Yes, the Zymax white (ivory?), optic yellow, and platinum appear to be of the same family but with minor and acceptable degree of variation in crispness. Not so the red which is a disaster and I am going to write to Ashaway to tell them of their huge, huge mistake. They should at least have the courtesy to classify the red as another string with playability less than 8 but with durability higher. Platinum is head and shoulders above the white and yellow with better crispness but comes at a high cost of poor durability. Yellow is a good compromise. Frankly, the red plays more like Yonex BG65! What a horrible so called new generation string.
How about the white? How does it play? So your most recommended new gen Zymax string are the Platinum ones?
But I thought their 2nd geno nly come with Ivory(white), yellow & red. I've only seen platinum with their 1st gen.
Can somebody tell me how the colouring could affect the performance of the racket? I might understand if it is a bad batch or something, but colouring doesn't really makes sense
If the coloring is just an outside dye then it might affect texture/properties of outside jacket? I don't recall if each strand in the weave is just colored.
You are correct. http://www.ashawayusa.com/BadmintonIndexV2.php. Don't know what taneepak was talking about re gen 2 platinum colour.
it might affect texture of the string, but how it could significantly affect power and crispiness? all of them use same technology, same material but different dye if the dye affects power and crispiness, and we assume Yonex use same colour material, maybe this problem present in Yonex too? it would be fun to tell which one is better BG66 UM red, yellow or white of course we could assume it is not the dye, but different generation it would be interesting to compare platinum VS red
Currently, I have only 4 colors, platinum, red, ivory white and optic yellow in 2 gauges, 0.62 and 0.67. So far the red is the only one that stands out, or more appropriately disappoints. Perhaps my other non-red strings are of the first generation. Anyway I have written to Ashaway to complain, and may I add quite "loudly" about their below-par red. I have not had a reply from them since but it is early days, so I will wait.
Easy way to find out the generation: look at the labeling on the string itself. First gen will say the string type, e.g., "Ashaway USA Zymax 62" or something like that. Second gen will only say "Ashaway USA." Platinum is only available in the first gen, and red is only available in second, so you already know which ones those are.
If true then the "damage" is not as extensive. Perhaps Ashaway is sending out a test balloon with the red before they switch other clors to 2nd gen. If you are stuck with the poorer reds, which have a much higher dynamic stiffness and hence less crispness, you may try to "improve" its performance marginally by increasing tensions by at least 3lbs.
I have two different versions ( one is labelled as "Ashaway USA Zymax 62" and another one as "Ashaway USA" ) and both are red colors. I bought one from Eric and another one from Queensway.
I've actually had the opposite of this with genuine strings. In fact I've had both generations of strings with both markings so I'm afraid this isn't a 'concrete' way to differentiate.
I have white and red ZM65 but knowing me it's going to take a while to pop the string. It's been on for about 4-5 weeks already and no signs of fraying. I play 3 times a week for 2.5 hrs per session.
Ah man, really??? I thought that way was surefire. That means that it's basically impossible to determine what generation the strings are in those neutral packs from MBS...
I've emailed ashaway to see if they will do a 'swapsies' with my red string. I might have difficulty with the fact that it is 'mbs' style with no retail packaging, just a plastic tie.