After changing all the grommets of my racket it feels completely different when playing. Not only is the ping shorter but the feeling is way worse although it has been strung exactly like the others. Is this normal? Can you prevent this from happening? Anyone with similar experience?
I have never noticed any difference after changing grommets. What is your racket? Did it have special grommets ?
It's Li Ning 80TD. No special grommets, strung with Aerosonic. Ping is much shorter and the stringbed feels a lot less lively while playing.
Yeah, same here. I thought about the grommets length to affect the feel but I'm not really sure that is it. I'll play a few times with it now, maybe it needs to settle.
Did you flare all shared one? I don't know the 80TD, but the stock grommets of the older rackets were quite soft. Some people are very sensitive to this. While having a 72 holes pattern, it could be that the strings of the shared one can't move as good as the with flared one. Can you exclude any stringing issue? Like mounting, clamping, different batch of AS, setting on the Wise, knots? What grmmets do you use? Did you apply U-grommets around the T-Joint? Li-Ning don't have them as stock. Maybe this can be the reason? For non-shared I cut the around 1mm from the frame. For shared I cut them between 2-3mm from the frame and flare them.
What do you mean by that? Yes, everything like always. Same reel, same mounting, clamping and knots. Some from MBS and some from Li Ning. The 80TD doesn't have U-grommets around the T-Joint. Okay, I will try this with my other 80TD.
Perhaps the difference is due to the fact that old used grommets are thinner than new-ones and then the contact of the string with the frame is closer than with new ones. So better feel of the shuttle. Etc. Turning used into new makes a big difference in terms of proximity of the string to the frame. It doesn't surprise me that : more "plastic" between the string and the frame = less feeling
Oh great... so good that string, tension, tension ratio, pattern, knots, pre-stretch and stringing technique aren't enough reasons for neverending performance paranoia already!
So, let me summarize: racket with old grommets = good feeling racket with new grommets = bad feeling racket with new grommets cut very short = okay feeling racket with new grommets cut short after a restring or 2 weeks = good feeling I think the problem is that I didn't cut the grommets short enough at first. After I trimmed them as short as possible without the string damaging the frame the good feeling was back. I cut the strings of my racket and cut the grommets short, after that I strung it again and could tell straight away after feeling the longer ping. A session on the court confirmed it. But - I don't know how to describe it properly - I think the grommets need some time to "settle in", the original feel comes back after the second stringjob with the new grommets or after a while using the first one, but it needs some time. Because on my second racket I cut them short straight away, but it wasn't the same as the other one. So it must have been the restring or the time passing.
