I have been cutting out crosses, and leaving the vs team 17g mains, with strings like alu, adrenaline, rpm blast, blackcode, and the vs team retains almost all of its tension. You cannot do this without first placing the stick in the stringer before cutting out the crosses. Each time, the vs feels great. It also has great spin, great power, great feel/control/softness. Every time I've tried this with other mains, the mains have lost too much of their tension. This allows me to extend the life of the vs in terms of its best feel. I like the blackcode crosses.
Rpm blast is a very slippery string, good for a cross with ashway kevlar 16g, just like blackcode..... (Reduces notching!) Rpm blast is softer and duller feel, not as crisp as bc. Bc 18g has more power, less durable than 17g or 16g bc... 17g has more control and less trampoline than bc 18g. Bc reels ($175) cost less than rpm blast reels ($225).
Vs team 17g mains/alu versus vs team 17g/blackcode crosses: prefer the bc. I keet the same mains, vs team 17g, and cut out alu power, and replace it with adrenaline lux, and replace that adren. with blackcode at 65lbs/crosses, and the feel has been the best so far with those same vs team 17g set of mains. I was able to make shots on the dead run, against a fitter/faster opp., who has more match play, and put the ball away on him many times, and ace him/control him with my serve, better with the blackcode crosses, than the alu/adren. crosses, with the same set of vs team, even though bc was the third set of crosses, in the same set of vs mains! Why? Bc had better feel than the alu.
The dwell time for rpm was good, but did not give more control than bc, it was the other way around. Bc gave more control with similar spin. You know you have a perfect string job, when your control is deadly on the run, and the bed feels like a crisp yet solid, yet higher treble feel, like a ping thud, rather than a pong thud on the bed. It feels like the string is crumpling on the ball, holding it for awhile, tightening around the ball, and grabbing the edges of the ball, and then the ball has jet power on its edges. If you were to strike a piece of metal with a hammer, the tones would be diff. for each type of metal, and last longer or not, depending on the metal make up and shape. The best feel for me is like a clink! with increasing freq. tone as the ball settles into the string bed. So, as the ball hits, the tone/feel is at first wide and crisp, and then rapidly the tone increases in pitch/freq. as the ball compresses, and then rockets out: CllllllliiinnnkkkkkkkkkKKKK! It's the KKKKK on the end, that makes the feel deadly. The alu is more like a pong on the end, if that makes any sense.
07-13-2006, 09:03 PM
I think you have it the other way around; I think it's 3 cows for enough for 40 ft. I may be wrong - but it's what I hear.
How Many Cows Does It Take To String A Tennis Racquet?
How many cows does it take to string a tennis racquet? According to Professor Rod Cross of the University of Sydney, an expert on the physics and technology of tennis, the answer is 3. Many top professional tennis players still prefer to string their racquets with natural gut instead of synthetics due to natural gut's soft feel, high elasticity and ability to retain tension. However, this is not an alternative for everyone since natural gut is quite expensive. Why? Cross reports there is a great deal of manual time and labor in removing, slitting, washing, twisting, drying and polishing natural gut strings, hence the expense.
Natural gut tennis strings are made from a cow's (or sometimes a bull's) small intestine. Part of the digestive tract, the small intestine is a long flexible tube which expands or contracts to accommodate ingested food. The intestine of a cow or sheep is about 120 feet long. However, only the thin outermost stretchy layer of the intestine, the serosa, is used for making tennis strings. Consequently, it requires roughly 3 cow's intestines to string a tennis racquet - not because the intestine is too short but because the serosa is very thin. The serosa is removed and cut into long ribbons which are cleaned through a series of salt and chemical baths. About 18 ribbons are assembled and twisted as a long string and dried under tension in a temperature and humidity controlled room. The string is polished into a smooth, round and clear string. A protective coating (like polyurethane) is added to reduce abrasion and prevent moisture from entering the string.
'The serosa of sheep and pig intestines would also work, however they are used for sausage skins, so the manufacturers prefer to use the more readily available and slightly stronger intestines from cows,' said Cross. 'Many people think that natural gut is made from cats. However, the small intestine of a cat is only 4 feet long and therefore too short to make a tennis string.' According to Cross, the word 'catgut' appears to have evolved from the use of natural gut in a musical instrument called a 'kit' or perhaps from the name of the town in Germany where the strings were made.": from others.
Rpm blast is a very slippery string, good for a cross with ashway kevlar 16g, just like blackcode..... (Reduces notching!) Rpm blast is softer and duller feel, not as crisp as bc. Bc 18g has more power, less durable than 17g or 16g bc... 17g has more control and less trampoline than bc 18g. Bc reels ($175) cost less than rpm blast reels ($225).
Vs team 17g mains/alu versus vs team 17g/blackcode crosses: prefer the bc. I keet the same mains, vs team 17g, and cut out alu power, and replace it with adrenaline lux, and replace that adren. with blackcode at 65lbs/crosses, and the feel has been the best so far with those same vs team 17g set of mains. I was able to make shots on the dead run, against a fitter/faster opp., who has more match play, and put the ball away on him many times, and ace him/control him with my serve, better with the blackcode crosses, than the alu/adren. crosses, with the same set of vs team, even though bc was the third set of crosses, in the same set of vs mains! Why? Bc had better feel than the alu.
The dwell time for rpm was good, but did not give more control than bc, it was the other way around. Bc gave more control with similar spin. You know you have a perfect string job, when your control is deadly on the run, and the bed feels like a crisp yet solid, yet higher treble feel, like a ping thud, rather than a pong thud on the bed. It feels like the string is crumpling on the ball, holding it for awhile, tightening around the ball, and grabbing the edges of the ball, and then the ball has jet power on its edges. If you were to strike a piece of metal with a hammer, the tones would be diff. for each type of metal, and last longer or not, depending on the metal make up and shape. The best feel for me is like a clink! with increasing freq. tone as the ball settles into the string bed. So, as the ball hits, the tone/feel is at first wide and crisp, and then rapidly the tone increases in pitch/freq. as the ball compresses, and then rockets out: CllllllliiinnnkkkkkkkkkKKKK! It's the KKKKK on the end, that makes the feel deadly. The alu is more like a pong on the end, if that makes any sense.
07-13-2006, 09:03 PM
I think you have it the other way around; I think it's 3 cows for enough for 40 ft. I may be wrong - but it's what I hear.
How Many Cows Does It Take To String A Tennis Racquet?
How many cows does it take to string a tennis racquet? According to Professor Rod Cross of the University of Sydney, an expert on the physics and technology of tennis, the answer is 3. Many top professional tennis players still prefer to string their racquets with natural gut instead of synthetics due to natural gut's soft feel, high elasticity and ability to retain tension. However, this is not an alternative for everyone since natural gut is quite expensive. Why? Cross reports there is a great deal of manual time and labor in removing, slitting, washing, twisting, drying and polishing natural gut strings, hence the expense.
Natural gut tennis strings are made from a cow's (or sometimes a bull's) small intestine. Part of the digestive tract, the small intestine is a long flexible tube which expands or contracts to accommodate ingested food. The intestine of a cow or sheep is about 120 feet long. However, only the thin outermost stretchy layer of the intestine, the serosa, is used for making tennis strings. Consequently, it requires roughly 3 cow's intestines to string a tennis racquet - not because the intestine is too short but because the serosa is very thin. The serosa is removed and cut into long ribbons which are cleaned through a series of salt and chemical baths. About 18 ribbons are assembled and twisted as a long string and dried under tension in a temperature and humidity controlled room. The string is polished into a smooth, round and clear string. A protective coating (like polyurethane) is added to reduce abrasion and prevent moisture from entering the string.
'The serosa of sheep and pig intestines would also work, however they are used for sausage skins, so the manufacturers prefer to use the more readily available and slightly stronger intestines from cows,' said Cross. 'Many people think that natural gut is made from cats. However, the small intestine of a cat is only 4 feet long and therefore too short to make a tennis string.' According to Cross, the word 'catgut' appears to have evolved from the use of natural gut in a musical instrument called a 'kit' or perhaps from the name of the town in Germany where the strings were made.": from others.
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