an interesting data point. for all these years, i have been following the general wisdom that the cross tension needs to be 10% higher than the main tension. it has been discussed and analyzed and disected many times over here in BC. and that just seems to be the "right" method to use. however, i have never liked what comes out of my machines. be it my old eagnas POS drop weight, of my ASE, or my WASE. none of the string job felt right. most of the time the stringbed feels dead at 24M/26.5C, or 23M/25C. so i started experimenting recently. and for the past 2 rackets, i strung 25M/25C and 24.5M/24.5C. and they came out much better with a much more lively stringbed. i don't know if i have reached the sweet spot yet, but for sure it is going to a direction that gives a more optimal feel than the previous attempts. will have to string more rackets and report it. meanwhile, if you think your job isn't good enough by following the 10% rule, or if you just want to experiment, maybe you can try same tension for M/C. report back what you get.
Interesting...for 23/35, you meant 23/25 right? So when you compare playing 25/25 with 24/26.5 and 23/25, you find the 25/25 better?
yes. thanks for the correction. i have fixed the typo. and yes. i find 25/25 or 24.5/24.5 much more lively than 24/26.5 or 23/25. i have carefully chosen 25/25 and 24.5/24.5 as a comparison because in terms of overall average tension, it is very close to 24/26.5 or 23/25, so the difference cannot be attributed to overall tension difference, but instead more due to the M/C ratio. i have only tried this in 3 rackets. two of which i had used the 10% ratio but not like, and then changed to 25/25 and liked. and a 3rd one that i have not done the 10% diff but instead went straight to 25/25 and instantly liked. the number of datapoints is still too few. need more experiments but i think at least for my personal preference, it is going the right direction. thus i want to ask others who has a machine to experiment with this ratio and report back your finding comparing to other ratios.
I just want to clarify one thing, if I just walked into a store and said I wanted my rackets strung at 25lbs...this would mean 23/25 right?
what i had said before http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=143017&postcount=30 what taneepak had said before http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=166228&postcount=28 more info from this thread http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17057&highlight=pattern
the reason I'm asking is that I usually just ask for 26lbs but this time, the stringer asked so I said 24/26. the result was that the 24/26 felt very different and I did not like it at all.
I have tried 24/26 vs 25/25 with my Arc 10 using BG66 Sharp and the feel with 25/25 is much better; my stringer actually recommended the same tension for both mains and cross despite the "official recommendation" of yonex....
Some stringers actually consider the main strings tension as the one which is the requested. That is why the tournament stringers all string at main=cross tensions to remove discrepancies.
Kwun, did you stretch the frame before tensioning? Did the strung frame (25 X 25) come out about the same length and width as an unstrung one?
stretch? i tightened the 12/6 o'clock support to decent tightness. no idea whether it gotten the same width/height or not. what difference does it make?
The strung frame "might" come out shorter and wider an unstrung one, if the cross tension isn't sufficient and the shoulder supports give a little.
the side support was definitely not supertight when i released them. given that, the racket head won't be significantly shorter than before. having said that, i will try to remember to measure the dimension pre- and post- stringing next time.
tried both. strange to say, seems to be similarly good regardless of TD vs. BU. now i am doing mainly BU.
I guess from what I have read through this forum, the conclusion about the 10% in tension difference for the main and cross is to keep the origianl shape of the frame un-distorted. That is why Pete was asking the question. I am doing the Haribito way with the same tension all the way but as you know you start to tension the cross somewhere from the middle, by doing this I don't see much distortion.
