I know we had this up before, but I can't seem to find that thread. A friend of mine recently bought a MP77. He is a little concerned about what looks like a less-than-perfect "joint" at the 12 o'clock position on the frame. One half of the frame seem to be very slightly misaligned with the other, creating this weird ridge. It certainly does not look like a top marker, something I remember that Cooler once suggested. Does anyone know what this is? Is it always this pronounced in the MP77? Is it a problem? I checked my MP100, but I couldn't find anything similar on it.
mag, i haven't strung or own a mp77 before so i'll my best to answer this for you. The outside ridge located at 12 o'clock is just an impression left behind after the molding process, it does not affect the internal construction. Some rackets have them some not, depending the finisher's sanding skill. I use this ridge and/or the dot located inside the frame to locate the mid point. I'm surprise that mp77 has this ridge as i thought it is a high end racket and deserve a better finishing job. If someone else has a better insight on this please share them with us.
I saw a mp77 , 4 mp100 and 3 ti-7 and the all have this ridge at the 12o'clock position. on top of the frame.. they were all canadian versions
i concur with cooler. i took a old broken Yonex racket (Iso900) and sanded off the paint into the graphite, and there are no internal joint between the left and right half. the whole racket is one piece. as for the existence of the ridge, there are a few explanations, one as cooler described, the result of the painting/molding process that Yonex uses, the other is to provide a mark for the stringer to figure out where exactly 12 o'clock is.
I have 2 MP77 (one broken and one ok) and there are no ridges. Both 2U version sold in Australian / New Zealand market....
I don't know about the MP 77 but both my MP 88 and the new colour Iso Ti SX has this ridge at the 12 o'clock position as well! But strangely enough, my MP 100, Iso Slim 10 and Iso 800 does not have this ridge. Could this be some manufacturing fault??
My MP100 CP, Iso800 SP and Iso300 SP versions don't have the ridge at 12 o'clock. Yonex not as refined nowadays or doing it purposely. Does the JP version racquets have the ridge? Maybe Ricky would know.
My CAB20L has the ridge, and my MP77 has the ridge also, but i wouldn't exactly call it a ridge, it's hardly noticeable and there is no misalignment. i doubt this little thing means anything at all, i definitely don't think it shows poor craftsmanship. It's so insignificantly small.
