Solinco Confidential vs Solinco Tour Bite
- Thread starter Michael7
- Start date
flanker2000fr
Hall of Fame
I found Tour Bite more powerful and stiffer than Confidential, and did not care for it at all.
Nate7-5
Hall of Fame
The first thing I strung my VC95 with was Confidential 1.15 and I played the best tennis of my life.
I bought more 1.15 and 1.20 Confidential. Will certainly try Tour Bite at some point as well. Also on the VC95 to try list: Lux Element, Black Knight, Tourna Silver7, PolyTour Rev, nat gut/PolyTour Fire or 4g Soft.
I bought more 1.15 and 1.20 Confidential. Will certainly try Tour Bite at some point as well. Also on the VC95 to try list: Lux Element, Black Knight, Tourna Silver7, PolyTour Rev, nat gut/PolyTour Fire or 4g Soft.
flanker2000fr
Hall of Fame
4G Soft is a very nice string, but only comes in 16L (1.25mm), so it might be a bit thick for your VC95's 16x20 pattern, but well worth a try. Another one I found to perform well in tigher string patterns is Ice Code 17.
happyandbob
Legend
TWU db says confidential is stiffer and holds tension better
| String | Gauge | Stiffness | Tension Loss Pct | Energy Return Pct | Spin Potential |
| Solinco Tour Bite 16 | 1.3 | 202.9 | 47.1 | 85 | 6.7 |
| Solinco Confidential 16 (1.30) | 1.3 | 222.3 | 22.2 | 89.5 | 6.4 |
Turbo-87
G.O.A.T.
What tension did you try on the Confidential?
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
Which is the most powerful solinco poly ??
TennisManiac
Hall of Fame
I played with both for a year and I can tell you that Tour Bite is slightly stiffer and will hold tension a bit longer. Confidential is a tad bit softer feeling but still considered "stiff" for a poly. Both offer the exact same level of spin potential. Confidential seems to pocket the ball a millisecond longer. With Tour Bite... the ball is in and out of the string bed quicker, resulting in a faster ball through the court. This isn't just my opinion. These are the facts between these two strings.
S
Slicehand
Guest
To me, confidential is deader, which i like, i found tour bite extremely stiff, i liked the ball that i was producing with it but to me it lost its properties a bit faster than confidential, confidential is the best string i found when i was looking for something that didnt have the trampoline effect when it lost tension
Wait what , confidential turned springy and trampoline like to me after 5 hours. Confidential 16L
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
which is more powerful ?
TennisManiac
Hall of Fame
Define powerful
S
Slicehand
Guest
Tour bite
S
Slicehand
Guest
Well thats not my experience at all, i use confidential 1.30, maybe your racquet is already powerful? I dont know, but to me its the deader string i have played with, i havent tried a lot tough, tour bite, cyclone, hyper g, black code, red code, and some more i cant remember, but each racquet i guess can react differently
This is what I find as well with 17g. But it is so so good for those 5 hours.
Its not really that bad afterwards but it's just not as sweet as it was for control and feel, and the need to restring is always on the back of my mind. But usually im too lazy for a preemptive restring so i wait till it snaps.
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
According to TWU string comparison, confidential is virtually identical in power level ?? seen by energy return numbers. and Spin potential is much higher with confidential. is this true in reality playtest ?
S
Slicehand
Guest
Maybe, i talk about my perception, and my racquet, which is a prince textreme tour 100 310g, to me, tour bit has a little more power, more spin, and feels quite stiffer, and lost its properties a little faster, confidential feels deader, a little less spin, more control when hit flat, less lively, doesnt change the feeling suddenly even when its worn out, more consistent in general, im talking about 1.30 gauge in both strings
Edit: i just re read whatyou said about spin potencial, thats just false, tour bite has more bite, that is not even an opinion, and i dont quite remember now but when i read the reviews about the strings, i think they put tour bite with more spin than confidential
Last edited by a moderator:
happyandbob
Legend
The TWU prof says string power is a combination of stiffness and energy return, where stiffness may actually be the more important number. In stiffer strings, more of the energy from the impact is lost in compressing the ball (which doesn't trampoline as much as the strings do).
Here are the solinco polys in 1.3 and 1.25. I put a swag in the far right with Energy Return Pct / Stiffness as a possible strawman estimate for "power". (so the "power" goes up as energy return pct increases or stiffness decreases). But take it with a grain of salt, the TWU database is showing tour bite 16L as stiffer than tour bite 16, which seems improbable.
| String | Material | Gauge | Stiffness | Tension Loss Pct | Energy Return Pct | Energy/Stiff |
| Solinco Hyper-G-Soft 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 172 | 28.7 | 88 | 51 |
| Solinco Tour Bite Soft 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 192 | 29.3 | 88.5 | 46 |
| Solinco Tour Bite Diamond Rough 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 191.5 | 47 | 85.7 | 45 |
| Solinco Outlast 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 208 | 28.8 | 88.7 | 43 |
| Solinco Revolution 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 212.6 | 28.4 | 88.5 | 42 |
| Solinco Hyper-G 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 218.3 | 24.7 | 89.5 | 41 |
| Solinco Tour Bite 16L (1.25) | Polyester | 1.25 | 237.7 | 25.2 | 88.4 | 37 |
| Solinco Tour Bite 16 Soft | Polyester | 1.3 | 184 | 50.3 | 83.7 | 45 |
| Solinco Tour Bite Diamond Rough 16 (1.30) | Polyester | 1.3 | 192.6 | 52 | 82.1 | 43 |
| Solinco Outlast 16 | Polyester | 1.3 | 208 | 47.3 | 86.7 | 42 |
| Solinco Tour Bite 16 | Polyester | 1.3 | 202.9 | 47.1 | 85 | 42 |
| Solinco Barb Wire 16 | Polyester | 1.3 | 214.3 | 40.2 | 86.9 | 41 |
| Solinco Confidential 16 (1.30) | Polyester | 1.3 | 222.3 | 22.2 | 89.5 | 40 |
| Solinco Revolution 16 | Polyester | 1.3 | 215.5 | 47.4 | 84.3 | 39 |
Last edited:
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
WOW,,, so Hyper G soft is the Most powerful poly in this group ?? i certainly didn't know that
Tronco20
Rookie
I've been playing both in both 1.25 and 1.20 gauge and that description is the closest to how Ifeel about the two strings, with only one exception: I've never considered tour bite stiff, to me it's both crisp and comfortable. The rest I agree 100%. Confidential is the more stable one, while Tour bite feels simply unique and best the first couple of hours, then the change is a little too drastic, still good but not great.
if I had to choose, I'd pick Confidential for its reliability. Btw. Revolution feels very similar to Confidential, both are a little dead, it's hard to hit the ball too long, and both are very spinny
S
Slicehand
Guest
I didnt find tour bite totally unconfortable, but it did feel like kevlar or something like that, definetly the stiffest poly ive tried, much mire so than confidential, cyclone or hyper g
Matthew Lee
Professional
Been using a lot of Solinco strings and they all feel the same at some point. Some of them feel softer and/or more muted than others, but I start to ignore everything and focus solely on swinging as hard as I can at the ball.
That being said, Confidential felt slightly softer and more muted compared to Tour Bite, with similar levels of spin. Did enjoy the sleek black/dark gray color, though.
That being said, Confidential felt slightly softer and more muted compared to Tour Bite, with similar levels of spin. Did enjoy the sleek black/dark gray color, though.
Fed Kennedy
Legend
Everything here is accurate
WYK
Legend
I would say TB125 and 130 are rather firm. But TB120 is a completely different string. It is far less stiff than it's 125 counterpart, and doesn't hold tension anywhere near as well(but feels good and controlled as it does fade away). It feels a lot like VCT 125, but with better tension maintenance. I like TB120 in 18X20 racquets on top of MSV CoFocus. A very controlled and pocketing experience.
In my 16X19 Blades, I use TB125 at 52lbs on top of Yonex Poly Tough to deaden it up. I feel TB125 is one of the best strings currently available.
Confidential 120 holds tension far, far better than TB120. In my Phantoms and Blades, I find I just prefer the feel of TB. I had a Phantom with Confidential 120 in it in storage for 2 years. When I came back to it, the tension felt like it was just off the stringer last week. I played a friendly with it, then cut it out. New or old, I am not a fan of the feel of Confidential. I feel it's performance is rather good, though.
Another thing is HyperG, CFDL, and TB all sound very different from one another. I suspect this also changes people's perceptions. To me, Confidential has a very plush sound to it by comparison; almost like nylon. HyperG is crisp sounding(and feeling to me, at least at first), and TB sounds like you expect a poly to sound. I rather like the sound of Confidential, but I did learn to play when everyone had nylon. I can see old school players preferring confidential purely for the sound.
Of all these, I also feel TB and HyperG break-in their first few hits. That's OK, I am also warming up during this time. Confidential, to me, feels good to go right from the start. I get about 4-5 hours out of all of them before I want to restring, even so I am often at 8-10hrs before I get around to it if I am playing socially. I am an older player, so only play 3-4X wk at most. On some I can mebbe go longer, but I have my own strings and machine, so I try to keep my stringbeds more consistent. If I had more funds, I would play with a new bed of TB 125 every time.
Parabellum
Professional
Mayami Tour Hex plays amazing in the VCore 95, it was my string of choice when I used the stick.
Aestheticsaboveallelse
Legend
what tension and racquet?
Bender
G.O.A.T.
Pure Strike 3rd Gen 16x19 @54 lbs
I agree with TheBoom on HG, TB, and Conf.. Also, Confidential seems to play the most different once it notches.
I didn’t notice notching as much with Rev as with the other three. For me, though, Rev had a lot less bite and a lot more pocketing. Even though the numbers say it’s stiff, I found it to be springier and thus lacking in control compared to other Solinco polys. Perhaps it’s just because it doesn’t hold tension as well.
I didn’t notice notching as much with Rev as with the other three. For me, though, Rev had a lot less bite and a lot more pocketing. Even though the numbers say it’s stiff, I found it to be springier and thus lacking in control compared to other Solinco polys. Perhaps it’s just because it doesn’t hold tension as well.
