Centerforward71
Rookie
I was going to write a thread for each of the three Tier One poly string but I feel that comparing and contrasting will do a better job of explaining my findings.
I want to mention that i bought my test strings so I am in no way obligated to provide anything other than my honest opinion and even if they were free would do the same.
Let me start by saying that the customer service at tier one is exactly that, tier one. Extremely helpful, ship immediately, ask for feedback and care about what the players have to say, this is important to me.
Construction of ALL three strings is of high quality, it is clear when you open the strings that their uniformity and material is top notch and whether you like the string or not it is not because of shotty production or material,the packaging is also great although not a big factor for me but shows also overall quality. This is not a string in a make shift Ziploc bag with a paper description, not that this determines the strings performance but it is part of the whole experience. You dont want to get into a ferrari with cloth seats !
I want to say that I had several sets of both 16 and 17 gauge of all three. I dont want to get into the detail of the difference between each an each gauge, what I can say is that I PERSONALLY and the players I strung this for seem to prefer the 17 gauge string, reasoning is to follow.
I also want to say that they were tested on both dense and open patterns and did not find a huge difference nor got alot of different feedback personally or from my players who play different string bed patterns. By the way I play the Headh Graphene Speed Pro 18x20.
All three strings seemed pretty stiff right out of the bag with lots of recoil, they were all VERY similar in this way. BTW saying a poly is stiff is not a knock or a trait it is a descriptive and taken personally by preference. I can tell you that I felt that the 16g were all a bit too stiff for my liking and didnt provide me with enough feel. Firewire was still very lively at 16g but I felt that the extra liveliness and the lack of of feel was not a good combination for me in this string.
Now that I talked about Firewire let me continue with that. This string plays FUN, it is lively, produces great spin but for me I felt that it was a little too unpredictable. Lively and plenty of power and ample spin but I could not gauge a range with these. I think that these string would play very well for the lower powered player. Like I said it was fun, crisp, produced massive shots but for my style a bit unpredictable too make it a string of choice for match play. AGAIN this is personal I am not saying its not a good string, I am giving what I found so that someone else might find this a fit for them. All of my players are pretty much higher level players with power and all gave VERY similar feedback with this string. String tensions ranged from 52-60 (I tried both 54 and 60 and felt that tightening the string made it not much different just a bit stiffer but played similar.
That takes me to DURAFLUXX, I would have to say that this is the twin separated at birth of Firewire. They look similar, they feel similar visually and to touch, they recoil similar, both have texture but Firewire was raised in the Ghetto and DURAFLUXX was raised in Beverly Hills. Definitely a string of more finesse, lower power, pretty good spin and decent feel specially for what I foiund to be a stiff our of the bag string. Actually this string had a deadened kinda feel which I actually like and at times the deadened feel seemed a bit soft even. By the way as stiff as the string seemed out of the bag all three of them played softer than they looked. Duramaxx I could play with but it didnt wow me in any area. I felt that the string did a bit of all things well but none excellent.
this gets me to a point before I review the last. I personally like string with personality, because you can match personalities. When a string offers "ALL AROUND" play then it offers not much to me. this is not a knock on Duramaxx, it is a nice string that will be just that nice but never find its way to becoming the string of choice to play. String like Signum PPP or Silverstring, I hate when people say "Good at everything". what that means to me is that its great at NOTHING !!. I want a string that screams SOMETHING at me, ANYTHING, power, feel, spin, soft, hard, stiff SOMETHING PLEASE. This is my personal feeling and my honest opinion. Your better being GREAT at something than mediocre at everything....
This gets me to Tour Status. I was a bit hesitant at first specially because I like higher tensions (60+/-) and this stiff SCREAMED STIFF out of the bag. My arm was looking at me funny as I loaded it onto the stringer and set the weight at 60. Much to my surprise it had that deadened feel but was NOT harsh on my joints. Immediately this string screamed control at me and I could swing out on all wings and felt like I had plenty of control. Whenever that happens I start to worry about depth but was not the case, the string still had OK pop and felt was nicely balanced between the two for my game. Spin falls into this as well and for me SPIN should be classified more as AVAILABLE spin because I still feel that spin is a MAJOR FUNCTION of swing over string. I could put plenty of spin when I wanted and desired. Also I really liked the audible boom these strings make, specially on my flat serves. Plenty of power on the flat serves also. This is NOT a power string, so if you lack power avoid it because it will feel TWO stiff and you will not be able to move these strings enough to make them perform. I ordered a reel of the string and will be playing these for a while, they definitly can be a go to string.
By the way I cannot speak of loongevity because NONE were played beyond about 4-6 hours. All played pretty steady during that time frame, I personally thing that there is NO poly that plays the same longer than this and if you are looking for 15 hour polys then either your game is non descript and string matters little or you simply dont really care about performance.
I hope I didnt miss anything and that this is useful to someone.
I want to mention that i bought my test strings so I am in no way obligated to provide anything other than my honest opinion and even if they were free would do the same.
Let me start by saying that the customer service at tier one is exactly that, tier one. Extremely helpful, ship immediately, ask for feedback and care about what the players have to say, this is important to me.
Construction of ALL three strings is of high quality, it is clear when you open the strings that their uniformity and material is top notch and whether you like the string or not it is not because of shotty production or material,the packaging is also great although not a big factor for me but shows also overall quality. This is not a string in a make shift Ziploc bag with a paper description, not that this determines the strings performance but it is part of the whole experience. You dont want to get into a ferrari with cloth seats !
I want to say that I had several sets of both 16 and 17 gauge of all three. I dont want to get into the detail of the difference between each an each gauge, what I can say is that I PERSONALLY and the players I strung this for seem to prefer the 17 gauge string, reasoning is to follow.
I also want to say that they were tested on both dense and open patterns and did not find a huge difference nor got alot of different feedback personally or from my players who play different string bed patterns. By the way I play the Headh Graphene Speed Pro 18x20.
All three strings seemed pretty stiff right out of the bag with lots of recoil, they were all VERY similar in this way. BTW saying a poly is stiff is not a knock or a trait it is a descriptive and taken personally by preference. I can tell you that I felt that the 16g were all a bit too stiff for my liking and didnt provide me with enough feel. Firewire was still very lively at 16g but I felt that the extra liveliness and the lack of of feel was not a good combination for me in this string.
Now that I talked about Firewire let me continue with that. This string plays FUN, it is lively, produces great spin but for me I felt that it was a little too unpredictable. Lively and plenty of power and ample spin but I could not gauge a range with these. I think that these string would play very well for the lower powered player. Like I said it was fun, crisp, produced massive shots but for my style a bit unpredictable too make it a string of choice for match play. AGAIN this is personal I am not saying its not a good string, I am giving what I found so that someone else might find this a fit for them. All of my players are pretty much higher level players with power and all gave VERY similar feedback with this string. String tensions ranged from 52-60 (I tried both 54 and 60 and felt that tightening the string made it not much different just a bit stiffer but played similar.
That takes me to DURAFLUXX, I would have to say that this is the twin separated at birth of Firewire. They look similar, they feel similar visually and to touch, they recoil similar, both have texture but Firewire was raised in the Ghetto and DURAFLUXX was raised in Beverly Hills. Definitely a string of more finesse, lower power, pretty good spin and decent feel specially for what I foiund to be a stiff our of the bag string. Actually this string had a deadened kinda feel which I actually like and at times the deadened feel seemed a bit soft even. By the way as stiff as the string seemed out of the bag all three of them played softer than they looked. Duramaxx I could play with but it didnt wow me in any area. I felt that the string did a bit of all things well but none excellent.
this gets me to a point before I review the last. I personally like string with personality, because you can match personalities. When a string offers "ALL AROUND" play then it offers not much to me. this is not a knock on Duramaxx, it is a nice string that will be just that nice but never find its way to becoming the string of choice to play. String like Signum PPP or Silverstring, I hate when people say "Good at everything". what that means to me is that its great at NOTHING !!. I want a string that screams SOMETHING at me, ANYTHING, power, feel, spin, soft, hard, stiff SOMETHING PLEASE. This is my personal feeling and my honest opinion. Your better being GREAT at something than mediocre at everything....
This gets me to Tour Status. I was a bit hesitant at first specially because I like higher tensions (60+/-) and this stiff SCREAMED STIFF out of the bag. My arm was looking at me funny as I loaded it onto the stringer and set the weight at 60. Much to my surprise it had that deadened feel but was NOT harsh on my joints. Immediately this string screamed control at me and I could swing out on all wings and felt like I had plenty of control. Whenever that happens I start to worry about depth but was not the case, the string still had OK pop and felt was nicely balanced between the two for my game. Spin falls into this as well and for me SPIN should be classified more as AVAILABLE spin because I still feel that spin is a MAJOR FUNCTION of swing over string. I could put plenty of spin when I wanted and desired. Also I really liked the audible boom these strings make, specially on my flat serves. Plenty of power on the flat serves also. This is NOT a power string, so if you lack power avoid it because it will feel TWO stiff and you will not be able to move these strings enough to make them perform. I ordered a reel of the string and will be playing these for a while, they definitly can be a go to string.
By the way I cannot speak of loongevity because NONE were played beyond about 4-6 hours. All played pretty steady during that time frame, I personally thing that there is NO poly that plays the same longer than this and if you are looking for 15 hour polys then either your game is non descript and string matters little or you simply dont really care about performance.
I hope I didnt miss anything and that this is useful to someone.
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