What I want to know is why these zyex strings are so thick, if they are this amazing material which is stronger and lasts longer then why aren't the strings like 0.5mm? This is what I thought the point of it was, to create a stronger, thinner string, to maximise power and reduce air resistance, thus increasing racket speed.
The initial problems with zyed were that current production methods could not create fibres thin enough to make a 0.70mm string or so... That's what amde me wonder why ashaway suddenly could pull it off.. anyway, did you get your information about the new name for NGX first hand...or are you speculating? I think NGX, or NG69/NG73 would be just fine...
I don't think ashaway suddenly pulled it off, the dude at the beginning of the zyex thread got his proto way back in 2002. Also Ashaway make zyex tennis strings. Here is the link http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4310 I got my info from Ashaway USA, I made up the name "z gut". Here is the email I got below: I was asking about "nanogut". Yes,this is the preliminary name for the new Zyex string.However,it may change when the string is released comercially.I think the "nano" name is being overused in badminton. Sincerely, Steve Crandall
Using z gut for its xyex string is much better than using the misleading nano or titanium word. At least z stands for zyex, but the word gut is not quite right despite the fact that zyex comes closest to gut in elasticity. Gut is a natural material from sheep. Zyex does not come from an animal.
zyex is cool enough a name to use in itself. why not just call it zyex and just add the size after that like the rest of the strings in the market. example : zyex 0.70.
Not saying your wrong for not thinking "gut" isn't a good term for this zyex string, but it is trying to imitate natural gut. They wouldn't call it "Z imitation gut"
And update and more info here: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=796421#post796421 Jerry: I'm getting more so I'll send you some to test.
Hey, nice as that would be.. I'm still having enough trouble getting through my ML When that runs dry, I'll just take the plunge for some reels of that 0.69 goodness. Can't imagine I won't like it
I've been using Micro Power in white. For some reason, it's better than MP in Blue and Orange. It's crisper and more repulsive. It's now my favorite string (that's currently available). As a testimony to MP White, Coach Don switched over from his beloved BG66! Don still likes BG66 better for performance but MP is half the price of BG66 and lasts twice as long for him. He says he feels MP White is 90% the overall performance of BG66. I concur. Also, our resident bomber Ba Su loves MP White too. He prefers it over his go to string BG65. Recently, I've been stringing my rackets higher and higher in tension. In the last two months I went from 26lbs. to 29-30lbs. in 1lb. increments and the higher I string my rackets, the better I play. I just get significantly more control and feel, especially at the net and drop shots. My dinking power hasn't suffered much because I'm adding more body rotation. I will need to video that for your critique and yes, I'll wear 10" inseam shorts rather than the 12". The only drawback is, I'm breaking a string just about every time I play, as opposed to every 4 times I play. That's a huge difference for a +/- 3lbs. increase in tension. P.S. Using MP White (compared to BG80/BG85/BG66), you'll need to string 1-2lbs. higher to get similar feel.
MP is great,very crisp. ML feels "different", but I really like it (not everybody does). it does take some pre-stretching to get into reasonable levels of tension-dropping... as much as I like 27-28, mishits are a pain. Especially now I'm joining the A tourny's (more pressure, less time, you know how it goes )
I prefer MP overall but i smash harder with ML. i noticed the MP white looks totally different from the other colours? the texture and gauge totally different?! it looks and feels like the Micropower Ti?! the MP purple/lavender has shiny gloss feel to it. anyone noticed? I prefer the orange/red+pink/blue/jean blue in MP series. at the moment I'm testing the Ashaway Nanogut X I got from DinkAlot. so far so good. smashes are extremely hard but for control (netting), i prefer the MP & ML. my nets are extremely tight and i usually tumble them over the tape. durability wise its still lasting from 2 months ago. this is quite rare as I go through one string every 2 weeks. i thought the Ashaway Nanogut X wasn't going to last long because of the fluffy/hairy strands/filament appearance (looks similar to the N95). you can tell by cutting the string with the snippers. you can see whether the end exposes a fluffy/hairy appearance.
No, I've never said that. I never tried MP in white until about 9 months ago. Since then, I quit using blue and orange MP.
Quote: Well, I'm not going to say you made a mistake but the orange and blue so far for me, play better. More crisp, more responsive, more powerful then the white. I have 6 Cab 20 Tour Specials strung with MP. 2 with orange, 2 with blue, 2 with white, all the same tension. The orange and blue play the same, great. White is not as good. I have 3 Cab 20 Tour Specials strung with BG66, 1 silver-gray, 1 purple, 1 blue. The silver gray plays the best, on par with the MP white. The orange/blue MP is definitely superior to all of the above mention string. I have not compared orange/blue MP with white BG66 though.. I think you'll find you did
Different strings play differently on different rackets and people have different opinions. For me BG66 in white plays better than it in silver/gray, it's noticeable. Not a big deal but noticeable. Do you have MP White or MP Titanium White? I have not tried MP-Ti, only MP white, orange and blue. For me and three others that I know closely (coaches that are experts on equipment), here in the U.S., MP white is better than orange and blue (which play the same) in all aspects but durability. White has more repulsion, is crisper, has more feel and just plays better than orange and blue. But white is not as durable by a little bit. You do not need to compare BG66 in white to MP blue and orange since you say BG66 in silver/gray is on par with white.
In a way zyex does come from an animal. zyex is a type of plastic, which comes from oil, which come from animals & plants which died millions of years ago
Zyex is not even found in the dictionery. There is no such word in English. It is just a name of a company, Zyex, who in turn is owned by ICI, an English company. The fact that Zyex chose to name their string Zyex does not make it a plastic. For example, I have come up with a revolutionary racquet which I name it as "TEPSM". It is no more than a name that you can pluck from thin air. Nothing to do with animal.
Zyex 101 aka "The Zyex Story" By Steve Crandall, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Ashaway Racket Strings Original article here: http://www.ashawayusa.com/pages/ZyexStory.html In 1987 the Zyex Project Team (Gloucester, UK) introduced a patented filament for manufacturing racquet strings. It was made from a new high temperature, engineering grade polymer known as PEEK (polyetheretherketone for short!). Getting this exciting new material up to quality specifications suitable for string manufacturers was not easy. “In the early days,” said Bruce McIntosh, Business Development Manager for Zyex, “the PEEK raw material and fiber manufacturing processes had to overcome some variables that were difficult for us to control. For example, at first the material itself had a dark cast to it, and sometimes there were more impurities than we liked. Because of these inconsistencies, string makers found the material difficult to work with in their own manufacturing processes. “Once we worked out those kinks, string manufacturers like Ashaway [Racket Strings] began using Zyex. Our biggest dilemma then was maintaining precise gauge control for the narrow filaments they wanted us to produce. It was only dedicated manufacturers like Ashaway that were able to design processes that corrected for this shortcoming.” As string manufacturers did begin making string with Zyex, they and the corporation alike were immediately excited about the results. Strings made with this new material promised to give a previously inconceivable combination of superior properties: • Synthetic fiber playing characteristics closest to natural gut. • The lowest dynamic stiffness (i.e. best resilience) of any polymeric material • Durable, slender fibers allowing for the design of ultra-narrow gauge strings for superior feel and ball control • Minimal tension loss after stringing • Performance levels maintained even at extremes of temperature and humidity. • The ability to hold optimal tension for exceptionally long periods. The only problem was that the original Zyex strings received a less than enthusiastic reception in the marketplace over a decade ago. And, one of the major reasons for this lack of enthusiasm was that players and stringers alike were unfamiliar with the radical characteristics of Zyex strings. Core Advantages Today, Zyex Ltd. can consistently produce pure, ultrafine Zyex filament with exceptional gauge control and consistency. Much of the thanks for their continued improvement of the raw material is due to the ongoing pressure for superior performance in such high-tech applications as woven acoustic damping blankets in jet engines, composite bolts that outperform steel or titanium, flex-and vibration-resistant underhood automotive parts, high temperature Velcro™ used on protective clothing for firefighters, and components for medical devices, including implants for disk and bone replacement. What’s more, Ashaway Line & Twine Manufacturing Company has succeeded in adapting its proprietary multifiber processing, used in making the world’s finest medical and ophthalmogical suture thread, to manufacturing a second generation of Zyex racquet string and racquet string cores. Thinner gauge Zyex fibers with improved “packing density” now allow Ashaway to make a string with more filaments per cross-section than ever before. The marriage of this advanced filament material, and Ashaway’s string manufacturing technologies, resulted in the thinnest and most “playable” high-performance racquet strings. Ashaway’s Zyex strings are a three-layer construction which incorporates a thin but highly packed multifilament Zyex core, a braided nylon covering to provide additional strength for a long-playing life, and a special coating to unify the structure and eliminate movement and “sawing” at the crosses. This construction gives players a number of significant advantages even in comparison to other new high-tech offerings. Dynamic Stiffness If you watch a slow-motion photo of a ball hitting a tennis racquet with nylon strings, you will notice that the strings are very flexible during initial impact. However, the farther the strings are stretched, the stiffer they become. This stiffness eventually causes a significant amount of deformation in the ball before it leaves the racquet head. With gut, a different pattern occurs. The strings stretch more completely, forming a deeper pocket in the strings and creating far less ball-deformation before the ball reverses and flies off the racquet head. Minimized deformation of the ball improves control. Many players prefer natural gut string for just this reason. Gut also springs back more quickly than nylon. This improved recovery makes the strings more lively. Ashaway string made with Zyex fibers offers the same improved resilience and lack of ball deformation as natural gut. While the dynamic stiffness of gut and Zyex are comparable, the dynamic stiffness of nylon is significantly higher than either. Zyex gives vastly superior resilience over nylon, Kevlar and other string materials. When it comes to dynamic stiffness and responsiveness, no other stringing material comes as close to natural gut as string made with Zyex from Ashaway Racket Strings. Thin Strings Advantages resulting from the low dynamic stiffness of Zyex become even more pronounced as strings become thinner. The ability to consistently make high-quality, ultra-thin Zyex filament is resulting in Zyex strings as thin as, and more playable than, anything else available. Thin strings also mean more bite on the ball. Because Ashaway can manufacture the raw Zyex materials into micro-gauge string, players will notice excellent grip on the ball, translating into improved shot-making. Improvements in filament denier, purity and packing density now make it possible to manufacture Zyex strings in narrower gauges than previously possible: Tennis—17 gauge, Racquetball—17 gauge, and Squash—18. This is not the end of the line. Ashaway anticipates developing processes to make an even narrower gauge string for each of these sports. Zyex strings will one day be available for badminton, starting at 22 gauge, with narrower gauges anticipated in the future. Tension-Holding Zyex does not lose tension as quickly as nylon, nor gut for that matter, so the racquet has to be strung at 10–15% less initial tension than nylon to achieve the desired result at playing time. When nylon or gut is strung into a racquet, it loses up to a quarter of its original stringing tension before the player makes it onto the court. Zyex, on the other hand, does not lose nearly as much tension. To get playing tension with Zyex equal to what you are used to with nylon or gut, you will only need up to 60 pounds of stringing tension (tennis). Players who mistakenly have their racquets strung at tensions appropriate for gut or nylon will get a racquet that is much tighter, and much less satisfying to play with. The big advantage of Zyex’s superior tension-holding is not the lower initial tension, but rather its long-term holding power. Recently, Zyex Ltd. measured the tension of Zyex-strung racquets that have had little, if any, playing time over many years. They discovered that racquets strung with Zyex as long as 15 years earlier still had almost the same tension. This does not eliminate the need for a competitive player to string his racquet frequently. What it does mean is that players will have to make fewer, if any, adjustments in their style to accommodate changing racquet tension. While gut has somewhat better dynamic resilience than Zyex, natural gut has a very poor tension-holding ability, which is why it is used infrequently. Another material with superior tension-holding ability is Kevlar. Zyex, however, holds tension relentlessly without sacrificing liveliness. The difference is evident when you hear the sound the two strings make. A clean hard shot made with Kevlar strings makes a dull “thud.” The same shot made with Zyex strings creates a satisfying “ping.” This is the sound of a very lively string. In fact, Zyex strings are so lively, that they are used by premier string instrument manufacturers for violins and violas. Not that you should be tempted to start a string quartet with Ashaway racquet strings—there are some differences. Ashaway, in fact, had to add a sound-dampening process to their manufacturing process, to avoid the distraction that even beautiful music would cause on the court. Weatherability Heat and moisture are enemies of racquet string. Heat in the environment itself, and heat generated within the strings, cause nylon strings to get stiffer over time and degrade prematurely. However, temperatures between -60°F and 300° F have virtually no effect on Zyex strings. Advantage—Ashaway and Zyex The bottom line is that players who have found Zyex strings wanting in the past should take another look. Ashaway strings made with Zyex offer an unbeatable combination of playability, liveliness, durability and weatherability. Zyex and Ashaway have the right combination—thin strings that sacrifice neither liveliness nor durability, while providing superior grab and feel for great top-spin and touch shots. Zyex is a registered trademark of ZYEX Ltd. Kevlar is a registered trademark of E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. Inc.
