What did people used back in the 80s?

[joe sch]

Yes "patching" was more common especially for nat gut string jobs. I have many packs of natural gut that was made for patching. Today they would just be of interest for some collectors of vintage woods that want to patch and display that technique.

Below are some of the tools that the vintage stringers would use to hand string and patch stringing jobs that broke

 

[5.0 in 3.0 Body Guy]

I used leonia 66. Most people just used synthetic gut. People also used Gamma gut(the synthetic one).

Yep, in the mid-80's I went through a lot of sets/reels of Leona 66.
I used to string my Pro-Staff's in the 65 - 70 range on our TR stringer.........ha ha ha (oh how times have changed).

 

[Bronze Ace]

141 different string choices from October 1989 (Tennis Magazine)

AG 16, 17 or 19
AG Fantasy
AG Fantasy Fireworks
AG Fantasy Lite
AG Gold
AG Gold Plus
AG Hybrid
Alpha Elite
Alpha Magic Seven
Alpha Strings
Alpha Ultra Spin
Alpha Winning Edge
Ashaway Crossfire
Ashaway Crossfire II
Ashaway Super Nick
Ashaway Super Nick XL
Ashaway Syngut
Ashaway Tricore 710
Babolat Fine Play
Babolat VS Gut Africord
Babolat VS Gut Midsize
Babolat VS Gut Progressive
Babolat VS Gut Spiral
Babolat VS Gut Topsize
Babolay VF Syn
Black Graph
Blue Star Fibergut 16
Blue Star Nova
Blue Star Nylgut
Blue Star Original
Blue Star Serve and Volley
Blue Star tComp
Boris Becker Super
Bow Brand "Lendl" Gut
Bow Brand Edberg (Natural Gut)
Bow Brand Hybrid (Natural Gut)
Bow Brand Maxi (Natural Gut)
Bow Brand Micro
Bow Brand Reflex
Bow Brand Super Spin
Bow Brand Synthetic Gut
Corde Naturel
Donnay Flex
Donnay Syn
Dunlop Syn Gut
Edberg Superspin
Edberg Tournament Micro
Gamma Boron
Gamma Graphite
Gamma Gut 1, 2 & 3
Gamma Gut 1000
Gamma Gut Pro
Gamma Gut XL
Gamma Hi-Tec Grip
Gamma II
Gamma III
Gamma Marathon
Gamma Pro 18
Gamma Ruff
Gamma XL Square
Gamma Zyex
Gamma Zyex
Gamma Zyex 2
Gamma Zytex 2
Gosen OG Sheep Micro
Gutex
Head Durabrite
Head Hot Shot
Head Limelight
Head Redline
Head T-20 Elite
Head Tournament 20
Leoina 66
Leoina 66 Graphite
Leoina 77
Leoina Big 110
Leoina Bio
Leoina Geo 66
Leoina Geo Gold
Leoina Horn S
Leoina Kelvar
Leoina Pearl Leiser
Leoina Spin-X
Leoina Super UFO
Leoina Toalson
Leoina UFO
Major Black Gold
Major Gold
Marathon Widebody
NRC Nylon
Pacific "McEnroe" Gut
Pacific Classic (Natural Gut)
Pacific Tournament (Natural Gut)
Pacific Tournament Pro (Natural Gut)
Prince Endurance
Prince Nylon
Prince Placement
Prince Premiere (Like Gut)
Prince Prism
Prince Pro Blend
Prince Quadratech
Prince Stoplight
Prince Syn Gut
Prince Topspin
Rainbow
Red Pro Plus
Super Tuff Tite
Technifibre 315, 416, 515, 625
Tenex (Natural Gut)
Tenex Hy Kev 200
Tenex Kelvar
Tenex Nylon Plus
Tenex Poly Plus
Tenex Quad X
Tenex Spectrum Plus
Tenex Super Spinn 2
Tenex Synthetic 17
Tenex Synthetic Gold
Tenex Ultra 19
Tenex Zyex
TOA Gold
TOA Zyex
Tuff Tite
Ty International
Wilson Championship Nylon
Wilson Performance ET
Wilson Performance PLus
Wilson Performance Plus Spin
Wilson Profile
Wilson Syn Gut
Winbledon Syn Gut
Winn encore
Winn Encore Syn
Winn Gutex
Winn Gutex Graphite
Winn Gutite
WTX Boron
WTX Gold
Yamaha Syn Gut
Zyex
Zyex Super Pro

 

[Arcturus]

Boris Becker just said while commentating for TV that he was using 8 millimeter natural gut strings back then - is that even possible?!

 

[fritzhimself]

No!

 

[socallefty]

I was using natural gut from the 70s till about 10 years ago.

 

[Grafil Injection]

Whatever they pre-loaded the Max 200G with, either the natural coloured stuff in the first model, or the yellow stuff in the Graphite Injections, is magical. I suspect it's Dunlop Super Lastek which they used in woods from the 70s.

 

[Frankc]

Many of the lively strings that were designed for those smaller and more densely patterned frames of 70s through 80s were "magical" compared to today's stiffened choices for present rocket launchers...

 

[1HBHfanatic]

Boris Becker just said while commentating for TV that he was using 8 millimeter natural gut strings back then - is that even possible?!

-no, 1.35mm is hard to get through the grommets on todays racquets
-1.8mm maybe, if it even exists!?
-even if he used 2.0mm string gauge, this would be very hard to tie off, on even wooden racquet port holes!
-i tried 1.4mm string once, and i wont do it again, i could not get 2 strings to tie off to fit in the ports!!

 

[mtommer]

...kevlar/syngut hybrid for stringbreakers?

This is what I used. I could barely afford to restring so once I found TNT2 something or other, I went strictly to that.

 

[gfwp]

Now we got all this poly rave, but in the 80s polys were bad and unpopular. What did those who could not afford natural gut used back then?

Synthetic gut and kevlar/syngut hybrid for stringbreakers?

Multi were available. At that time multis needed to be waxed regularly, like the old natgut. And they were pretty expensive, too.

 

[gfwp]

Boris Becker just said while commentating for TV that he was using 8 millimeter natural gut strings back then - is that even possible?!

Perhaps 0.8mm. I remember very thin strings in the '80. They were still around to string wood racquets.

 

[slice bh compliment]

Perhaps 0.8mm. I remember very thin strings in the '80. They were still around to string wood racquets.

Wow, i did not know Becker used a very thin gut. .8 mm would be considered a thick badminton string?
Certainly sampras used a natural gut that was considered thin, like 1.2 mm.
funny, grommets on modern frames are generally 3mm. 4 for the tie off holes or similar for any shared holes In the corners.

 

[Crocodile]

It’s a long time ago.
In the early 80’s I was still using an aluminium racquet and then went to an open throat wood graphite composite, followed by a graphite, fibreglass, wood composite and then my first full graphite frame and on each occasion you basically went with what your local stringer had which was synthetic or gut plus for a while they had some black string they called graphite. The stringing machines were not that great until Prince released their pneumatic machine.
I think the more interesting options came in the 90’s when tennis pro shops became more common and accessible.

 

[Frankc]

Yep, 70-80s were more like put something in it at 55-60 or so... nylon or gut was the choice, basically...
I liked an oil-filled nylon at that time - few real choices in our area
Blue Star was expensive but a very real alternative... many top regional players went that route - very short lived but great feel and power...