Dual Strings

**Alom** · 01-14-2010, 05:21 AM

Mark, don't worry about the postage etc.. I'll send the rest to you. Currently in the process of ordering the Babolat VS Touch (0.70mm). Please PM me your address so I can send the rest (minus the cross amount), when it arrives. Been told that it can take tension up to 45lb!!! Time will tell

Originally Posted by Mark A

Wow, what an offer! I can pay postage, but that's about it; if you do want to make some cash back I'm sure someone on here will take half a pack of gut off you

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**Alom** · 01-14-2010, 08:03 AM

Item ordered, should have it delivered within the next few days (hopefully tomorrow)

Mark, I will post half of it as soon as I receive it.

**Alom** · 01-15-2010, 11:46 AM

As per title, extremely fast delivery by supplier

(ordered them yesterday). Here are some pics:

Will be stringing it in the next few days with Zymax 67 as the mains and gut as crosses. Gut feels soft on touch. Mark, will have half of gut out to you in next few days.

**Mark A** · 02-01-2010, 12:32 PM

Well, prostrating thanks to Alom: my gut half-set has arrived. It's very strange to my eyes - I'm just not used to seeing gut this thin...

I'm teetering between mixing it in with Zy67 or Micropower 0.70 (though I'm leaning towards the former to get some power back) most likely at 24.5/27. I've just realized that there's no reason to favour having the gut on the mains vs the crosses, but I only have enough to do crosses this time. Perhaps it's better that way anyway - the mains deflect more than the crosses, so it makes sense to have a synthetic there to better take the load.

I'll put some pics of the strung racket up once it's done tomorrow afternoon - I'm giving it 24 hrs to bed in before I go unto the breach

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**Mark A** · 02-02-2010, 09:03 AM

Well, the hard part's over: racket is strung. I only lost a few fibres on the way down, and I have no persistent twists. I chose the Zy67 because it let me reduce the tension slightly; I have to have 0.70 stuff very tight to get the right control.

Some observations during stringing:

a) Prestretch the gut thouroughly before putting it in the racket. This way you will mitigate the characteristic twisting and kinking. Watch out for kinks at all times - kinked gut turns white at that point and is slightly weakened;

b) If you don't pre-weave use the one-weave-ahead method, and align the crosses as you go. Gut settles into place very quickly and it will be difficult to achieve the "perfect grid" afterwards;

c) Have the tension head move as slowly as possible. I found a lot of friction as the gut tries to move, and crank users might inadvertantly do partial pulls if they tension too quickly;

d) Don't be concerned about losing a few fibres on the way (see closeup for an example), but you will have to keep cutting a fresh point to feed it through the grommets. Also, be careful of the gut fouling on the racket supports.

I'll be taking the racket to court tomorrow afternoon/evening, so I'll post some first impressions then

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**Mark A** · 02-03-2010, 01:53 PM

Hmm. Took the Zygut for a spin this evening and I wasn't impressed at all. I found the racket to be very bouncy, in a bad way, and not "sharp" at all. It was taking real effort to get any depth, and I could feel smashes sitting on the bed a LOT longer than an all-synthetic. All in all, it felt comparable to a low-tension (i.e. sub 22) all-syn string job. Worse still, I was detecting tension loss during the first TWO games!

I was gutted (no pun intended

) after this session, as I was so looking forward to some really nice feel. I can completely understand why gut is used in tennis because their ball's "dwell time" is a lot longer than our shuttle's, but having a shuttle sink into a syn/gut bed is a real liability.

I'm looking forward to Alom's thoughts, as he's using exactly the same "alloy" as I did.

**Alom** · 03-09-2010, 04:41 AM

My review finally

!!! (I will upload pics later on)

Did eventually take the ‘Zygut’ for a quick sessions. Very disappointing!

Stringing (Zymax as main – 24lbX26lb):
I normally string at 27lbx30lb with Zymax 67, but decided to go for a lower tension on this because I don’t think the Gut could handle 30lb or 33lb

I do agree with Mark, Gut was already showing strain and losing fibre.

During Play:
Not impressive! String had no power and too ‘bouncy’! Took more power to 'attempt' to clear the shuttle. Smashes were slow and useless! Drops and drives were useless because the shuttle just bounces off the string and loses momentum and speed! Agree with Mark, it felt like a low 20ish string job.

Conclusion:
Waste of time and money

Having hybrid strings in tennis works well, but from this experiment, for badminton it does not work.

**Mark A** · 03-09-2010, 09:56 AM

Great minds think alike, eh

. It took me a single shot to know the gut hybrid wasn't going to work out, and I think Alom hit the nail on the head with the word "bouncy". Gut is great in tennis, no question, but its benefits just don't seem to apply to badminton. I find myself wondering just how well the Babolat VS badminton strings sell - surely only the old-school diehards who grew up on gut would still be using it...

**singnflip4life** · 03-09-2010, 10:19 AM

Would the fact it's a hybrid be the reason? Perhaps gut and nylon are so different at this diameter that hybrid stringing would not work like it does at tennis? Or perhaps it requires a much higher tension?

**Mark A** · 03-17-2010, 09:01 AM

I can only see an all-gut string job being WORSE - the bounciness of the gut was being ameliorated by the polyester behind it, after all. I wouldn't be willing to go tight enough to test the tension hypothesis, as I can see 35 lbs being the LOWER limit of usability

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**singnflip4life** · 03-17-2010, 11:17 AM

Sounds like there just isn't room for gut in the badminton world so far. In part, I'm glad. Gut is expensive compared to synthetics, and since it doesn't play well, that's just one more reason for me to not use it. Thanks to you, Mark and Alom, for your reviews and being the guinea pigs.

Makes me wonder, what would happen if I counteracted the gut's sitting for too long with a racket that was far too stiff for me.......

**LD rules!** · 07-25-2010, 03:52 PM

I was thinking... Would it be worth my while to try Li Ning Accupower 62 (0.62) on the crosses, and BG80 on the mains ? Would this improve performance, and improve durability or would it remain the same ? And is it worth my while even bothering to try this ? The reason I am looking to try this, is because I know that the at 28lbs a 0.62mm string on crosses and mains, for a junior player without a stringing machine, is just not viable.so I was hoping that performance would be better, and durability would be quite good at the tension.
Anyone think this is worth trying. ?

**Mark A** · 07-26-2010, 02:36 AM

If you were going to do that hybrid, I would agree that the thinner string should go on the mains - these are longer AND looser than the crosses. The BG80 would allow a bit more bend for the AP62, so I would be curious to see it stacked against straight AP62 and straight BG80 jobs.

**LD rules!** · 07-26-2010, 03:52 AM

Originally Posted by Mark A

If you were going to do that hybrid, I would agree that the thinner string should go on the mains - these are longer AND looser than the crosses. The BG80 would allow a bit more bend for the AP62, so I would be curious to see it stacked against straight AP62 and straight BG80 jobs.

So when I get my AP62, (0.62) on the mains and the BG80 (0.68) on the crosses ? Or should I put the AP62 on the crosses and the BG80 on the mains ? Which is the best combination ? For power and durability ?
Cheers

**zombie0517** · 01-24-2012, 05:58 PM

For durability, get the stronger string as your main. Usually the crosses cut into the mains.

My BG65/68Ti hybrid is going on quite well

**Damaoren** · 01-25-2012, 09:51 AM

Hi, I had my racket strung (24lbs) on NBG95 on the main and BG66UM on the cross , and i have to say, it was awesome. The shots were crisp and loud, and it had alot of feel

. The shots were powerful (not too bouncy) and kinda had a medium feel (maybe because both the strings are medium feeling? Hmm).
On the other hand, i had another racket strung the other way round (BG66UM on the main)(save money lah) and it feels like crap. the feeling was too hard i could not hit the sweet spot. It was so terrible i cut it away after a few days.
Just sharing