@mikomi Have you found any differences between the various colours? So far I've only tried blue and white, and I'm finding blue feels stiffer and lasting longer than white, which is fraying quite quicksand losing playability after only 10-12 hrs play. So, now I'm likely not getting it in a white reel.
Well, all my strings are green except for one. I plan to get pink, red, blue and orange when I order again. I find the orange more bouncy(?), could be the tension. At 26lbs (Type X 2.0 - orange GT5) everyone is saying it sounds like I'm hitting the bird with a wooden board. Then I switch to the JS10 (green GT5 @ 30lbs) everyone is says I'm hitting with a solid metal board. As for tension, I found there's a second drop in tension after 5 hours of play* and it holds even again. I have over 20 hours on my Type X 2.0 orange GT5 @ 26lbs. No fraying. I have about 15 hours on the JS10 @ 30lbs, no fraying either. These strings have lasted a lot longer than I expected them to, waaaay longer. I'm pleasantly surprised. It certainly outlives BG66UM (I usually break it within an hour) and RX110 R4X (loses flavour faster than the GT5). So .. maybe you need to stop slicing so much. *it might have coincided when I went into a smashing marathon. For training the kids for an upcoming tournament I was unleashing hard shots on them (they need to get used to not being afraid so much of getting a welt when they get hit) for a good hour, that might have gotten the strings to settle in more. But I haven't seen the tension drop much since and I'm still unleashing as many hard shots as I can during their training.
Nah, I don't slice much. The white was just fraying badly, initially noticeable even at 6 hrs play. Maybe bad batch, but never experienced this with any other string so soon before. Just ordered more GT5 and LN#1 from MBS yesterday. Will see how the orange and blue GT5 hold up. Already have the blue and it's great. Glad I didn't get a reel in white.
I wonder what about your play style leads to more fraying? I almost never get fraying before it breaks or the string goes flat and I cut them. Does this mean my smashes are weak sauce.
Nah, I'm not powerful either. Like I said... I've never experienced such fraying at 6-10 hrs with other strings ever before. The blue is perfectly fine still at 8 hrs. Something must be wrong with that white batch, I hope. If that's how all the white GT5 plays then Gosen has a big problem on its hands.
So Visor's recommended me the G-Tone 5, I need a bit of help. If I usually string my Vt80 4u's at 26lb with Zymax 65, what tension should I be looking at for G-Tone 5?
After looking at the specs on the G-Tone 5, I kind of came to this conclusion too. Same diameter as my usual ZM65 anyway. Let you guys know how it goes.
Just FYI, ZM65 is not 0.65mm and ZM62 is not 0.62mm. As a matter of fact, there's a pic earlier in the thread where I compared side by side ZM62F, LiNing #1 and GT5. GT5 is thinner than both.
No kidding?! I was going off this... http://www.ashawayusa.com/BadmintonIndexV2.php I did see your picture earlier and it does look thinner.
Just put up GT5 for 25/27, my last strung string was ZF62 at 28/30. Initial hit feeling was hard, much harder than ZF62 at higher tension. After a second trial yesterday, I started to like this string. Hitting sound is loud, smash is powerful but a notch behind ZF62 which is 0.62mm, pretty impressive for a 0.65mm gauge string. It retains the tension pretty well even on standard yonex 2 strings pattern, so far I had 5 hrs on it and hardly feel any lost of tension. Compare to ZF62, first few hits was "wow...........wow" and after 2 hrs of play the feeling has completely gone. The sliding and gliding is awesome with this string, and manage to pull off a few sharp gliding half smashes which I had a hard time to do with other strings.
Update I'm nearing 20 hours of play on the JS10 @ 30/32, but this time it's been all 100% full fledged doubles at full speed. I've beaten the crap out of the strings (+100 hard smashes), probably not long before they snap with the heavy fraying where the mains and crosses meet at the sweet spot area . But the strings have lost a lot of tension after that marathon smashing session. Probably at ~26 lbs at this point but they're also close to snapping soon. I'm surprised they lasted so long, for me they're outliving NBG99.
So I finally got my VT80 4u and ZF2 4u strung with Gosen G-Tone 5. Had a 2-hr session today but got some initial impressions on the string. 1. As you guys have said, when you catch it in the sweet spot. It's loud and you launch missiles. I hit what was intended to be a half smash but still got some impressive pace on it. 2. When you don't get it in the center you get some weird vibration and some loss of power For the short period I had a hit out with it today I was very impressed. However my stringer noticed that the Yellow G-Tone 5 would stretch during stringing. Obviously he didn't like that very much but it played very well. The blue had no stretch whatsoever. Will keep you updated on how it goes when I get more time on those strings.
Today's experiment: Hybrid string job JS10 with GT5 (G) + ZM62F (W) @ 32/34lbs. Sounds so good when I was test serving at home. Tonight I'm gonna hammer a few birds and see how it goes.
The idea was "why not?" That's it. I wasn't looking for any improvements over GT5. And I thought the white and lime green color contrast would be neat. So not very profound reasons at all. ASfter a few games, the verdict is: Control seemed better as I had an easier time making tight drops. Lifts are a lot more effortless, to the point that I had to reign in my swing because I was clearing it 2-3 meters out of bounds, yikes. Despite having overpowered lifts, my smashes were about the same. Except the sound is now less boomy and more like cracking thunder, metallic. The feel is definitely harder than just GT5, it would put it a half point higher on the hardness. Verdict: I think I'll do another hybrid string job on one my racquets. I certainly didn't mind it. I'll mix RX4 110 with the GT5. But which should be the cross and main?