The gut/poly thread

FIRETennis

Professional
What kind of playability decrease do you notice with gut/poly in cold temperature or transporting them in the cold?

Personally I've traveled with them so around 15-20' in mid-30s temps and a few hours in the luggage hold of the plane.
The frame feels ice cold when I take them out of the suitcase.
After transporting them in those temps.... during indoor play in normal temps 60s... it feels I hit super long, high launch angle and less spin :/ I prefer to use poly at lower tension in the cold.
 

stapletonj

Hall of Fame
Think of those WWII bomber videos (B-17) where the waist gunners had those electrically heated suits and it was still FREEEEZZZING.
Like 30 below freezing. And going from 70 to that and back in a couple hours.
CANT be good for strings (esp gut) or frames either one. carry on is the way (at least when I was young, I haven't flown in years and years)
 

1hander

Rookie
I'm currently using a Wilson Blade V9 strung with Tour Bite at 53 lbs. I recently got gifted a Wilson nCode 95 strung with Champion's Choice and absolutely loved it. I have been wanting to try a natural gut setup for fun—would Tour Bite pair well with natural gut, or would it be better to go with ALU Power instead?
 

veelium

Hall of Fame
I'm currently using a Wilson Blade V9 strung with Tour Bite at 53 lbs. I recently got gifted a Wilson nCode 95 strung with Champion's Choice and absolutely loved it. I have been wanting to try a natural gut setup for fun—would Tour Bite pair well with natural gut, or would it be better to go with ALU Power instead?
Tour bite round or tour bite diamond rough. Normal tour bite isn't kind to soft strings like gut.
If you never break strings it's probably ok but I wouldn't recommend it.
 

1hander

Rookie
Tour bite round or tour bite diamond rough. Normal tour bite isn't kind to soft strings like gut.
If you never break strings it's probably ok but I wouldn't recommend it.
Thanks! What gut gives the most crispy feeling? I found that the blade gets mushy so I like stiffer strings in it.
 

veelium

Hall of Fame
Thanks! What gut gives the most crispy feeling? I found that the blade gets mushy so I like stiffer strings in it.
Supposedly Luxilon is the stiffer gut but never tried it.
Babolat's gut is excellent and the "cheapest" option where I live so that's what I use.
 

J011yroger

Talk Tennis Guru
I'm currently using a Wilson Blade V9 strung with Tour Bite at 53 lbs. I recently got gifted a Wilson nCode 95 strung with Champion's Choice and absolutely loved it. I have been wanting to try a natural gut setup for fun—would Tour Bite pair well with natural gut, or would it be better to go with ALU Power instead?
Tour bite sucks.

J
 

LOBALOT

Legend
What kind of playability decrease do you notice with gut/poly in cold temperature or transporting them in the cold?

Personally I've traveled with them so around 15-20' in mid-30s temps and a few hours in the luggage hold of the plane.
The frame feels ice cold when I take them out of the suitcase.
After transporting them in those temps.... during indoor play in normal temps 60s... it feels I hit super long, high launch angle and less spin :/ I prefer to use poly at lower tension in the cold.

Exactly what you see if you string up gut and or gut/poly and then stick it in a frozen trunk and then warm it up again and hit with it.

The gut constricts/tightens in the cold. Then heat it up and it relaxes again and the tension is lost. If you feel like an experiment with an expensive set of gut check the tension before and after for yourself and you will see the difference.

Gut / poly is an awesome setup and if you treat it well.... keep the racquets at a pretty fixed temperature is one way... it will last you a decent amount of time.
 

veelium

Hall of Fame
As another recommendation, not sure if it has been mentioned in here before. There are oval strings from stringlab, called Orbitour.
Like rexxxer, they are produced by isospeed but comes in 3 different colours with different amounts of flatness.
I've tried silver (the flattest) and red (medium) for a few hours, both good. They both feel very similar to rexxxer, red maybe more but not sure I'd recognise the difference in a blind test.
 
I'm curious if anyone here has tried Solinco Hyper G ROUND as a cross here?

I'm looking for a new cross string after using the same set up for so many years (Kirschbaum Max Power cross). I don't know what to think of it
- Hyper G ROUND felt like it added a bit more air to my shots
- It "sounded" different, kind of sounded more plastic-like... if that makes sense
- I likely have had close to 10 hours in the current stringbed and I feel as if I am losing control. Do these strings die/sharp drop-off? It's very likely that I had a few bad days too in a row.

Thanks!
 

FIRETennis

Professional
Exactly what you see if you string up gut and or gut/poly and then stick it in a frozen trunk and then warm it up again and hit with it.

The gut constricts/tightens in the cold. Then heat it up and it relaxes again and the tension is lost. If you feel like an experiment with an expensive set of gut check the tension before and after for yourself and you will see the difference.

Gut / poly is an awesome setup and if you treat it well.... keep the racquets at a pretty fixed temperature is one way... it will last you a decent amount of time.
Jeez I didn't really use my brain then when I checked in my strung frames. Next time, on board or empty frames. Some low cost airlines complain about the frames so it's a bit of a hit and miss with the boarding crew (ie Ryanair).
 
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