just to get a quick consensus.....are the carlton factory strings you've played with all really bad? i just want to check its the strings not the racquet
I strung a Carlton Powerflo 990 for a friend 2 weeks ago. The default string on that racket was pretty thick and loose. He was frustrated to get below average performance, and decided to re-string with BG65 @ 21*23lb. Seems his game is much better now. Not sure about cases in other region or higher end models.
yeah, carlton factory strings are pretty bad. they had absolutly no feel to them and loosened up quite a bit. not that durable either... the strings started to fray at the top within 2 weeks.
I found them OK for plastic on my AS-Ti and AS1. That's the Carlton High Tension String, 0.75mm . They usually break pretty quick on me though. I expect the factory string has been in the racquet for a long time because I wait for the racquets to be on sale before buying. I wouldn't choose it for a restring though (unless I wanted to go 40+ lb maybe)
I have never found any factory stringing to be good. For intermediate players or better, factory strings are too low-quality and factory tensions are too low. Factory tensions range from about 16-19 lbs. Intermediate standard players should string their rackets at 20 lbs or greater. There is plenty of scope for personal preference, with a range of sensible tensions from about 20-30 lbs, and a variety of different high-quality strings. To start with, I recommend BG-65 at 21lbs. This is a safe tension to try out. Most players will probably want to increase this tension. Increase the tension in increments of 2-4 lbs until you find your personal optimum tension. Experienced players with a fast swing speed will often benefit from very high tensions, but bear in mind that even the world's top players sometimes play at 24-25 lbs. The optimum tension also depends on the string to an extent. BG-65 is rumoured to lose its first 2 lbs of tension very rapidly (like, within a week), so it may be worth stringing BG-65 2 lbs higher than other strings. This rumour is confirmed by my limited experience.
cool....i'm planning to restring my airblade pro, when i can be bothered, find a good stringer, about 24lb BG65. I can't really find any specs on the pro, but can i assume 24lb is ok? carlton usually have higher manufacturer recommended tensions than yonex at least.
i have a carlton powerflo tt900 with factory strings and thinking of restringing of restringing with BG65ti. i was wondering if stringing it to 22lbs would have any negative effects on the durability of the racquet and/or the strings.