What strings to test?

[ambro]

As a required year-long individual school science project, we get to choose basically any project that can be quantitatively represented, and I have chosen to test the tension loss of different types of tennis strings. I am going to be testing between 4-6 strings, probably 6, but I can't decide which ones to test. I want to test some of each types of string, except natural gut because I kind of want to keep my budget lower. I would like two of each 'type' of string from the following.

Synthetic Gut
PSG Original
PSG Duraflex
Forten Sweet
Gosen OG Sheep Micro Super

Multi
Dunlop M-Fil Tour
Iso-Speed Control
Laserfibre Supreme
Yonex 880 Ti Soft

Poly
Prince Polygut
Gosen Polylon Comfort
Prince Tour Silver
Unique Big Hitter

Help me choose two strings from each category. Thanks in advance.

 

[Prince_of_Tennis]

What about kevlar!

 

[Joe12]

Synthetic Gut
PSG Original
PSG Duraflex
Forten Sweet
(you should do the duraflex and original contrast thing but do Sweet too, please?)


Multi
Dunlop M-Fil Tour (I know you're curious about this one, so do it)
Wilson NXT

Poly
Prince Tour Silver
SIgnum Pro Poly Plasma

Help me choose two strings from each category. Thanks in advance.

That it. 10 CHARA POST.

 

[pro_staff]

why are you spending so much money on a school project? is the teacher gonna know if you used $10 big hitter or $4 polygut?

 

[ambro]

No, but I want to know the information myself as well. It's not just for school I guess. If I didn't care about the info, I'd use Gosen Polylon, Gosen OG Sheep Micro, and Technifibre E-Matrix, one of each type. Maybe I'd add in a cheap kevlar as well. But I want to test strings that I plan on trying out actually using in my racquet, that's why I picked these strings.

After thinking about it, I think I have narrowed it down to the 6 strings I will use.

PSG Original
PSG Duraflex
Forten Sweet
Dunlop M-Fil Tour
Yonex 880 Ti Soft
Signum Poly Plasma (have a reel already, so won't have to buy any more)

The first 4 for the reasons Joe said. He almost read my mind. I wanted to see the differences that the Duraflex made in PSG, and Forten sweet may become my new cross string so I want to test that. I have been curious about M-Fil Tour since it came out, so definately that one. Same for the Yonex 880 Ti Soft, and for the poly I do not want to try any other ones, I know Signum PPP is my poly string of choice and do not intend to change that.

But keep giving your input if you please.

 

[Gaines Hillix]

Strings are a combination of different materials and construction. Basic syn guts have are nylon and have solid cores with a wrap and a coating. Multis are also nylon(for the most part) and have a lot of fibers and a coating. Polys are polyester mono filaments(for the most part). In the first catagory they are all basically the same except the PSG/D, which has a kevlar ribbon on top of the core. If you want to determine of this effects tension holding ability then I'd pick the PSG and PSG/D. Otherwise, pick any of the 3 w/o the duraflex ribbon. In the second group, you have ISO Speed Control. It's not made out of nylon. If you want to compare how it holds tension compared to a nylon string then choose it. Laser Supreme is believed to hold tension better than almost all other multis. You might want to choose 3 strings out of this group, i.e. the ISO Speed, the Laser Supreme and the Yonex string. Polygut is a multifiber poly. Again, there's a difference in construction than the other 3 strings. If your objective is to see if a multi-poly holds its tension better than a mono, pick it and the Unique Big Hitter. Otherwise, any of them besides the ISO Speed. Just my $.02 . PS, how are you going to measure the tension?

 

[Joe12]

I'd stick with the choices that you have. Unless you want to add the Laserfibre (will be costly though) or maybe you could add the difference between Polylon and Polylon Ice? Or just keep what you have. Tell us what happened after you're done.

 

[ambro]

Strings are a combination of different materials and construction. Basic syn guts have are nylon and have solid cores with a wrap and a coating. Multis are also nylon(for the most part) and have a lot of fibers and a coating. Polys are polyester mono filaments(for the most part). In the first catagory they are all basically the same except the PSG/D, which has a kevlar ribbon on top of the core. If you want to determine of this effects tension holding ability then I'd pick the PSG and PSG/D. Otherwise, pick any of the 3 w/o the duraflex ribbon. In the second group, you have ISO Speed Control. It's not made out of nylon. If you want to compare how it holds tension compared to a nylon string then choose it. Laser Supreme is believed to hold tension better than almost all other multis. You might want to choose 3 strings out of this group, i.e. the ISO Speed, the Laser Supreme and the Yonex string. Polygut is a multifiber poly. Again, there's a difference in construction than the other 3 strings. If your objective is to see if a multi-poly holds its tension better than a mono, pick it and the Unique Big Hitter. Otherwise, any of them besides the ISO Speed. Just my $.02 . PS, how are you going to measure the tension?

Thanks for your input Gaines. I did not know Polygut was a multi-poly. How did you find this out? I was also thinking the same about the multi thing, the different materials and the laser treatment or whatever LF does to their strings. I did not want to pick LF Supreme though because of the cost, but I might anyways. The Polygut information may change my mind, I may skip the synthetic gut completely and do 3 multis and 3 polys. If I went that route, I would do Isospeed, Laserfibre, and 880 Ti, and for poyls I would do Polygut, SPPP, and Big Hitter.

Also, to test the string tension loss I will use the Freqmess v.07 on String Forum.

 

[MTChong]

I think you should test that new Klip Venom and report back to me. XD I don't know whether or not to buy it yet! Anyways, it would be a good idea to skip on the synthetic as it's pretty much a median string.

 

[ambro]

Any other suggestions? If not, I'll do what I said in the previous post:

IsoSpeed Control
Laserfibre Supreme
Yonex 880 Ti

Signum Pro Poly Plasma
Lux BB ALU
Prince Polygut

 

[HappyLefty]

Give a try to Tecnifibre X-One Bypass. I use this string and could be interesting to know the results of your experiment.

 

[ambro]

Bringing this back up, I am about to start collecting data for my experiment. How long should I collect data for and at what intervals? I was thinking for three weeks do it every day. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[doriancito]

yeah kevlar lasts as much as plastic but loses a lot of tension because it doesnt brake!

 

[rfederer32291]

yeah kevlar lasts as much as plastic but loses a lot of tension because it doesnt brake!

exactly

 

[SW Stringer]

ambro asks: "Bringing this back up, I am about to start collecting data for my experiment. How long should I collect data for and at what intervals? I was thinking for three weeks do it every day. What are your thoughts on this?"

Make sure you accurately track the number of hours of use between readings and your graphs should look good. If you do no pre-stretching your curves of tension (Y axis) versus time (X axis) should look like two piecewise linear sections. The first section is the break-in period where the tension drops at a rate about 10 times faster than after the break-in period. In my tests the break-in period occurred at around 4 hours of singles playing time. If you use the data (time,tension) and plug it into a linear regression routine (calculator or spreadsheet function) you'll get the equation for the line. The slope is the aging factor - percent tension loss per hour. I collected data until the string broke - most I got was 20 hours. Good luck and have fun with this project!

 

[ambro]

Well I'm not playing with them... I'm just letting them sit. The data can have nothing to do with humans so I can't play with them. But I still think it will drop significantly, don't you think?