Category Archives: String – New
New string information
And the winner is…Head FXP 17
Head FXP is a string that seems to be largely overlooked and I am surprised after seeing the results of the installation and testing!
| String Name | Category | Gauge | Ultimate Tensile Strength/Lbs | Knot Strength/Lbs | Country of Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head FXP | Multifilament - Nylon | 17 | 165.9 | 93.4 | Japan |
Both the tensile strength and knot strength are exceptional and the graph shows that this string is very “elastic” which is a good thing for tennis racquet string but sometimes just not considered.
Head FXP 17
The area under the solid red lines is considered a stress-strain curve and indicates the “elasticity” of string by how close the lines fit from 0 to 50 three (3) times. A perfectly elastic material would be one line even though it went through three (3) cycles. What you see here is quite good and one of the reasons it is the winner!
And the winner is…overview
Racquet Quest is going to add a “winner” of the week to our website as a way to develop a fun way to look at string!
Each week we will select a string that has exhibited outstanding properties from one of five (5) major categories:
-
- Synthetic Gut
- Mulit-filamanet
Nylon
PEEK - Natural gut
- PEEK Monofilament
- Polyester Monofilament
The winning string must have been installed in the most recent week either in a client or demo racquet.
We will include as much information as possible including graphs and the country of origin.
We will try to post “And the Winner is…” on Friday so take look!
String Evaluation Program
Racquet Quest, LLC has for years been doing the extensive evaluation of racquets and string for the benefit of our client’s customization requirements.
Now we are making this evaluation “program” available to anyone that wants to dig deeper into the workings of the string in the racquet!
This is serious stuff and requires significant resources but it is worth it!
Please contact us of you would like to take advantage of our evaluation program!
Still Committed to Your Racquet!
For the past few years and certainly the past year Racquet Quest has been committed to tennis racquets and yours is included!
Hopefully the days of the “mask”are over and we can resume actually talking to each other and be understood! Of course if you prefer to wear a mask that is OK, too!
Here is what is not OK!
Not caring about your tennis racquet is not OK, and by that I mean keeping it in the best possible condition. That includes string, grip, grommet sets, overgrips and general reactions of beating it against the ground or net!
We have seen five year old racquets that look brand new and five day old racquets that are in really poor shape! One of the most damaging “strokes” in tennis is the ball pickup stroke! This is not a stroke at all but a way to keep from bending over to pick up balls!
Using the racquet head to scoop up the balls is easy and cool! It is also the quick way to ruin the bumper guard which is there to protect the Racquet from normal stroke, not pick-ups!
So, what do you do about it? The next time you consider scooping up balls with the racquet consider tapping the ball to start it bouncing or simplpy use the fingers on your hand to pick up the ball…that would be good!
Looking at the Differences
For the past fifteen (15) years or so, most string discussion centered on polyester. By now, you know our position on polyester, so we won’t go through that again right now. What we will go through right now is the difference(s) in a polyester string!
PET, polyethylene terephthalate, is the standard “material” in the better quality polyester string, so how can there be so many different versions of the same material?
Can you say “additives”? Luxilon has made it part of their brand to use acronyms for materials in each string’s description. ALU, for example, is aluminum, Timo is titanium/molybdenum, and I don’t know what 4G is.
So let’s take a look at the differences in a couple of polyester stings. Shown here are two (2) polyester strings, Luxilon ALU Power and Volkl V-Star. You can see the difference in stiffness between them, the V-Star being “softer,” but what you can’t see is the V-Star package does not say “co-polyester” but instead Co-Polymer!
Polyester? Co-Polyester? Co-Polymer?
We know “co” is two or more and “poly” is many, so how many of anything does any material have in it? We may never know and probably shouldn’t care as long as we have the presented data.
What can we see from this graph?
- ALU Power reaches 50 lbs quicker (stiffer)
- ALU Power exhibits good elasticity
- V-Star is more linear (consistency)
- V-Star has a greater tensile strength
- V-Star is softer (takes longer to reach 50 lbs)
How would a player know this by just looking a the package? I am not sure! Adding the word “soft” or “comfort” or “feel” may persuade a player to try the string, but what if a better decision could be made before spending the time and money?
Racquet Quest, LLC
