Thanks for that advice! It is true that they feel completely different. I tried LN1 in the past already (1 String) but I think I tested it on the wrong racket, of the wrong weight, at the wrong tension, with the wrong grip, with the wrong shuttle quality and with the wrong skill level. I tested it on a 4U Forza Supreme, strung at 24x26lbs, with the extremely bad stock grip, with older (/used) training shuttles at a time when I was not the best at consistently hitting the sweetspot. I would now have it on ZFIIs, strung at maybe 29lbs, using excellent towel grip and decent shuttles. I've been used to playing well with the same racket and NBG99 strung around 32lbs. Though that string is way more forgiving than LN1, I've gotten more used to consistently producing well-centered shots (I'm still not perfect and I misshit often enough, but nowhere near as much as before). My impressions from LN1 at the time were mostly negative: -Great repulsion when hit well (very pleasant to do back to back clears with) -Extremely unforgiving -Very bad control -Annoyingly "slippery" stringbed -Stringbed felt too hard Going from that to a mere ZFII + NBG99 at 27.5 lbs felt like heaven, even though I was using the same old shuttles and stock grip on it at first. I'm psychologically self-unforgiving when it comes to making the wrong choices, or wasting time, which is why I'd like to get as much feedback as possible and accounts of the experience of long term users before making the jump (I'm not interested in "exploring", only in constant improvement). Starting with a lot of bad choices I've been lucky with badminton that nearly every change I've made so far has been beneficial compared to the previous state of things, but I would feel bad if I committed time too lightly and made a mistake I could have avoided. Every 4-5 months I make a big badminton order with a bunch of stuff, which is why I'd order a LN1 reel in white if I felt certain enough (that's how I went with NBG99 and I never regretted that choice). Buying individual LN1 strings just to try them out means I'd either have to order quite a few of them for up to 5 months, and waste money that could buy me a tube of AS50, or order an insufficient amount and have to wait several months until moving on to it. It's doable but avoidable.
Back at the end of 2017 I had issues with a reel of yellow BG80 snapping prematurely (1st week of use, often first session). It was very strange as it was my second reel of bg80 yellow, and nothing in my stringing setup had changed. The first reel performed reasonably well (strings lasted 2-4 weeks at 27 lbs). Lowering the tension from 27 to 25 and to 24 did nothing to change the lack of durability. Since then I ordered a reel of BG80 ivory which has been problem free and I use it in a hybrid pattern with G-Tone 5 as cross. It's hard to say definitively without larger data pool, but I remain convinced that the suspect reel was brittle resulting in premature breaks.
My experience: I made similar experiences with the first strokes. Feels harder than BG66UM and definitely very unforgiving. After a few hours, the LN1 is perfect and stays perfect! 0 - 5 hours = 66UM is better 5 - 10 hours = 66UM is slightly better 10 - x hours = LN1 gets better and better compared to 66UM I wouldn't play an important game with a fresh LN1 string!
After hearing how much people rave about this string i had to try it. I am a BIG fan of BG 80 and although i don't expect it to have the same feeling or control i expect to be close to 66 UM. I strung it at 28 lbs and my earlier setup was BG 80 at 27 lbs. Initial impressions wise the string felt very weird, it felt like i was hitting a plank, don't know if this is normal or not, but after 20 minutes the string opened up and it felt much, much better. It is definitely not as hard as BG 80 but it's not far off, probably medium+ in terms of stiffness. The repulsion was sublime, definitely up there or even better than 66 UM. The control though isn't as good as BG 80, but that is to be expected and it wasn't bad by all means, just not what i'm used to. No idea about durability since it was just strung yesterday but if it's more than a month (that's how long i usually break BG 80) then i'm more than happy. One more thing to note tho is that it is kinda harsh on mis-hits but i dont do so often so i'm not worried. Overall i had a great time with the string, i can definitely see myself using it often as a replacement for BG 80 but it will not take its place as the best string i've ever used, that title will always stay with BG 80.
Played with LN#1 for a while and I have previously played with BG80 and BG66UM. Currently string at 28lb: Feeling is HARD. The string response is very fast initially with not a lot of control/grip. When I first tried this string a lot of my nets went into the net because of the lack of power for the finesse shots; also it's slippery so when I do swiping shots/slices the string doesn't carry it/put a lot of spin. Clears and smashes were weird due to not having that string loading feeling. After maybe 2 sessions the string will settle out and give a bit more feedback on touch shots. I'll get a bit more pop off the strings on nets and smashes/clears will feel fuller. Its a good repulsion string. First 2 days of playing it I thought I made a mistake of getting it cause it was so unforgiving but after that its great. The feeling and playability doesn't die after its settled out to pretty much till it snaps. When I used BG66UM it'd last me 3 weeks at ~12h a week. LN#1 lasts me 2 months (yellow).
I really wonder which colour is the best (in terms of performance and longlasting feel) for this string? Is it better to go with white or yellow? Is there any difference between these two?
Don’t think so. Between white or yellow anyway. Go with the colour you like the most between the two.
Black "bad", yellow and white both excellent. There might be a very very slight advantage to yellow but that's just speculative from my part.
Actually, I tried yellow and white already. Yet I feel like yellow got tension drop easily, same racket, stringer, and tension (at 25lbs) but different knots. Yellow 2knots and white 4knots, now yellow is about 18lbs but white still fresh at around 22-23lbs. I checked it using Stringster App and the difference is there between these two colors. Does the knots affect tension drop?
My experience with obsessive tension tracking and testing is that the drop could vary quite a lot between two stringers with the exact same initial tension and pre-stretch values. I cannot know for sure what factor most affects the possible variation but it coming at least in part from different knots is highly probable. Maybe you could test next time the exact opposite (each stringer stringing the other color)?
Well actually it was same stringer. Only different knots. So, I assume it's because the knots. Thank you
Assuming the rackets started at the same tension and confirmed with stringster a large factor is going to be usage. It depends on the number of hours the racket is used for and also to a smaller amount, the types of shots played. Slices will wear strings quicker however full smashes will stretch the strings quicker. A racket strung and left alone with no hits for a week should not lose much tension but compare that to a racket used for 10+ hours during the same week and it will show a greater difference. It would be useful to include the details about when the rackets were strung and how many hours usage they have had when you checked their current tensions.
Well after some experiment with the same stringer, same racket, and same tension. I realized that No. 1 has huge drop tension after few hours (while Ultimax for me has more consistent tension hold at early stage then start to drop after few sessions), even when unused. Does anyone feel the same or it is just my mind? I used to play at 27-28 lbs and after few hours being unused it feels like the tension dropped to 23-24 lbs already. I love this string so much more than Ultimax, but if I can play with my tension range for longer time then it will be better. Is there any advice to make it play longer at that tension range (27-28lbs)? I read that prestretch for this string make it worse and my racket recommendation is 28 lbs only
LN1 is one of the strings that has the highest initial tension loss, though what you report seems more than what is normally expected (I use NBG99 as well which also drops a lot initially, and I did some extensive tension logging on the strings I've used so far). A racket initially strung with LN1 at 28.7 x 30.8lbs for my girlfriend (with 5% pre-stretch) was down to 26.2lbs a week idle (i.e. no play) after being strung, 25.13lbs after 12 hours of play, and 23.6lbs at 34 hours. I learned from the forum that you can go far beyond the rated max tension on Yonex rackets. My 3U ZFIIs held very well up to 35.8 lbs during stringing (coming out of the stringjob at 32.5lbs on stringster), though they are rated as max 28 lbs. I have yet to lose a ZFII despite rough treatment, I think they are very strong rackets. What is of greater concern is the limit of the string itself. On LN1 I ask for 5% pre-stretch instead of 10% because I think it cannot take too far above 30lbs without slightly deteriorating. The further up the tension the less the pre-stretch for thin strings may be a good rule to preserve ideal performance. If you string lower though, LN1 may be a string for which you'd want more pre-stretch than normal, because of how much tension it looses. Now if the racket really goes from 28 to 23 lbs in a matter of hours, I'd suspect something else might be wrong: The knots, or maybe the grommets (LN1 is good at eating through things so I imagine a new set of very poor quality grommets maybe could yield such a tension loss combined to LN1 at high tension).
28 to 23 does seem off tbh. Nevertheless, I always go higher at first on no.1 and let it settle at my sweet spot which is with like a day of hitting. I find this approach works better and the stringbed is more enjoyable than a straight up pre stretch. Personally.
Not sure if this is common knowledge, but I received a pack of LN No.1 recently and looking at the string it didn't look that thin. So I measured it with vernier calipers and it turns out that this string is between 0.69 - 0.71mm in diameter, which is quite different to the 0.65mm as advertised. This is good news for me though, as I prefer thicker strings.
Interesting information. The thickness can slightly vary along the string, is this the average at different portions? I wonder if it's a thicker core or maybe the coating (on NBG99 there's a coating which I noticed is very correlated to the "control" of the string, I wish it was a little bit longer on there). Have you measured other strings as well? It would be interesting to compare to see if the variance is proportional to advertised thickness. Maybe the standard thickness refers only to a specific portion of the string or pre-coating?
Yes strings do vary in diameter, not along its length, but when you rotate around the circumference. It seems they are not always circular in cross section. Strings with a spiral winding just beneath the surface (like BG80) is a good example of this. I have measured other strings too which do all seem to vary a bit but usually not as much as this. With the LN No.1, I didn't get anything below 0.69mm, it was mostly around 0.69-0.71, think I had one measurement at 0.72! I'd be interested to see what others get.
It would be good to measure the string when under tension. Some thickness measurements could be based on tensioned string, some not. Some manufactureers could be cheeky and say their string is 0.59mm* (when under 40lbs of tension)
I'm not sure that that would have any advantage commercially? I can't see why stating the wrong diameter would have any benefit as most players who have an opinion on strings base their opinion on how they perform for them, not what it says on paper. So for instance, although I prefer thicker strings (0.68mm+) I don't like all thick strings. In fact, I only like a few.
