how do excactly restring your racket? do you give it to a store and they wil help you restring it, or is there a way to do it yourself?
If you live in Hong Kong, I will do it for you for a princely sum of HK$65, using Yonex BG85 or 68Ti. Or you can do it yourself, but that may or may not be more expensive as it involves buying a stringing machine. It all depends on whether you can string for others in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile. Why not get someone in your badminton circle of friends who has a stringing machine and who regularly strings for others to string your racquet? This should be cheaper than the store job.
azndragon108, It's better to fill out your profile so that we could give you appropriate answers to your inquries. If you had filled out your location, someone from your area could point you to the nearest baddy place or stringer. If you're in North America, I would advice you to stay away from the chain store retailers.
Giving to the professional BADMINTON stringer (reputable ones) should be the best choice. Try to avoid the big chain stores, as most of them have no idea about how badminton equipment. However, in certain regions, the price might be very high. In local clubs, there might be player/stringer, taking string job as their side job. Try to pick a reputable one, by asking around the club. Usually they charge less, but u need to consider the quality as well. For string by urself, highly recommend to get a string machine. Higher end could cost thousands of dollars, as lower end might be less than USD$100. Make sure know what u r doing, and do some practice on lower end rackets first, before the actual task on higher end rackets.
What I do is I use my own strings and I first string the racquet without tensioning the strings. Then I give it to my stringer and he tightens the strings at a discount price compared to a normal stirngjob. I don't know if the stringers in your area are willing to do that or not though. Also, previous stringing experience is necessary if you don't want to mess up your racquet.
If you have a coach around your area, perhaps you can see whether he is a stringer himself. I know my coach is a stringer just that another place does a better job of it. I would definitely ask around before you give it to places that you are unsure about their quality. Seeing as you asked this question, it's probably not a good idea to attempt to do it yourself... Get someone to do it, know more technical information about the sport before you move on to stringing stuff yourself.
In California the Bay area, we are pretty lucky, there are many clubs and small pro shops in our area. In my area we are really lucky, there is a small pro shop in Newark, CA and he strings at professional events. I heard he strung at the US Open for Taufik and professional tennis players such as Serena Williams (at the Bank of the West Classic) and Marcos Baghdatis (SAP Open). In his shop he has the Yonex ES5 Pro machine, I heard that machine cost $6500USD, and that machine produces a nice string job!!
