VS touch alternatives

[NE1for10is?]

I used to get the Babolat VS Touch and I don't care much for the stiffness of the BT7 that they use now, so I'm looking for the best alternative. What do you guys think comes the closest to pre-BT7 Babolat gut now? Pacific? Wilson? I understand that Wilson uses the gut they get from Babolat, so does it have the BT7 and if so how can you tell?

 

[Valjean]

Try Wilson Natural Gut, plays just like the pre-BT7 Babolat VS. Do NOT get Prince Natural Gut, whatever you do...

 

[fortun8son]

What's wrong with the Prince?

 

[jim e]

I used to get the Babolat VS Touch and I don't care much for the stiffness of the BT7 that they use now, so I'm looking for the best alternative. What do you guys think comes the closest to pre-BT7 Babolat gut now? Pacific? Wilson? I understand that Wilson uses the gut they get from Babolat, so does it have the BT7 and if so how can you tell?

Get the Wilson Nat. gut, it is very very close to the orig. non BT7, if not the same.
Do not get Wilson's Champions Choice, as I heard that the gut in those hybrid packs is of different quality.

 

[Valjean]

What's wrong with the Prince?

Though packaged in foil too, the PNG I tried strangely came with none of the lubricant provided with either Babolat's VS or Wilson's NG, and was limp and dried-out by comparison then. Even so, I was shocked when one of the mains snapped on my electronically-controlled, computer-chip supervised machine as I was stringing it up, which hasn't happened to me with gut in, oh, say, the last 15 years, at least.

Though Made in France, it said, this PNG reminded me of the old English-made Bow Brand gut version, which came out of the package the same way, and which, though it played well enough then (it didn't snap while stringing it, most of the time), didn't last terribly long, particularly when compared to VS.

PNG can be had for less that the usual $40/set I paid, if you look around; not the best sign for what purports to be a prime natural gut, to begin with...

 

[fortun8son]

Valjean- you had me worried, so I cut open my pack of PNG16.
It looks and feels like the premium natgut that I expected.
Maybe you got a bad 'un.

 

[Valjean]

Valjean- you had me worried, so I cut open my pack of PNG16.
It looks and feels like the premium natgut that I expected.
Maybe you got a bad 'un.

That's conceivable. I put a call in to Prince and it hasn't been returned so far. With Wilson's NG already playing so close to the original Babolat, without some conversation I wasn't about to try Prince's again, thank you (and I was offered a replacement by the vendor I got it from).

Best of luck to you; string it up too...

 

[jk175d]

Try Wilson Natural Gut, plays just like the pre-BT7 Babolat VS. Do NOT get Prince Natural Gut, whatever you do...

Can't comment on Prince, but I switched to Wilson from VS and it does seem to have more of that plush fun feel. And it has been very durable too.

I only keep one of three frames with the VS (now Wilson), I use either Pacific or Klip on the other two. Most recently I strung up Klip uncoated to see if that might resemble theold VS a little more. Jury is still out, it did have a softer feel than regular Klip Legend, but didn't seem to also have the same crispness of old VS or Wilson.

 

[Uvijek Argen]

+1 on Wilson Natural gut. In my mind IS VS original.

In my second racquet I have Klip legend 17 and im a little disappoint it.
Will buy for now on Wilson gut.

 

[ramos77]

I've heard good things about Klip natural gut. I just bought some to try out so will let you know. Much cheaper too, and the factory is around the corner from my house in Melbourne, Australia!

 

[parasailing]

+1 on Wilson Natural gut. In my mind IS VS original.

In my second racquet I have Klip legend 17 and im a little disappoint it.
Will buy for now on Wilson gut.

Wilson natural gut is pretty close but is not identical. I have both and the original VS Team non BT7 is still slightly softer.

That's conceivable. I put a call in to Prince and it hasn't been returned so far. But without some conversation I wasn't about to try again, thank you (and I was offered a replacement by the vendor I got it from).

Best of luck to you; string it up too...

I have strung up Prince natural gut and find it probably about 10% off from VS Team original non BT7. I haven't had any issues with it breaking while stringing.

 

[scotus]

Though packaged in foil too, the PNG I tried strangely came with none of the lubricant provided with either Babolat's VS or Wilson's NG, and was limp and dried-out by comparison then. Even so, I was shocked when one of the mains snapped on my electronically-controlled, computer-chip supervised machine as I was stringing it up, which hasn't happened to me with gut in, oh, say, the last 15 years, at least.

Though Made in France, it said, this PNG reminded me of the old English-made Bow Brand gut version, which came out of the package the same way, and which, though it played well enough then (it didn't snap while stringing it, most of the time), didn't last terribly long, particularly when compared to VS.

PNG can be had for less that the usual $40/set I paid, if you look around; not the best sign for what purports to be a prime natural gut, to begin with...

Was it in predominantly green packaging or predominantly white packaging?

It has been rumored that the green packaging was made by Bow Brand and the white packaging by Babolat.

I have tried both and like both. One of them, I now forget which, has awful coil memory and kinks like crazy but does not snap, to my surprise and relief.

Performance is up there with the best of natural gut products.