Titan Natural Gut 17g/Head Rip Control 17g playtesting...

[ricardo]

Frame: Wilson KFive 108 with Triad technology (for tennis/golfers elbow)
Tension:
Mains: Titan Natural Gut 17g @42 lbs (freshly strung)
Cross: Head Rip Control 17g @38 lbs (freshly strung)

Stringing
No problem stringing Titan natural gut 17g ($19.99) using Gamma X2

String Savers
I put 52 babolat elastocross ($7.95) string savers on the sweetspot: 10 on each #1 mains, 8 on each #2 and #3 mains.

stringing complaints:
1. The Titan gut string lenght (40 ft) is actually less than 40 ft. It is only about 39.5 ft. (6" short). I cut it in half and barely have about 1.5" for the gripper.
2. There is a lot more string ghosting compared to the Babolat Tonic 16g.

Cost of hybrid
$13.00 Not bad at all for 70% gut playability. Babolat Xcel 17g full bed cost me $18.00 and i prefer the Titan mains hybrid. The only big question now is: How long will Titan gut mains last???

Day 1 (3-18-11)
I hit for about 3 hours using moderate topspin on both wings. This is the best string setup that i used on my wilson kfive 108 in terms of comfort, playability, spin, and power. I noticed more spin and controlled power. Most important of all, my golfer's elbow did not complain as much.

Minimal fraying on mains/crosses after 3 hours. Head Rip Control 17g showed more fraying than Titan Gut 17g.

Day 2 (4-7-11), 5 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying.

Day 3 (4-8-11), 7 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying on mains/crosses (titan gut/head rip control).

Day 4 (4-11-11), 9 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying on mains/crosses (titan gut/head rip control).

Day 5 (4-12-11), 11 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying on mains (titan gut). however, crosses (head rip control) is showing more fraying and coating is peeling.

Day 6 (4-13-11), 13 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying on mains (titan gut). however, crosses (head rip control) is showing more and more fraying and coating is peeling. Looks like the Head Rip control will break first.

Day 7 (4-15-11), 15 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying on mains (titan gut). however, crosses (head rip control) is showing more and more fraying and coating is peeling. Looks like the Head Rip control will break first.

Day 8 (4-19-11), 17 hours so far on Titan gut...
I hit for about 2 hours. Still minimal fraying on mains (titan gut). however, crosses (head rip control) broke. Re-strung just the crosses using Technifibre E-Matrix. Continued to use the old Titan gut 17g. See this link for continuation: http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=377260&highlight=titan+gut+17g

 

[alidisperanza]

42 in a 108 frame?!?:shock::shock::shock:

That must be a howitzer to play with. Jokes aside-- you're lucky you string under 50. I had nothing but issues with Titan. I'm a bit shocked TW still stocks it. The few sets that I've strung were dry out of the package, poorly coated, consistency wasn't great and a PITA to string. I'm normally careful with gut but this was really rather ridiculous.

Playing with it:

Full bed-- hated it and cut it out. It creaked and croaked and didn't do anything "magical" for me. Syn Gut played better for 16.00 cheaper.

Mains/Poly crosses-- Nothing special, I'd prefer a slippery syn gut. 2/3 frames strung popped IN my bag without ever playing them. VERY frustrating

MSV Hex/ Titan crosses: Nice-- This setup was solid. It wasn't VS on the crosses but not bad for 20.00. Good spin with a nice temperament for feel. The down side? I popped one frame in 45 minutes and the other in 1.5 hrs. Major bummer.

In all, I prefer Gaucho Gut for cheap econo-gut. I'm pretty sure just about every gut I've tried (short of uncoated gut) plays better than Titan though. Perhaps it's a better fit at lower tensions, but it played very poorly at 58

Just my .02

 

[ricardo]

42 in a 108 frame?!?:shock::shock::shock:

That must be a howitzer to play with.

Just my .02

A natural gut strung @40lbs is less powerful than when it is strung @51-61 lbs. This applies to most (95%) natural gut strings. This also apply to most polys, multi's and synthetic guts. If you string lower than 50 lbs, you get a less powerful stringbed.
Source: http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/reporter.php

I just bought the Titan 17g a week ago and the quality looks similar to Babolat Tonic ball feel (16g). Titan is smooth and slippery and the string friction is very low.

Maybe what you described are older versions of Titan gut. Give them another try.

if Titan gut 17g last at least 30 hours, i will use them again or maybe buy the thicker versions (15L or 16g)

 

[alidisperanza]

A natural gut strung @40lbs is less powerful than when it is strung @51-61 lbs. This applies to most (95%) natural gut strings. This also apply to most polys, multi's and synthetic guts. If you string lower than 50 lbs, you get a less powerful stringbed.
Source: http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/reporter.php

I just bought the Titan 17g a week ago and the quality looks similar to Babolat Tonic ball feel (16g). Titan is smooth and slippery and the string friction is very low.

Maybe what you described are older versions of Titan gut. Give them another try.

if Titan gut 17g last at least 30 hours, i will use them again or maybe buy the thicker versions (15L or 16g)

Interesting find on the TW energy return-- I'd have to try that out for myself to fully believe it. What I meant by lucky stringing at low tensions is that I had nothing but issues stringing it at higher tensions including unraveling. Note: I have been stringing gut for years now both privately and for a club. Perhaps they have improved their quality but the packs that I tried 3 years ago left a very bad taste in my mouth. Kudos to you if you can pull 30 hrs in that frame!

 

[ricardo]

15 hours and counting: Titan Gut 17g

So far i already played Titan gut for 15 hours. It is amazing. After 15 hours of moderate topspin no visible sign of fraying at all. In contrast, the Head Rip Control 17g that i used on the crosses shows moderate fraying: i can clearly see the multi-filament fibers coming out of various spots in the sweetspot.

In comparison, i break the following strings (all 17g on the same racket) as follows:

- IsoSpeed Pro - 9 hours
- Head FXP Power - 7 hours
- Babolat Xcel Premium - 12 hours

It is good i tried Titan gut in spite of the mostly negative reviews that i read about it.

 

[The_Question]

I've been using Titan gut for about 2 years now. It's great, and very underrated. There are tons of bad reviews on them, but I think it's people stringing too high on the tension and mishandling them.

However 42lbs is really low, but certainly won't break them easily either.

 

[ricardo]

Titan Natural Gut 17g still going....

After 17 hours, the crosses (Head Rip Control 17g) broke near the sweetspot due to fraying.

However, the mains (Titan Natural gut 17g) still doesn't show notching and only minimal fraying. Tension is still good. Because of this, i decided to continue using the Titan gut 17g and re-string only the crosses with another multi: Technifibre E-Matrix 17g..

 

[Lambsscroll]

I've been using Titan gut for about 2 years now. It's great, and very underrated. There are tons of bad reviews on them, but I think it's people stringing too high on the tension and mishandling them.

However 42lbs is really low, but certainly won't break them easily either.

Totally true. When I was stringing Titan 16g at 61 pounds it would start unraveling after 3 days. Now at 49 pounds and 6 hours of hitting I hardly see any fraying.

 

[louis netman]

I found the Titan main / Rip Control setup to play well. RC crosses would break after 2 hrs. I ended up stringing the Xs twice with each set of gut for a total of about 4 hrs for the whole deal. Kind of a PITA.

I do not know how everybody gets so much time out of their gut. If I got that much time, I would use full top of the line VS gut. I don't know what the deal is :-(

I break 17g gut main w/synth Xs within 3-4hrs and have been for years. My yearly string bill is ridiculous!

I use Prince PRTis (16x20) at around 58# and am an old-school topspin/slice player with average swing speed...

Yes, I've tried poly in the Xs and I get more string life, but I can't stand the "dead" feel...

 

[ricardo]

I found the Titan main / Rip Control setup to play well. RC crosses would break after 2 hrs. I ended up stringing the Xs twice with each set of gut for a total of about 4 hrs for the whole deal. Kind of a PITA.

I do not know how everybody gets so much time out of their gut. If I got that much time, I would use full top of the line VS gut. I don't know what the deal is :-(

I break 17g gut main w/synth Xs within 3-4hrs and have been for years. My yearly string bill is ridiculous!

I use Prince PRTis (16x20) at around 58# and am an old-school topspin/slice player with average swing speed...

Yes, I've tried poly in the Xs and I get more string life, but I can't stand the "dead" feel...

I think there are several reasons why i don't break strings as fast as some people do:

Racket stiffness
My racket frame (wilson KFive 108) stiffness is rated at 50 by TW. I believe that more flexible frames absorb more energy compared to stiffer frame, thus strings breaks faster in stiffer frames, all things being equal.

String tension
The higher the string tension, the higher the chance of breaking the string.

As a matter of fact, you can break your string while stringing at a very high tension (over 60). I think some NG comes with a warning in the packaging: Do not string over 60 lbs. 58 lbs is very close to this recommended maximum tension.

When you hit the ball at medium swing speed, you add about 21, 36, and 47 lbs to the tension for gut, nylon, and poly respectively during impact. If your string tension is high to begin with, you are more likely to break your string prematurely during play.

If you hit the ball at a fast swing speed, then the increase lbs at impact is much higher

String savers
I use babolat string savers. I put 10 on each #1 mains, and 8 on each #2 and #3 mains (sweetspot area, a total of 6 main strings).

Even after 30 hours, my mains doesn't show any notching where string savers are installed. there is minimal notching on the outer mains. i usually hit the string saver area 95% of the time. I usually break the #9,10,11,12 crosses at #1 and #2 mains. I can see the fraying mostly around this area.

I usually see signs of fraying in my crosses before they break. Sometimes, depending on the amount of fraying, i cut the crosses out before they actually break. This way, i can save the string savers and re-use them in my next string job.

hope this helps...