Hi Jim, are you stringing the VS on a crank or constant pull ? Also, I hear pros/cons on pre stretching.....whats your opinion ? We are talking the non BT7 VS gut only , not other brands which may/may not be as elastic as VS. Thanks for any advise.
I use a CP machine.A high end electronic. VS is the non BT7, but my supply is going down.
As far as pre stretch, I never use the machines pre stretch feature, as you really are never sure that the string does go back to reference tension after the tension head goes back especially on the cross strings with all the friction of the crosses against the mains.You will get a higher string bed stiffness with this.I don't use this.
My take on nat. gut pre stretch is to just hand light prestretch only, just to take some of the coil memory out of the string. I really do not over due this, just enough to remove some, and certainly not all of the coil memory, as this should not change the characteristics of the gut, it just makes the string easier to string up.Manually pulling it, you get a feel for the string pulling enough to get a certain feel as it only removes some of the coil.
When you string a racquet there is the length of string between the machines clamp and the tension head that goes onto the next installed string position, and that amount of string is automatically prestretched with out any choice and that is a great amount of force more than I will ever hand pull the string in the beginning, this is why a light prestretch should not change the characteristics of the strung racquet as that automatic pre stretch (sort of speaking) is a whole lot more.
In essence the ligh prestretch only makes the stringing easier, as last thing you want to do is kink the string, and since it is just a light hand prestretch the strings hitting characteristics are the same.
Some here do not believe in hand pre stretch and string without this, and thats okay as well, but I do not agree with their reasoning as some here say a hand prestretch cannot be exactly duplicated, but it does not matter as it is light and the automatic prestretch I mentioned earlier is so much greater that this hand prestretch even if it varies from job to job a little does not really matter, but everyone has their opinions, this is just mine.
Hope this answers your question. Jim