison.

The matte parts of the paint are lumpy and uneven. Small needle sized holes where the paint wasn't applied properly and the silver trim parts are uneven adhesive tape that feels like it could peel off from the slightest touch. It's not a fake, it's from a very reputable dealer, but it's just such poor quality. Not what I'd expect from Dunlop.

By comparison, Dunlop have two, what they call intermediate racquets because they are light at 290g strung, the Blackstorm 4D and Apex Power that have immaculate, top quality paintjobs. The Blackstorm 4D has the 4D braiding graphics, just like the old AG4D's and the Apex Power has the aeroskin bits, but both are of such a good quality paintjob. Both are also clearly from the Biomimetic 500 mold as well.

Well worth checking out for anyone wanting to customise a light racquet. Fantastic quality at bargain prices.