to cut out natural gut or not?

[strcmp]

Seeing as natural gut is quite expensive, do you ever cut out natural gut or do you just play with it until it basically breaks?

Have about 35-40+ hours (strung over a month ago) on this poly mains/natural gut crosses hybrid and the natural gut is pretty frayed with loose strands coming off, though not frayed enough to break it.
Guessing it is a 15g Nat Gut.

Debating whether to just cut it out and restring it or wait for the day the string pops
The strings have obviously lost some playability, but it's still OK enough for me to play with it.
It doesn't feel like poly/multi/synth gut where the racquet tension becomes super loose and totally unplayable over time.

 

[Crozzer95]

I cut it out, usually after about 10 hours as the poly is dead

 

[cd3768]

I cut it out, usually after about 10 hours as the poly is dead

I have gut/poly in two racquets. How do you tell if the poly is dead? One of them was strung it late September and there’s fraying but it hasn’t broken yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Crozzer95]

I have gut/poly in two racquets. How do you tell if the poly is dead? One of them was strung it late September and there’s fraying but it hasn’t broken yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Being a stringer I can just tell. As soon as I don’t get that feel from the frame I cut it out and start again. Gut lasts a lot longer than poly.

 

[Deleted member 369227]

If you are regular gut user, most of the time you can predict when it's going to snap. The racquet will suddenly become unusually powerful and your shots will become harder to control.

Visually, you can tell that gut is going to snap soon when intersections in the sweet spot zone become intensively frayed and thin ("hanging by a hair"). You can use such racquet for rallying, serving practice etc. and play it until it snaps. For a match play, it is always better to cut it and restring.

 

[2nd Serve Ace]

Next time, do the gut in the mains.

 

[vsbabolat]

I play with it until breaks.