That bag was made for the Prince Boron. The Boron was $500 back in the day and likely because it came with a full leather bag and also a leather keychain.I`ve just acquired my first POG and I think I`ve identified it (thanks to some of Sanglier`s postings) as a type 1 model made by Grafalloy.
I`m still unusure as to whether it is107 or 110 sq inch head tho.
IIt came with a really nice fully-lined bag which feels/looks like a type of tan coloured leather (? ) which darkens if you rub a wet finger over it.
It has no markings on the frame other than the Prince and Graphite on the face of the frame.
It has one sticker on the side of the shaft which lists patents and the seemingly crazy stringing tension guide of 72-80lbs !
The strings look/sound pretty taught so I`m not planning a re-string but has anyone any had experience of re-stringing at anywhere close to those high tensions ?
It sounds like a recipe for disaster to me .
It will get a hit tomorrow and I`m hoping it`s as enjoyable as many of my other early/mid 80`s graphite sticks ..most of which are far lower head sizes.
Thanks, I got a great bonus then
The POG was always called “110” but I think if measured it actually comes out as 107sq in. Just like the Series 90 Prince frames are actually 93sq in, but for marketing reasons they thought 90 sounded better.
yup! nice review, he really echoed everything what I also appreciate about the frame !
Now you made me want to string my POG MP with soft polly ( but necesarlly in Prince synt gut yellow colour - maybe Gosen G tour
Its not thats
I owe 340 gramm version and i think reduced mass and open string pattern are.main reasons why this rackets is.kinda usable for modern tennis
Its not that simple with the swingweight calculation
Here are two extreme examples of swinweight differences while keeping same balance point
358 sw is for 356 gramm racket
)
I have 3 or 4 in my rack always looking at me...and teasing me to pick them up...
Couldnt resist and hit couple balls with it. Super solid racket even at 0 celsius degree.
I`m going to put my racket in for a restring but is the recommend very high tension range really viable on such an old frame?
The range seems way higher than most other early graphite sticks I have.
It`s taken me a while to find one and I`d be well miffed if it cracked during a re-string.
Does any one have experience of having one re-strung lately?
Most of my 80`s graphites have been re-strung in the 48-55 lb range depend on makers recommendations and taking off a maybe a few pounds to allow for frame age.
Should I risk 60-65lbs ?
Keep in mind that head tape will up your swingweight around 6-8 points depending upon brand and how much you use. I had to replace the bumper guard on one of my PS classics and was out of the black originals at the time, so I had to use one from an ultra kevlar of the same era. They're a touch narrower but they work just fine. The white was driving me nuts though, so I used a piece of black head tape to cover it. SW went up 8 points. I'm not good enough or sensitive enough to really care but some might!
You can always string it lower with some polly strings like im going to do with mineI`m going to put my racket in for a restring but is the recommend very high tension range really viable on such an old frame?
The range seems way higher than most other early graphite sticks I have.
It`s taken me a while to find one and I`d be well miffed if it cracked during a re-string.
Does any one have experience of having one re-strung lately?
Most of my 80`s graphites have been re-strung in the 48-55 lb range depend on makers recommendations and taking off a maybe a few pounds to allow for frame age.
Should I risk 60-65lbs ?
Thanks for the suggestion Passingshot 78, I`m often a bit limited for string choice at my local re-stringers as he seem`s to be a bit old school and maybe if he strings relatively few rackets that he gets via my local independant sports shop (mostly football/cricket stuff) he doesnt carry a huge range like a Pro shop.
POG Mp have open string pattern Also its pretty heavy racket. So i wouldnt be very worried about lack of comfort with pollys at lower tension
I have measured some 25 one-stripe POGs so far, enough to produce some meaningful statistics for a change.
Two of the racquets had RAs in the 30s. I am quite convinced that this is the result of hidden cracks, so they are not included in the analysis.
Of the remaining 23, the lowest reading is 48 RA, the highest is 67 RA (a mint, very early Fansteel), producing a mean of 59.6 RA, a median of 59.5 RA, and a standard deviation of 5.27, over an almost perfectly symmetrical normal distribution curve.
For anyone who thinks old school racquets behaved more consistently than their modern counterpart. Think again!
The 48 RA POGs exhibit other unusual features that suggest a non-standard origin. If we left those out, the lowest RA becomes 52, the mean shifts up to 60.6 RA, the median shifts to 61.0 RA, with the standard deviation tightening to 3.99, over an even more perfectly symmetrical normal distribution curve.
I have only measured a single 4-stripe POG, which is really an entirely different frame from the US original in terms of manufacturing protocol. It came out to 62 RA, well within 1 SD of the average for all POGs.
Im curious how does these rsckets behave ? Theres tons of vibration or they are just dead ?
They have noticeably more give than the other frames, but the vibration isn't bad, because the increased flexibility is not uniform throughout the frame (which would indeed increase the amplitude of frame vibrations), but is limited to the areas where the frame integrity is likely compromised. On one of these racquets (both are early Fansteel, just like the 67 RA unit), several squared string holes in the shoulder region appear partially collapsed (probably the result of one too many string job at the higher end of the original recommended tension range). My guess is that these collapsing holes, or the hidden internal damages reflected by them, are responsible for the low RA readings.
As for the POG 90, I don't have nearly as many of them to conduct a proper statistical analysis, but the ones I have measured averaged 69 RA, with a low of 67 RA, and a high of just over 71 RA. This is certainly more consistent than what I got from the US-made OS units, likely thanks to the completely different production method Kunnan developed to make them, but I would have to measure many more examples to have a similarly meaningful result.
My comment regarding old school racquets being no more consistent in specs than modern ones isn't aimed at any specific make or model; it is the general conclusion I came to after measuring over 1100 racquets from different eras and origins.
There certainly were exceptions, whether due to particularly stringent manufacturing protocol or QC criteria. The 1977 Dunlop "Graphite", for instance, is an exceptionally consistent frame in terms of its flex, even though it came in multiple weights, and the balance can be a bit varied. I have measured 10 of them so far (not as many as the POGs, but these are a lot harder to come by). They produced a mean of 74.4 RA, a median of 74.5 RA, an SD of only 0.9, with a minimum of 73.0, a maximum of 75.7, and a skewness of -0.38. Nothing else I have measured (with a comparable sample size) comes even close.
Just because the present is bad doesn't mean the past is better, even though those of us who are in the declining phase of our lives tend to look back at those good ol' days with more fondness than they perhaps deserve (especially when the present seems to be losing the plot).
I like your McEnroe forehand.
?
On the takeback at least, it bares some resemblance to Mac’s.
