okay. so i got my racket strung at the RA Centre in Ottawa, and let me say, the stringing job was so CRAP. ALL the rackets i got back from there strung felt like 23 lbs or less. I specifically asked for 25-26 lbs which felt like 23 lbs. I mean, i had to wait 3 days for them to string my racket, they carry no color strings (only white and yellow) and they do such a shitty job? I was rallying with it fresh today, i did a few clears and smashes and everything felt SO OFF. I hit a big smashes, my freakin strings shifted?!?! like what the hell man. I have a AT250, for a year, strung at 23 maybe? i've played without for at least 2 years without restringing and you can clearly see the shredding marks on the sweet spot. i asked the dude, okay feel the racket you strung me and now feel my AT250, now tell me.. what tension do you think this is? he told me "THE TENSION FEELS THE SAME" and im just like... I HAVEN'T TOUCHED THIS RACKET FOR 2 YEARS AND YOU TELL ME THE TENSION IS THE SAME? so freakin stupid. I told him, if this is what you call 25, you might as well string my racket at 31 or something. ARGH. he then shows me other rackets stung by the stringer that did mine, and they all felt like 22-23 when they were suppose to be higher. Honestly, how can you call a strung racket that the freakin string beds MOVE 25 or 26? they even told me they usually do the +2 cross or whatever so that it retains its stringing tension Honestly, i never had this issue EVER in Toronto. I mean go to some 2nd rate stringer meaning not famous not known, just has his business there in a small booth. He charges me like $22 for BG80 GUARANTEES it will be done in 1 HOUR (not days) and his 24 feels like a REAL 24 lbs and the string bed or whatever DOESN'T MOVE. Seriously, is the RA Centre THAT bad? i thought it was the top club or whatever and i honestly thought they would at least string better than the **** they gave me. anyone share my experience here in Ottawa? or does anyone know a GOOD place to string their racket? sorry for rant :/ thanks for checking this out
Actually my experiences were exactly opposite as yours. I asked for 23lbs and for what felt like 25-26. It was retarded tight! I couldn't play with the racket for 3 weeks until the string started to loose some of the tension.
FYI, new strings shift a lot, and will continue shifting until it digs a nice groove in the cross strings that prevent it from shifting anymore.
the problem with clubs is that they usually have different stringers. different stringer even if using the same machine will produce varying result. and often some local clubs here employ cheap high school or college kids for their string jobs. this is fine if you are not picky about the racket and only care about having strings on the frame. if you do care about consistent results, go to a reputable local stores or find a recreational stringer who cares about his string job. sometimes it is worth paying a few dollars for the peace of mind. i have had ruined stringjob from a club before and the hard decision was to either bear with it until the string breaks, or take the loss and cut the string. either way i am not getting my money's worth.
All I can say is that we have 2 different machines. The older Ektalon machine was off for about a week, when everything felt about 3.5lbs off. Apparently, it was fixed before last weekend. The problem is listed as kwun mentioned. We have about 4 stringers, and we all string differently. Add to the fact that we each may string on different machines depending on what machine is available to us during the hours of operation. Factoring in how busy it gets during work hours, since only 1 person operates the shop at a time. I can sympathize with you and your bad results, and I can't defend every single string job done by RA. But I can only say if you give it to me, I'll do it as best as I usually can during when I work. You can also request someone specifically to string it as well. Also, as I've learned from working there for quite a while, you can't quite please everyone. Some people will find your job too tight, and some people will find it too loose. I've seen someone who plays at 10lbs of tension, and on a machine where I've done 8lbs (read EIGHT lbs), and it was STILL too tight for them, to stringing some rackets at 27-28lbs on a machine with the same listed tension (constant pull Babolat Star5), and they've still found it too loose. Some reason it's because the string moves (slices, and unsettled strings), and some because they mis-hit and broke the string. But you just can't please everyone
