Someone told me the other day to wait a day or so before using a freshly strung racket to give time for the strings to "settle down". Is there any truth to this or one can start using their freshly strung rackets a few hours after it's strung?
From what all my stringers tell me, yes, wait for a day before playing hard with it. Especially if strung at high tensions. It's to allow the strings to equalize and drop half a pound tension or so. Otherwise any unevenly tensioned areas can break easily, and the stringers don't want you to come back a few hrs later with a broken string on a freshly strung job. However, having said that, this obviously doesn't apply to pro players who like a freshly strung job for their tournaments and who get them strung for free.
If possible, I leave rackets 24 hrs before using them or giving them back to clients; the stresses and strains are still equalizing during this period. The pro's won't care - they don't use them for long enough to notice any tension loss, and if they break... meh.
This only affects the strings though right? If someone were to use the freshly strung racket then if whatever issues that may occur will only affect the strings and not the racket?
It may affect the racket as well... the frame stresses won't be equalized, so some parts will be under more force than others.
