I have two rackets (virtually identical), strung with the same string at the same tension, but one sounds 'dead'. The 'piiiing' sound from the strings dies almost straight away. Is this indicative of a fault in the racquet? Or maybe a dodgy string job? If neither, why is there such a difference?
^^ And perhaps the dead feeling one has been strung a longer time ago than the other. Do they have the same frequency now?
no, they were strung at exactly the same time, same stringer. Played with the better one tonight. strings broke . Slight off-centre hit. Less than 10 games total on it.
Have you found out what machine type your stringer uses? If it is the manual crank type then the chance that he has cut corners on your "less fortunate" racquet is very likely, since the operation is manual after all, unlike for example electric constant pull which is all computer when it comes to the pulling of the tension. Otherwise your stringer still could have introduced human error during the stringing such as accidentally damaging the string (did you check for frays everywhere?). By the way are you totally sure it is the same person who does both the stringing (did you stay to witness the whole process)?
I'd say it's hard to get the exact same ping from two rackets even with the best of machines. There are so many factors that play in when stringing. But if one is dramatically different something is wrong.
disagree. i have more than one occasion when i need to string 2 of the same rackets with same string and tension and i get ping that are with less than 1-2Hz different.
Well that is impressive! I have a friend that string for profession and he says "If my hands are warm the tension will be different". I didn't believe him but he sort of proved it immediately by opening a window and letting the cold air breeze over the strings while doing the job. The ping was indeed different. He also said that broken grommets will play a difference. As different batches of string. Even the age of the string. I myself has put my mind to it to get rackets strung as evenly as possible, and feel I get the hang of it now, but I need to do the job meticulously. I'm not surprised if two rackets are off more often than not.
i do have the advantage that i use an electronic constant pull machine. with cranks it will be much much harder.
it's not an electric machine. I didn't watch him do it, but he hadn't done either at sunday 4pm, but both were ready at monday 6pm. I had a quick play with the strange one - just warm up and one game. The sound and feel is different. Very different. But more importantly, on slight off centre hit, the bird just doesn't go anywhere. For example, a 'flick lift' return from a smash (ie short action lift) was very easy with the good one, but the other is lucky to get to mid court on some shots!
I hope I'm not right, but it can happen if it's internally broken (or some layers of the racket). The characteristics will change. I played with a repaired racket and it felt totally different. I know it's not the same, but as I said before, some internal cracks from restringing, clashes and torture may not be visible on the outside until you restring it and the tension is just at the right place.
that had crossed my mind. The ping from the strings seems to be heard at least a bit from the shaft, but the funny one has nearly no sound from the shaft. I'm wondering if there is a crack somewhere...