halo today i stringed my racket and one of the shops cost rm31 for bg80 ( use manual stringing machine or sumtin like tat ) and downstairs cost rm33 ( use digital stringer ) he said it is better ....and in what terms it's better actually?
More accurate and more consistent tension throughout the string? A non digital machine means the the re-stringer person pulls on a level until the tension is correct according to the tension gauges on the machine. A digital machine actually pulls on the string and stops and holds it at the correct tension while the restringing person gets the next section of string ready to be tensioned.
Short video of a restringer doing his job with a digital machine in AJ Racket Mart Puchong Selangor Malaysia Notice how he places the string in the clamp and it pulls automatically while giving a short beep? And it also beeps when he pulls on it to release the string again. He can only do this quickly after he's threaded the strings through the whole racquet. [video]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=463404016287[/video]
in what terms what is better, you can imagine if you have two strings of diffent tension. If your shuttle hit equally on both strings at the same time, however it would pull to one side depending on which string had a higher or lower tension. We are talking about really really small variations but they would exist. The extreme example I can think of is when people break a string but don't decide to replace the whole set of strings and only replace only two lines of strings in order to save money. The person who replaced the two strings will not know what the current tension of the rest of the strings are. Whenever you hit around the two lines, the shuttle will deviate in all kind of directions. Make sense??
a stringing machine is just a tool. a better machine will make it easier to get a better string job. but in the end, it will still boil down to the stringer and whether he knows what he is doing. picasso can probably paint a damn good picture with a cheap paint brush. but if you give me the best paint brush in the world i won't be able to paint anything worthy. a proper electronic machine will give a more consistent tension on every pull. it is also possible to do it with a manual machine but it will depends more on the skill of the stringer.
I would say that the stringer and his skills/experience are much more important than the machine used. Stringing is more of an art than science.
The champion is made because of his / her skill, but not which fancy / expensive racket in his / her hand. The person with the skill is the key difference, not the tools.
