Category Archives: Multi-filamenmt
Pro Stock & Special Make Up (SMU) Racquets
Pro Stock & SMU racquets are a huge part of our business and Pro Stock and SMU’s continue to grow!
Soon, we are going to post the current inventory of Pro Stock and SMU racquets that are at the World Headquarters; however, in the meantime, please visit our YouTube channel to see and hear more about what we do.
Full Custom Head Gravity Tour 98!
We receive the racquets in the uncut, raw state, then make them yours.
The finished Pro Stock(s) are made to your specifications:
- Length: Up to 28 inches
- Weight
- Inertia (swing weight)
- Grip pallet: Head TK82 (flat) or TK82S (round)
- Perfect Pallet: Custom Printed Soft Grip System
- Grip size: Size 2 to 4
- Grip Material: Leather or Synthetic
- String
Play Better Longer
For many years, we have been testing all racquets for string bed stiffness, effective stiffness, flexural stiffness, in-plane stiffness, and about any other stiffness you can imagine.
Throughout this process, we were also testing the strings for power potential, creep, string-on-string friction, and linearity.
Linearity is a significant property of string; however, it does not get the attention we believe it deserves. So, this little post will begin to change that. We will start with some images and explain what we see in them.
String Behavior
Four different string materials are represented here from left to right:
- RPM Blast
- IsoSpeed Polypropylene Composite
- Babolat VS Touch Natrual Gut
- Ashaway MonoGut ZX Polyether ether ketone (PEEK)
The entire chart is important, but the real property we are interested in for this post is “linearity”.
- Linearity is how straight the plot is from the beginning to failure.
- Failure is the vertical line associated with each string material.
A glance will show MonoGut ZX with the longest linear track, however, Babolat VS Touch is the very “straightest”, followed by IsoSpeed and RPM Blast.
OK, but why do we care? We care because when we say a string will play better longer, it is based on the linearity which is the property directly related to consistency.
Better predictability = better performance
Players perceive predictability more than raw stiffness.
A string that ages predictably plays better longer, even if it’s not the softest or most powerful.
That’s it!
Now all we need to do is quantify “better”.
I will leave that up to you.
Is this a cost effective alternative?
Everyone loves natural gut but not everyone loves the price, even though it is very much worth it!
You may think ” I will just use synthetic gut it must be about as good”. Nope, not even close. However there is string that may be close enough to consider as an alternative.
One such string is IsoSpeed Professional. Because we know “a picture is worth a thousand words” here is a picture:
IsoSpeed v VS Touch
If you are serious about playing tennis at a high level for a long time please consider an alternative to a string that does not help that effort.
This is one, however there are others that we will highlight in future posts.
Yes, this is perfect!
Yes, you read that correctly! What you are about to see will make your eyes water with anxiety, but that’s OK!
Perfect!
Most players would have surrendered this racquet weeks ago, but this player was determined to use the string to its maximum capability.
We agree!
The racquet was performing properly, and there was another one or two in the bag, so why not?
The string is a thin multi-filament so the “fraying” is typical and not to be feared!
The strike zone is very close to the center of percussion, with a couple of hits a little higher up, but generally, the zone is perfect!
So, before you panic and relegate your racquet to the bag, remember this picture!
Racquet Quest, LLC
