IMO this voodoo of patterns and one-piece vs. two-piece and TD vs. BU is not really noticeable. You can also argue that one-piece also don't lasts longer than two piece, because you pull all cross string thru the main holes before etc. You can also argue that the starting clamp damage slightly the string etc. IMO the difference is so marginal that talking about these small differences is really time-wasting and placebo. I doubt that any pattern is prone to break early or more durable than another as long they are done at same tension and ratio and properly no pattern is more adorable than another in terms of power, durabilty of the string etc. If you go for any mortal and hit the top of the racket badly and hard, string will be gone. I call it bad luck regardless which pattern. The wear and tear in the sweet spot are due hitting is the same. I don't count the hits with the job or rate the hits in terms of force. Sometime you get X months out of a restring and sometimes Y months. It's random. I made the experience that I ate or drunk something special before the training. I played this day pretty decent. I tried to eat or drink it before every training, pretty disappointing I never got the impression to play so decent like on this special day. I also made the experience with different rituals, patterns and strings before training, tournaments or league games. before. I changed something and got the great performance. Sticking with it never lead to this great performance. I never found out what lead to these great days.
Seems like the average YY pattern with the quality of a factory job. Can't find anything disturbing, but judging from just one photo is not always fair.
Thanks for the additional enlightenment. So is the above statement in reference to my racket's stringing job? I tried doing some reading about stringing patterns and effects on the racket ( such as deformation, etc), and haven't digested yet the infos so my current level of knowledge about this stuff still needs a lot of help. I find it kinda too technical for me at this point. What other shots/angles that I should show so you can have a better picture of it? Thanks too for the comments.
Your racket looks fine to me Looks like a very normal two piece bottom up string job. Knots and patterns both look correct. As for deformation it's really simple. 1) The less evenly you apply tension, the more likely you are to deform a racket. If you do stuff like side-to-side pulling on mains, that's going to increase chances of deformation. 2) You should start applying tension at the most structurally sound part of the racket. Usually meaning, close to the throat of the racket. This is why bottom up is usually preferable. The bottom part of the racket tends to be stronger than the top part. 3) If any string on the racket breaks, you should cut the remaining string bed as this results in uneven tension across the racket. Common deformations include: Warping - usually caused by a poor mounting system - where the racket head ends up twisted. Egg shaped rackets - where the top part of the racket has been tensioned poorly - making the racket an egg shape rather than a clean oval. Squished rackets - usually caused by high tension and poor mounting - where the mains are pulled tightly but the mounting system isn't tight enough, resulting in a more circular shaped racket than normal. (Can also be caused by doing the mains at a higher tension than the crosses.) Basically if your stringer has any idea what they're doing, you'll be fine. Your racket looks fine to me. I don't think you'll face issues with your current stringer looking at that job.
If you racket is not bend, crocked or not symetrical, your racket is fine. May I suggest you this? forget about horror of stringer, just enjoy your racket. YY pattern is just fine, you have a expensive racket, you should just really enjoy it instead of trying to find bugs.
As long as you are not a stringer yourself or at least planning to become one, there is not much sense in digging yourself too deeply into patterns and other technical stuff. One exception: You are @visor and dig yourself so deeply into the topic that you end up knowing a lot more about stringing than 90% of all the stringers out there... but still don't have your own machine at home. As others have said, you will not notice a consistent difference while playing if your racket was done 1-piece, 2-piece, bottom up, top down etc. etc. - as long as your stringer knows what he's doing. Pay attention to any kind of deformations of the racket head (easiest way to do that: measure the total length of the racket, it should be close to the same value strung and unstrung). Also looks if you can find exceptionally long pieces of string running on the outside of the frame. And if you come across something weird, take a picture and post it here. Your new VTLDF looks fine, there is no need to worry about that. As fanfaron said, just enjoy your new racket and maybe let us know how it plays!
Thanks again guys for the very helpful and useful infos. I just make it a point to know as much informations as I could possibly gather about my newfound sport, so that I have an idea on how to possibly go about on anything that concerns it, stringing or anything else My stringer could be screwing things up for me already and I'm still clueless on what's happening, so it's good to know as well some things about this and the opinions and knowledge of other people with experience on this regard. On the subject of the racket, I must say that overall, I was blown away when I tried it out last night. I got the 4U version and as soon as I started using it, a whole lot of good vibes with it connected so well right away. I was kind of expecting that I'll need some adjustment period to get used to this high specs racket but surprisingly it felt so user friendly immediately upon using it. I had so much fun whipping it around the court and never felt tiredness like what I experienced a lot of times with my voltric 5. Somehow I felt that it is indeed friendlier to use than my VT80.
hat stringer went the wrong way, got the outside part and just couldn't be bothered. I feel his pain, it doesn't belong in here, it's owner does.
Pretty sure i remember looking it up when i got one to string, and the photo on the carlton website had it strung that way. It made sense to me to do it the other way, so i did, but the outer main string would never straighten out properly.
That's definitely wrong. A razor was the 4th racquet I ever did, I had to restart the crosses twice to get it right. If I ever see it again, the owner is getting a poke in the eye.
Razors... kill me. I used to have to start weaving the crosses from the lowest "slits" - that's about ten up from the bottom - just to be sure they'd be right. A ridiculous racket from drawing board to mold.
...Thankfully I've never seen such a racket (along with the Forza 96 hole) before to string... >knocks on wood< I'd either walk away...or maybe charge 50% more for labour and mental stress. =P
Did this racket several times. Needs some brain so stringing drunk not an option, but it is possible to do it right. Carlton produce some painful rackets. Some of them are so fat at the top, that they don't fit into a Load spreader. An some have such big holes that a 2.7mm grommet falls out of the frame.
To add salt to the wound, the stringer who did it uses a Yonex 2 strings 4 knots patterns on this 20x21 holes racket ended up 3 knots on the top frame. Ya, this is a painful racket to string, I got it right on the second run. I will make sure to charge double next time I come across any Razors.
Babolats have also 3 knots at the top. These engineers which develops these patterns and layouts should be tared and feathered.
Got yesterday a racket from a good friend. The job is in mint conditions (no fraying, no notching). He is a big collector of rackets > 50 rackets, so this racket was done years ago but not repaired. As I looked at the knots and pattern my jaw dropped to the floor. @kakinami @kwun @DarthHowie @Mark A @paulstewart64 @dbswansea @Alex82 @Rob3rt @s_mair
