This is my AT 700 4U/G4 strung with Gosen Pro 70 (BS322) at 24/22 lbs. I bought this racket few weeks ago from bbesports.com who also strung my racket and just used it for 4 times. I noticed some damage with the string recently where the outer part of the string was torn revealing the content. 1st picture shows the spots of where the string is damaged. 2nd and 3rd show the damage in more details. The damage in the 2nd picture is the most severe. I always keep the racket in the sleeve. Is this damage caused by me or due to bad stringing? Should I restring the racket? Will it damage the racket if I don't restring? Thank you for your advice.
I recently strung one of my Woven 7s with the same color Pro70 at 31lbs. Pro70 has a relatively brittle outer coating and that is normal. My racket is the same way. The string job looks OK from here. I say don't worry about it and have fun playing.
My AT700 3UG4 JP looks exactly the same as yours with royal-blue bg65power strings. The coating on the strings are breaking outside the frame, but atleast there's no damage done to the grommets..
It looks like one of your grommets have split in the 2nd pic. The next time you restring just ask the stringer to replace the grommet.
Unsure but I never go by pictures as they can be very misleading. Case and point, Kim Dong Moon's NS8000 here. In the picture it looks a bit round but in person, it's extremely round. Original post: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47867
The damage to the string is caused by scrapping it against the floor possibly when picking up a shuttle or just in going for low shuttle....a very small amount of superglue will protect the damaged area of the string...The string will break sooner than normal and if it is not strung over 10kilo then dont worry about it...if you have strung it upwards of 12kilo then be careful as a mishit can also break the racket when the string breaks...
Thanks for your replies guys. There are total 5 broken grommets. Is that something I need to concern with? I have taken another shot of my at 700 on a piece of A4 paper. Does it still look round? The smallest distance between the edge of the paper and the frame is around 5mm on both sides. Please compare yours with mine and post your results.
I think you are worrying too much. Camera lenses have barreling and distortion and also the angle in which you take the picture, the lighting and probably another 10-20 of factors can make the picture misleading. The racket looks fine, you should not worry. As for the broken grommets, I cannot say.
Use a measuring tape and measure the length between the outer edge of the top of the frame and the outer edge of the butt cap, in mm or cm.
The damage can be caused with scrapping floor or scrapp other items (i.e. bag zip). Just be a bit more careful during usage and storage. It's part of the game, unless u use very high tension or the damage is significant, mostly the string will break normally (i.e. around sweet spot) than the outter gromment position. Regarding the split gromment, prior to next re-string, let the stringer exam it. If the damage is serious, better change the gromment 1st, then re-string. If not, you still can use it for a time period.
The stringing pattern on your racket is not the one recommended by the factory...compare with Dinks racket picture...or ask the factory...distortion of the racket shape is caused by the tension of the main and cross strings, too much tension on the mains will give you a more rounded shape...if you want to know for sure then go to the shop and draw the shape of an unstrung racket on a piece of paper and take it home and compare it to yours...also ask your stringer what tension he strung the mains and crosses because the cross strings should be about 2 pounds higher than the mains....if he strung them the same tension then the mains will be tighter and give a little rounding to the shape...Next string job REPLACE the grommets...they are cheaper than having to replacing the string early...
The string pattern on the AT700 is correct, it's the old string pattern. The racket I posted, KDM's NS8000 uses a newer string pattern.
your racket looks fine. if you're looking for something wrong, you will always find it even if it's not there
i just came to this thread. Yes, measure the total racket length in ##.# cm and post it here. It would still be a general guide but a bit better than a visual from a photo taken with unknown lens.