So with Aerobite being a thing, and having dabbled with hybrid setups myself, I've come up with a few bits of information for people. Use the mains for control, and the crosses for power The mains should be fairly rough or rubbery to provide control on shots. This works better than rough crosses because you'll have an easier time overall putting top spin on a shot. Rough crosses with smooth mains can make drop shots a lot more difficult. Thickness isn't the main factor; thin strings are likely to provide more repulsion, so it's likely you'll end up with thinner crosses. The elasticity of the strings needs to be close. This means the softer string should be strung tighter. Again this is likely to be crosses. With my experiments, +2 was sufficient to provide a good hitting feeling with BG80/LN#1. A square tension can feel mushy with hybrids. Some strings are too soft to pair with some other strings; Aerosonic will have a difficult time surviving paired with BG80 mains, simply because BG80 is very coarse and Aerosonic isn't particularly durable. Mixing 'the same string but different gauges', i.e. Li Ning No.5 with Li Ning No.1, or ZM69F with ZM62F, is unlikely to provide a significantly better result than one or the other alone. If it feels better, it's likely you've got a better tension ratio between mains and crosses. Strings with Titanium Hydride coating tend to make good crosses (Yonex TI strings, Li Ning #1/3/5/7, possible the Zymax Fire strings), as they're resistant to being damaged by the mains. EDIT: Don't be fooled by gauge; the crosses can eat the mains. LN#1 is likely to outlive anything you put as its main, including BG80. Aerosonic chews through the thick main in Aerobite. Some of the benefits include: Keeping a solid feeling with lower tensions (if you're using something like BG80 or 80P as mains) you get a much harder feeling string bed. An increase in repulsion without sacrificing all of the control as with a string like NBG98 Don't need very high tensions to retain good shuttle control Some hybrid setups tested with success: Aerobite (kind of obvious, no?) BG80/LN #1 R4X 110/LN #1 (Duckfeet) BG80P/ZM62 (Swsh) BG80/66UM Feel free to add more information. I've been toying around with this and monitoring what people have said about hybrid combinations, and this is just my general list of concepts to consider when putting together a hybrid setup. If you contribute to this discussion and list your hybrids, please format them as: Mains/Crosses MainTension x CrossTension Example: BG80/LN#1 24 x 26 This just keeps it easier to read! Added and removed some info in this post!
What tensions did you try out, and how long has it lasted? I would absolutely expect AS to snap very quickly past 27lbs with BG80/P.
28/30 lasted around 14h, BG80P isn’t as rough as normal version so I guess it didn’t cut in as much as normal 80. I do prefer your current BG80/LN1, truely amazing haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Li Ning No.1 is a fairly hard feeling .65mm string, so I think it works with BG80 if you put +2 on the No.1. I think AS would feel too soft with BG80 anyway. I've strung some BG80P, it's fairly rough, you can feel the vectran, but yeah it's not quite as bitey as BG80.
Has anyone tried GT5 hybrids? It’s a hard feeling string with rough properties. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’ve got a stringless racket now, might give BG80/GT5 a go - I’ll update once I’ve tried it out Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thinner one on mains? I've not used GT5 but I'd be under the assumption BG80 is the grippier string of the two, and would want to be on the mains. I don't know how well BG80/GT5 would work, I feel like GT5 is more balanced than some of the pure repulsion strings, and might be better off as the main with a repulsion string cross (like AS, 66UM, No.1)
Thinner in the mains? I swear it’s thinner on the crosses?? I’ve been doing it wrong then haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Oops, heheh, haven't gotten my cup of coffee yet... I stand corrected, should be thinner on crosses...
I mean, you could give it a go you'd have too much grip across the racket and not enough to put good top spin on I think. Would give you floaty shots I reckon.
@swsh So you had suggested to me a hybrid of GT5 and 62F. I'm usually using GT5 @25x27, so I'll be doing GT5 mains and 62F crosses at those tensions?
98 has a lot more power on offer while having most of AS's repulsion. Smashes are a lot better with 98 than pure AS for which I think AB will stand as a nice test for me. Will it edge out No.1 that is in transit or my 98jp in pure power? I'm not too sure tbh. Oh and, 62 Gen1 with 80p was also tested successfully on Shreyas's racket. We both found it one of the best setups we had tried despire it being 6 lbs lower than my normal tension. What a crisp and nice feeling stringbed that was. Shame the racket broke in a clash. Hard mains and soft-er crosses seems to be the winning formula as of right now. So I'd imagine GT5 mains at 25 and 62F. I think 62 Gen. 1 would match it very well and it's available on e78... *MUST RESIST* I'll be doing a bunch of hybrids with the No.1's. The infamous black packets again so will keep you posted on it as well.
It's really doesn't like to display it's true characteristics below crazy tensions which absolutely sucks. I'm hoping AB solves that as I do slice a lot. Just cut off my 98 and all ready for it tomorrow. Has a lot of negativity around it (AB) which for once doesn't bother me that much. People were hellbent on taking apart 66um and I thought it was a great string.