BG80 breakage twice (<4hrs)

Does he play plastic or feather? This can matter much.

From your picture I can see some signs of notching on the cross strings. Grommets look fine. Twisted string could be, the writing on the cross string above is not in line.

String isn't old stock? I had this with a reel BG80 also which I bought before Covid and nowadays it would break more easy, so I don't string it anymore.

When do you hand out rackets? Especially fresh and not settled BG80 is fragile. I would settle it 3 days.

What do you think? Do you feel bad for your mate, because he don't get much time out of it or did he complained?

What's your routine? Do you preweave or weave one ahead? Do you adjust your clamps and what clamps do you use? Some flying clamps have sharp edges and add small dents to the string. Maybe you didn't adjusted the clamps not right. Slippage can separate the coating from the core or you crimped the string with too tight clamps?

Does just this guy has this short lifespan or others as well? Some serial slicers have a shorter lifespan and go through strings faster. BG80 is not known for beeing super-durable for some players.

When you weave the cross do you keep the friction low? Can you provide a better photo with a dark background and higher resolution to see better what's going on?

I put my money on twisting in combination with old stock string. This notching is very unusual at such tensions and the volume of play.

 

If he is chewing through BG65 in 6 weeks, then a 2 weeks lifespan for BG80 fits perfectly. The picture shows some clear signs of notching, so this clearly is a heavily used string with a sweet spot breakage. So if this is your only client that shows these early breakages, then first of all, take a deep breath and relax - I don't think that your stringing is the main problem. Good points raised by @ucantseeme to check in parallel of course.

Also, have you asked him, if he had the same issue with his previous stringer? Has he tried other strings in the past? I'm thinking of NBG95 for example which should be less vulnerable to slicing.

I have one of those freak clients as well that I just can't make any sense of. He got hooked on LN1 by a clubmate of his and was so happy with the performance. Problem: Each job snapped after 6 weeks at the lates (around 4-5 hours per week on court, 3 identical rackets in rotation). I tried a lot of things, thinking that there just has to be a way to make this work for him.
Fresh grommets - no effect.
Going down from 11.5 kg to 10.5 kg - strings lasted maybe a week longer.
We tried LN5 (which is a very, very robust string...) - two jobs were gone within 8 weeks as well.
In the end he switched back to BG65 that is lasting him for 3-4 months at least. And he's currently trying BGAB, we'll see how that goes.

Cheers to Hamburg from the Lake Contance, hope you are doing well up there in the north!

 

I estimate he will visit you with 2-3 rackets every month. Been there, done that.

@s_mair Did he complained? If yes, he should made better experiences before to notice a difference.

Also something to proof and advice is the storage. IMO from the picture the notching isn't that bad that I would await a snap.

Since we all 3 live in Germany, we all know the weather conditions quite well. I had a customer years ago who went often through BG65 at low tension. The reason behind it was it was during winter and cold temperatures and every training day he kept the racket in the trunk over the whole day at temperatures below zero and drove immediately after work to training. From the timespans this could also occured.

Also the storage of the string can be an issue. I hide strings from sunlight in a wardrobe. Even through windows the string can get brittle. I had some hooks at the wall before where I stored the strung rackets and reels and also got some freaking breakages after short time which I couldn't explained until I discovered that it gets sunlight always at lunchtime and the color was a some areas bleached.

 

he was not directly complaining... but let's call it "moaning". His previous stringer clearly under-tensioned and is currently selling "BG65" which is in fact some super-cheapo aliexpress BG3-thickness string. So the opposite of what you would call a serious reference.

Yes, this clearly plays a role also with my client. You can see immediately if you look at his rackets, that he is not treating them well or really taking care of his equipment. Even if he says that he is never keeping the rackets inside the car for a longer period of time, I'm not sure how much I can rely on that answer.



Long story short, I tried a bunch of things but just couldn't make LN1 or even LN5 work for him. He's fine with his current BG65 lifetime, has stopped moaning and is preferring a real BG65 instead of being scammed by the other stringer. So... I guess I made my peace with it.

Yes, UV-light is the arch enemy of most plastic materials like Nylon (polyamide) and makes it brittle. That's why I store my reels in non-transparent boxes with lids. Thing is that if there really was an issue with the string or the equipment, I would expect these early breakages of the OP to be happening on a regular basis and not just specifically with one single customer. That's just too much of a coincidence for my taste.

In addition - @Mr Arc2 also has an interesting story with a guy that is eating BG65 and LN5 constantly within a couple weeks, so maybe he can also chime in here.

 

Depends. He started stringing, so we not know yet if he has 20 happy customers or just string most of the time for this guy. If he store sets or reels we also don't know yet. Also this guy can be the culprit because he provided the strings?

I have seen so many rubbish by clients that I even think about very small things. I had a guy who regular played outside in the summer on a beachball court. He gave me always rackets with sand inside the grommets.
One guy sprayed regular the whole racket with oil to reduce friction and get better durability on the strings. Since I needed every time a half day to clean my whole machine from the oil and refused to string for him.
Two guys regular provided very old strings and refused to take mine because of the color don't match with the racket. They both were the total bargain hunters. One of them sold even used deo on ebay, when he didn't liked the smell and the other one had a reel with the old Yonex Logo from Ebay.
I also had one client who cut off the tails from the knots to made the racket to look more neat and wondered about opened knots.
One guy always treat his grips with sharp after shave. The whole room smelled when I got his racket. Real talk!

I strung my brittle strings to youth and kids at my club with not charge and all still got some decent play out of them even with plastics, while a real hard hitter will finish it within hours and days. For me this can also be here the case, that this guy hits really really hard. Not everybody need to experience that to the same amount. I just want to make sure to cut out any other unlucky coincidences, so we can point the finger at the player. Especially when I refer to your rackets when you need to cut this notching don't look too bad, or what do you think?

 

This can boost twisting, increase friction and also some wear/burning of the string.

Not for each string but within ranges like 0,70-0,68, 0.67-0.65 and so on. Also the tension plays here a roll. I string between 8.5 and 14.5kg. I look with my eyes through the gap of the closed clamp. Never have slipping or crimping and I go by feel, but I string quite long. You can also feel when you close the clamp if there is not much resistance during closing (maybe too loose) or some resistance (maybe too tight). I also tighten very little on the cross strings, because I can't clamp at such a low point like on the mains.

I pull the string totally through the first shared without leaving a loop (also helpful to prevent crossovers) proof if it is twisted? (untwist), weave and pull gentle and the total string through the weaved area, prove if it is twisted? (untwist) and push through the shared whole of the other side -> tensioning and massage.

See above. Some string which are prone to twisting benefit when you manual prestretch them by hand.

You didn't asked, but when your mate points out the string movement then might be settling for a few days a good idea. Fresh jobs move more.
Could also be that your ratio between mains and cross.

 

I tried when I began stringing but that would twist the string so badly that I stop immediately

If your clamps are good, I don't you'll need to adjust each time. I personally don't. I use the clamps that came with the Stringmaster Deluxe from tennisman.

I think fresh stringjob tend to break fast against miss hit. His broke on a cross near the sweetspot. In this case, as you said, he might slice a whole lot.

I pull the string all the way nearest to the side I inserted with a hook and then pull the string all the way across the racquet. Like here :

I sometimes only leave a short amount of string and use a starting clamp to pull that bit (I did that on the next shared hole in the video). I would not advise this solution as it can sometimes damage the string (happened to me once with a Yonex Exbolt 65)

Hope that helped

 

By the way: you forgot 1 cross at the top. Mostly with all less premium rackets of Yonex the last cross at the top goes through grommet 7 and the knot is in grommet 5.
Yes, not really the reason for your problem, but just to let you know

 

To be honest. Have you thought about his technique is "not so good"? I like customers who think they're "good players" and when you watch them you want to turn around and close your eyes
And when you play e.g. singles 3x/week for 1,5 hours it's no surprise that even BG 65 at low tension will brake.

Yes, I really like that you ask yourself where there might be a problem with your stringing technique and that you want to improve, but in the end customers also have to accept that they're not Viktor Axelsen and that there is not string with awesome sound, great durability, power, control etc. at the same time. This kind of string doesn't exist.

So please don't make the mistake and string the rackets for free. If you recognise that you did something wrong after you finished the racket (e.g. damaged the string etc.) just cut it and do it again but charge it! You might end up in the situation that this person always wants a free restring, if it brakes because it is probably your fault. You know how people are nowadays...

 

No. Don't do this! As @mokomima said, as soon as you start giving out free jobs, there will be people trying to exploit it. I have made deals with clients that had their string snapped during the very first session when I've only charged the string, but that's it. Nobody is forcing this guy to have you stringing his rackets - he can take them wherever he wants to if he feels like he's better off.

My guess? His other stringer was underpulling, either intentionally or by accident (crank machine, bad clamps etc.). Same as with my "freak client".

This! It's always good to be critical with ourselves, but you have to set a limit at some point. So imo if this remains OP's only client with these earlier-than-expected breakages, then stop bothering at some point and have an open communication with your client about it.

Going back to my freak-client once more - after I told him that this is the maximum I could do for him and that he should look for a different stringer in case he is not happy with what he's getting, he went back to his previous stringer for a while. Only to come back -tail between his legs- because the fake-BG65 jobs from the other guy just felt like sh*t. Go figure. Oh, and the moaning has stopped completely eversince.

 

Yeah me too with bg80 around 2 weeks in but exb 63, 65. Vbs 63,66,68 around 2-3 months with the same stringer

 

i can't believe what i'm reading... he's played with BG80 for a month and a half and is getting it free?! if word gets out you'll have a lot of customers!

 

Sooo... just got a message that he killed that one with a mishit at the top during the third session. Who whould have thought?!