i was playing with another one of my new toy today. a Carlton AB2000. i cut the original string and had it restrung with bg85@24lb. i noticed something strange about the racket. sometime when on impact, the racket gives out a "ding" sound. very crisp and loud. is there something wrong with the racket? or is that normal for the AB2000? also, i noticed that my racket doesn't say where it is made. the only markings are the standard Carlton ones, and on the end cap, there is a serial no. or some sort, "YMNGC8". strange.
my ab900 has no serial, but i know its real cause my dealer would cheat me like that. instead, it has the carlton symbol and CHINA
Yeah this feature is very common in carlton rackets if u string at good tension like 22 and above.The same sound is emitted from AB 2000 to. I dont think it is very strange to see that your racket just has a serial no and not the place of manufacture. the place of manufacture is simply a sticker kind of thing that can be taken away with some use of force.So it could have been accidentally been ripped off or something like that. I think u have indeed bought a good piece of Equipment and i hope u have great games with it.
i think all carlton racquets bought in Hong Kong have that sort of serial on the end cap, "YMNGC8".........it also says on my AB1000 it must be a code or some sort.......also, when you buy a AB.....there is a plastic sheet wrapped around the handle with a little tiny gold sticker that says "quality control".......i forgot if it says made in China or Taiwan..... i must say that the logo on the end cap is only printed on......not very durable because i have almost scratched it all off...........LOL
I have two AS-1 rackets which have YMMKC17 on the bottom of the handle. I dont kno where they where made as they do not say. I bought them from a Carlton rep about a year ago so they are the real thing. I have one strung at 22lbs and one at 26lbs and they both make that distinctive "ding" sound. I also find that when it makes that noise the racket seems to vibrate a lot and I lose the feeling for playing net shots. Whenever I played a net shot the shuttle would either die or bounce off really high (for a net shot). I have recently changed back to a yonex Ti-5 light which does not vibrate at all and my net shots have improved once again. I believe it is due to this annoying vibration/noise that the Carlton makes. Quite dissapointed with the racket really as it was very expensive. Interestingly when I noticed this vibration I compaired it to some other rackets I have used and none of them vibrate. These were cab20, cab21, Prince Thunder and Tour 800.
Mark, thanks for the verification. i didn't think it'd be a fake, but that did come across my mind. the fact that the Carltons are less than half the price in HK than in US doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy either. but it is nice to know that it is not fake. as for the vibration, i am surprised to know that so other rackets have teh same problem too. i pay more attention to the sound, and it is not just a ding, but also a very violent resonance that the racket is vibrating at. and yes, i lose feeling/touch on the shuttle when that happens. from my experience, Yonex has done pretty well on racket damping. not many of their racket vibrates too much. some clones i have tried however, has much more distinctive vibration, so much it makes the racket barely playable.
don't think so. it comes from the racket head. not the shaft. vibration at the shaft will be much lower a frequency.
Weird. I've had several Carlton racquets (Aerogear 1000, Rasmussen, AB1000 and AB900) and I haven't experienced anything like this. In fact I haven't even thought about vibration problems until I got my MP-100 which I feel vibrates more than the Carltons (although it's not so much as to be a problem) One certainly wouldn't expect something like this in the two top-models (AB2000 and AS-1)...
