Hi guys, I strung my racket (N90 III) with BG80 at 28 lbs. After stringing I checked the tension by hitting the middle of the string bed with my palm and it sounded just as high as my other racket (also N90 III) strung by another stringer (same string, same tension). Now here’s the problem: When I play with my self strung racket it feels kind of „dead“… What I mean by that is, that when I hit the shuttle right at the sweet spot it doesn’t give me that extra punch I’m used to - also the sound is much higher and metallic (even when playing overhead-shots). It’s hard to explain… But I know that it’s not because the tension is too high, because I’m used to playing with high tensions and I know and like the feeling of it; when hitting with the racket I strung the „boom“ sound ("deeper sound") and that extra punch is missing and I don’t know why…It's weird, because when I hit shots it feels like it's a much lower tension, but it sounds higher than my other racket. I’m using a Victor drop-weight machine and fixed clamps and do a 4 knot-stringing… Any suggestions?
How can it sound the same as your other racket, and then in another sentence sound much higher and metallic?
One theory would be that your stringer strings with a crank machine, so the stiffness of the stringbed is lower overall than with a drop weight machine, that is assuming that you string OK and that your machine was correctly calibrated/adjusted/maintained.
[MENTION=57143]visor[/MENTION]: It sounds the same, when hitting it with the hand, but totally different when actually hitting the shuttle...
next time, vary the tension ratio between mains and cross. perhaps instead of 28x28, do 27x28, or 27x29. experiment until you get the same lively feel. your stringer probably know exactly what ratio is best for his machine. you need to do the same for yours.
Thanks for your help, kwun. I did that last time I restrung my racket and it solved the problem. I got the crispness und feel back I used to love. Another thing I noticed, when I string different tensions for the mains and cross, my racket slightly deforms into getting more oval (despite stringing from bottom to top of the racket frame). How much deviation is normal or tolerable? I read on the forum, that up to 10 mm are okay, but that seems quite a big difference?!
to be honest, the shape of the racket isn't that big of a deal. if it play well and lively, who cares if it is not exactly the same dimension. the shuttlecock doesn't care for a few mm worth of deformation.
i used to have a Alpha Shuttle Express with a WISE head. it was flying clamp only and i strung main==cross all the time. i noticed that there are usually around 5mm compression on the head. however, the result stringjob feel great. all of my clients love it. then I moved to a new machine, a Gamma 6004 with fixed clamp. Initially, the stringjob that came out of it was not good. i noticed it and also one of my picky clients. i used same tension. then i experimented with going back to flying clamp, then later on i did fixed main and fly cross, with 10%-12% higher cross tension, and then the good feeling comes back. i experimented further and now i am back to full fixed clamp and cross = main + 1.5lbs. the result is minimal compression and the same good feeling as the old machine. i know that others like AK use main=cross on their machine. the gist of all these is that tension ratio depends a lot on the machine and how you string. what works for others don't necessarily work for you. the only way to find out is to experiment and experiment until you find a good combination.
