I assume you never double over grip or it has been a very long time before you tried it. Even if you double over grip it to build up a grip, you can still see the corner easily. In my experience, once a point start, your instinct know how much grip to rotate for back hand and forehand. My understanding of the adhesive for towel grip is to grip on the surface of the grip or handle. I tried bare towel with no glue on my tennis racquet when I was in highschool, you need to wrap it bery tight so it will stay in place. That just takes out and cushion of the shot. (note, tennis impact is much harder than badminton) IMHO, towel grip is designed as over.grip and can be used as rerplcement grip just like the regular replacement grip.
I am using replacement PU grips on top of original Yonex grips. This is working out very nicely. The end result is perfectly sized racket handles for me. The shock dampening of this arrangement is unsupassable by over grips. Replacement grips are heavier. But then I like rackets with a little weight. I don't really think it matters that much whether over grip or replacement grip is used, if you are not worried that the grip underneath might get messed up by the glue. Having held someone's racket with damp towel grip, can't say I find it pleasant. The PU grips I use are very grippy. They become more grippy when damp. I don't think I will ever need towel grip. But I imagine the towel gripped racket will become more powerful as it gains weight from soaking up sweat, or less powerful if you haven't the strenght to handle the weight increase.
Cooldoo6, I totally agree with you that people should make the necessary mod to their racquet to get the most potential out of their investment. Some people like 1 PU grip over origional (me too) and some like towel grip. Some like double grip and some like bare wood. I just think some member is making confilcting statements. He advicate not to make any mod to the racquet he designed (and some are off his spec) while he is taking off the origional grip and replace it with towel grip only. And all his posts still has not answer any questions from before...
From extensive experimentation, I know all rackets are off spec for me, and I am the only one who knows the correct spec for me. For anyone to claim they know the correct spec for me having never met me is just ludicruous. Mr Vectran E-1000 is well known for his off-spec speak. We don't have to be too serious about it.
With my personal experience, I think 1-2 layers of overgrip (with or without original grip) is still thinner than a towel grip (with or without original grip). Therefore, if you can feel the 8 sides with a towel grip, I don't see why you can't feel it with 1-2 layers of overgrip.
Besides Yonex and Kason, are there any other manufacturers who produced racquets in different grip sizes?
Actually Yonex, Kason, and other racquet manufacturers do not make the wooden holds (handles) themselves. They are usually supplied by contractors according to specifications. Wooden holds come in various grip sizes and weights. So, yes any racquet manufacturer can make racquets with many grip sizes. However, special small order customers for a proprietary new brand racquet usually do not have a choice of different grip sizes unless their orders are in batches of a 1,000.
A towel grip over another grip? That defeats the purpose of using a towel grip. Towel grips are about the best grips for feel and touch but only if they are worn next to the wooden handle. But their useful life is rather short because all the sweat on the towel grip will make the towel grips stiff. A racquet in which you make full use of all the 8 sides of the handle is always better than one that makes you feel only an all round 'side' or even one that feels 4-sided. Foe example, a backhand clear from deep at the back requires the 2 sides on the edge. A backhand from the middle requires the use of the bevels. Without these purpose-built features in a handle, as for example in a round grip, how do you play these shots well?
Also a backhand shot in front of you requires the use of one flat side of the handle for your thumb. With a round grip, how do you know where you are and where do you get the friction and the leverage? Maybe round grip advocates have a type of 6th sense or touch which I don't have. And why do manufacturers keep on making 8-sided wooden handles?
Two layers of overgrip over an original grip is definitely thicker than a replacement towel grip. Mind you most towel grip users buy bulk towel grips in a big roll and cut them as and when they need a new one, and they do not overlap the towel grip when wrapping it over the bare wooden handle. The towel grip is very porous, even the base padding, and all its trimmings ("hairs") are like sentinels that give your hand great feel and touch. With an original grip which has padding, adhesive and maybe ridges, etc, plus two overgrips, I doubt you can feel much of the bevels especially if your handle is a small one. Bevels provide leverage, traction and racquet head angle awareness to enable you to adjust to different grip for different strokes. It will impede your ability to properly hold and swing a racquet. This is one reason why no manufacturers will be mad enough to come out with a round handle, which actually will save them some costs.
Here's a picture of my racket with 2 supergraps over the original grip. They're both yellow so it's a bit hard to tell them apart. You can still see the 8 edges of the handle, and when I hold it I definitely feel them. Hope this helps. The second picture shows how much I overlap the 2 layers of supergrap. Both layers are wrapped the exact same way.
I just keep things simple, keep the original grip. I would get a supergrap and just wrap it over the original grip. The feeling is pretty nice, I don't really have much problem about it.
