I know a stringer that uses this, and substantially lowers tension on their first cross pulls to avoid breaking the string or the racket. Meaning if you ask for 30lbs, they'll do the first pull at 26~27, and then gradually increase towards the centre. They swear by using this method, what does BC think of this pattern?
http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/8079-Proportional-Stringing-Method/page14 Even the recommended Victor patterns have a bit of this proportional stuff included. Bottom line is, that you will end up with a stringbed that overall feels softer than without lowering the tension on the outer strings (pretty logical, isn't it?) and with a possibly bigger sweet spot (lower tension -> bigger sweet spot... again, no real miracle if you ask me...). So it's one more thing that you may or may not do. Best would be to just give it a try and see if you feel any positive effect. I tried it, didn't like it better than going the non-proportional, square and easy way and so dropped it again. And what comes on top is, that I felt like the tension differences between the strings were evening out after only a couple of sessions which makes you end up with... well... a softer stringbed... Although it is controversially discussed if and how much the friction on the grommets are able to retain the tension differences.
Proportional stringing is just a way to tell people you string at 30lbs when you really are not. His string job probably feels the same as if it was strung at 28 or 29lbs normally. I regularly string at 30lbs (bottom up) without proportional stringing and never broke a racket/string from it. I can definitely understand the need to use proportional stringing when you are not confident that the racket will survive though, I think that's the only good reason to do it.
With mad tensions I will sometimes "fade in" with the crosses, but only to protect my starting knot; we're talking -3, -1, full tension, or something similar. My 1PBU 33/34 are 34 from the very first cross, and I haven't yet broken any frames. Not even a 4U.
I partly agree, because it depends how you translate the request, which is difficult without knowing him. 30lbs could mean many things and they don't must be lower. if you do 28lbs mains and fade to 30 on the crosses i would call it lower than 30. If you do 29 mains, and fade from 29 to 31 it would be nearly compensated. I heard theis method from a real oldschool stringer (72yo) to get a better shape on an isohead at the corners. Never understand this hassle because I'm happy with my method: request = cross = main +1. I do it same like you, but if somebody translate it to an accurate amount, it won't be lower. I prefer BU or Haribito basic compared to a fancy fadey-fade with spider jumps around the head and freaky stuff.
And if it actually changed the shape of the racket, away from an Iso shape, and more towards the old Prince egg shape?
I'm only refering to the standard proportional stringing assuming that the requested tension is the highest tension used during the string job.
So I have to ask, how do you deal with the clamping in this situation? Use a starting clamp to free up your fixed clamps?
Didn't you use to do 2pc and tie off @ B10 to avoid all the fuss with 1pc and starting clamps with this pattern ?
My starting clamp is an utter POS; I use a Yonex-style flying clamp against the frame with a beermat in between. Never seen slippage even at my tensions. The Meteor was designed to be one-piece. Or designed by an idiot, one or the other. My first 5-10 stringjobs were done this way because that was Yonex's recommended pattern back then. How things change. And then change again.
Aah that makes sense, I might start doing that. Previously I was using a flying clamp to hold the string inside the racket, and a starting clamp on the outside. I still can't see any advantage to doing a 2 piece top down proportional job, it seems prone to having lower tensions, and it just seems to warp and ruin racket head shapes.
What does these letters mean? I think the underlined can be very disturbing and offending for any german.
I've been doing 2 piece top down proportional for about 8 years with tensions up to 30-32 lbs without any issues and get opposite feedback with regards to tension and racket shape. I'm not debating which approach is best, but want to highlight that as a stringer, 1 piece (various patterns), 2 piece (TD vs BU) and proportional are all valid approaches to stringing a racket. I would argue that 1 piece Haribito Pro uses elements of proportional as well. But my definition of "proportional" may be different from others. When I start the crosses I tension the first cross with the starting knot at the same tension as the mains. The next 3 crosses are done at a tension 1 pound more than the mains and the remaining crosses afterwards are done at ~10% more than the mains. This is what i do with my Gamma 6004 and the racket shape remains the same to naked eye. I think its safe to say that other stringers in this forum can achieve this with different/same machines and different main & cross tensions to achieve the same result. There's no magic bullet but I know everyone here is passionate to achieve "near perfect" stringing
