Hello, a club member just gave me his two Yonex Armortech 900 Technique rackets for stringing. While inspecting the rackets for any damages I spotted different grommet alignments / stringing patterns in both rackets. Shouldn't these be identical for all rackets from the same model? One racket is 3U and the other one is 4U. Here are some more pictures to compare these two rackets: 4U left, 3U right 3U left, 4U right (different fonts and red box looks different) 3U top, 4U bottom (sticker peels off) 3U left, 4U right (shared holes (72) vs. single grommets (76) at top) 3U top, 4U bottom (different sized grommets at B6 and B7) 3U left, 4U right 3U top, 4U bottom 3U top, 4U bottom I suspect that one of these is fake, while the other one is real. Or did yonex change the stringing pattern during the years? Or could the different country codes (JP and GR) or 3U/4U be the reasons for these differences? Nonetheless if it is real or fake, how should I tie off the 3U racket? Normally the knot for the mains would be at B8 and the starting knot for the crosses at B6. Since the 3U racket doesn't have large grommets at B6, but B7 instead, should I just make the starting knot at B7? Or should I string it with one piece (2 knots) I'm confused
Dang the 3U is definately fake. This is the first time I've seen a fake Japan coded racket! Where it says elastic Ti, all Japan models should say Gumetal
In my experience 95% of fakes are coded JP and the others CH or other Asia codes. Very rarely ( I've not seen or heard of one) will a fake racket be US, UK, GR, AU or other "minor market" coded. And just to confirm the 3u is fake. It appears to be have only copied the paintwork on a generic frame.
Yes it is very unlikely but not impossible. It's fairly easy to check the date of production on the cone which usually doesn't make sense on fakes and see if the shaft code matches up to this. This only applies to yonex rackets though and I've never understood why fakers don't just copy a genuine rackets codes.
your first time? JP SP and CH are the top three fake codes the JP one, cone code and shaft serial doesn't match that JP one also has wrong butt cap so, the JP one are definitely fake
How do you guys read the cone code and the shaft serial? Looking at the picture neither the GR or JP codes match the shafts
based on countless time looking at the genuine and fake one dave nothing wrong with the GR one, since at 2011, Yonex reach 9999999, and reset back to 2XXXXXX. on the other hand, the JP one (the fake one) is at 2010 production, but still at 7XXXXXX. if you choose to believe it is 2001 production, then 7XXXXXX is too high for 2001 production
