Hello, i am wondering if there are still players who play badminton with natural gut strings. i am playing with natural strings because they give me a much better feeling as all the synthetic strings ive tested so far, but i could not compare it really, because the synthetic strings were on other rackets than mine, so its hard to tell how much of the loss of feeling is due to string and how much to racket. maybe some of you could give me their opinions why you prefer a synthetic string over a natural. greetings, chris
Cost is the big facter and as a stringer i feel gut has to be nursed into a racket frame.Theirs no doubt gut still plays a little better than synthetics, but the gap is closing fast.it also puts people off the thought of using animals material to fill their racket frames,when there's other good alternatives When Zyex string is mastered gut will be finally a thing of the past.Because Zyex like gut holds tension for a long time compared to Nylons /synthetics,
Speaking of animal materials, how about feather for our shuttles. Or leather handle grips? In time all may be replaced, but the natural stuff is still far superior. Yeah, I guess the goose is not necessarily slaughtered for it's feathers (unlike obtaining gut). But it's likely the goose is hanging in some barbeque restaurant window in China anyways, as was the cat...(meow).
why should one feel bad about using natural gut? Unless u r a vegetarian, gut is just a byproducts from the slaughter house. Leather, fur, gut, feather, gelatin, glue are just byproducts.
Natural tension? Well, I am interested in trying natural gut strings. It seems that it offers better feeling but what about power in smashes? What would be a good tension for that string? Less than using syntetic? How much?
OT: Meat and its by-products Okay, this is very off-topic, and I could be opening a can of worms here, but I just felt this deserves a reply... The marketability of these by-products actually contribute to lower the cost of the meat. In other words, if there was no market for these by-products, then meat would cost more for the consumer, which would mean that meat consumption as a whole would drop. Ergo -- if you're a vegetarian <B>for idealistic reasons</B> then the by-products ARE a problem. By the way, I'm not a vegetarian, but I do try to avoid meat as much as I can, mainly for health reasons but also because I find the large-scale meat industry questionable.
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products On this topic, considering the use of synthetics, what is more friendly to the environment? A nylon shuttle, using a foam head, or a feather shuttle, with cork and leather trim. Hmmm.... Okay, so we kill some animals, which we eat anyways, and the materials wind up in landfills and are bio-degradeable. What is the decomposition rate of a synthetic string or shuttle. Probably longer?
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products it depend how u complete the cycle. Natural decomposition of used feather shuttles is great but if we recyle the nylon skirt, cork and nylon string, that is even better.
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products If i had the choice btw. Synthetic, and Gut... i'd choose Synthetic... mainly because of cost... the fact that you dont have to slaughter an animal for it... and because they perform practically identical to one another... my 2cents.
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products Yes, recycling is of course good, and from an environmental point of view, biodegradability doesn't mean that much. Large-scale cattle and sheep breeding is one of the biggest causes of CO2 emission on earth. So, "badrad", regardless of how one might feel about the killing animals, meat is actually a major environmental problem... Just goes to show that these questions are indeed complex.
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products Well, yes and no. It does not necessarily mean killing the animal to get the gut. Its usually "the animal was already killed and the gut was left for the taking." But I don't advocate such practices. Just clarifying how its obtained. And they do not perform identical at all !!! It was some 10 eyars ago that I tried it out of curiousity. Well, it felt wonderful, .... while it lasted .. something like 2 months with a session every week. Felt much better than the strings we could getthen . But I was only comparing it only to the BG-65 then. And maybe the Gosen Hy-Sheep. Touch was not comparable but power was only slightly better. But strings technology have improved so much, I doubt if it is worth the effort and money to use it. Stings like the BG-85 have come a long way and do not miss much of the feel of guts .. and last longer and are cheaper too.
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products There's no easy answer, certainly none that will come from a badminton discussion group. So what this means is, use what you feel comfortable with, for whatever reasons you choose for using it. I've used gut in the past, and the hassle of stringing and maintenance did not warrant the nominal performance gain.
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products if zyex claims are true, then we could have synethic coming very close to gut but last longer
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products Too bad technology is not there yet to make a synthetic shuttle come close to feather like they do for synthetic strings
Re: OT: Meat and its by-products I've played with natural guts before - have to say long time. Guts were from Australia and China, they were hand strung on my Carltons 3.7X. Comparing them with my other racquets strung with Gosen Super Hy-Sheep the guts had much much better feeling in power or more subtle shots. Able to produce more spin (with same movement) on net shots and the now outlawed spinning serve than nylon . But playing 5/6 times a week they did not last long. I broke them usually on the second week whereas the nylon strings would last for about 2 months. I can't say if today's nylon strings would match natural gut strings as I have not played with gut for a long time. Actually I'm playing with Yonex BG80 and BG85 and personally they are quite nice.
Zyex From the sounds of their claims, even exceeds nylon. If what they describe is true, that looks great! But I couldn't find any badminton strings made of the material. I checked out the Ashaway website and the Zyex website as well.
