I don't know what year or version this is (does anyone know?), but it's the one that was mostly dark maroon with grey at the top and a small bit of white half-way up the head. It's seen it's fair share of work, paint missing in lots of places, even turns the shuttle red on mis-hits, but no cracks or chips, and I thought it felt pretty good. Freshly strung with BG65 @ 25 lbs. A friend wants to trade me it and $100 cash for another racquet I have that I was going to sell anyway. I was thinking about getting a Bravesword 12, but then this came up. Can anyone compare the two rackets?
it is a good racket. in fact, i was using mine just this Monday. but whether the particular one you are looking at is still good considering its age, is hard to say.
Thanks kwun, I played with it last night and it felt very good. It felt balanced, maybe just a little head heavy, but light enough that I could use good wrist snap with it, and partly because it is about 1/2" shorter than my current rackets. Smashes were medium, I'd consider changing the string to something like LN No.1, or something a little more repulsive. Pretty sure it is first gen. Two things I didn't like about it were the small head, and it seemed to be slow in responding to and returning net-high drives, and anything when you didn't have time to get a full swing. It seemed fine everywhere else. This friend is the original owner, had it since high school. Even though some of the paint is missing in many places, it played very solidly and felt newish. Would a first-gen Li Ning N90 be a better option? Still considering a BS12 as well, but have never tried either of these rackets.
If you have an AT700 never sell it. It is a very good and desireable racket. Yonex need to launch a re-re-release of this wonderful racket IMO. The re-release in 2012 was great but all those rackets are sold out already. An AT700 2020 edition is what Yonex needs, of course in 3U.
LN N90 is way heavier and bulkier than the AT700. IMHO, the AT700 is a better racket overall. BS12 is a completely different beast all together. it will feel lighter and faster but less in terms of weight/momentum/power.
Finally I can try out this bad boy I bought just before the Corona lock down. A friend had it laying around collecting dust. I bought it for only €20! . Only 1 or 2 minor paint chips. 3U AT700 gen II, with genuine Yonex clicking sound at the cone . Originally a G3 handle, but shaved it down to about a G5. Replaced original grip with one layer of old supergrap and a new supergrap double wrapped. Strung it this weekend with BG80 @32 lbs. I'm very curious. Never had an AT700. Do have a first gen AT500, but somehow the AT500 is more head heavy. Tonight first try.
I sold mine back to the friend I bought it from, but we still play together. So next time I see him and he has it I can weigh it and measure the BP. I gave it back because it was just too stiff for me, otherwise a fabulous racket. If anyone is interested I can ask him if he'd like to sell it, because he never uses it. I think it was his first racket which is the only reason he has kept it. It is first gen and in great condition, still a killer weapon. I could take pictures as well.
AT700 first gen was pretty awesome. I used to use the AT700 LTD as my main racket and I dominated in tournaments with pure power. Nowadays, I don't think I can wield the LTD version anymore, and I sold off the gen 1. The gen1 was more agile and less stiff than later versions. It made for a really good all rounder racket. It can easily sell for a good amount of money nowadays as they're highly desirable. The only thing I caution is don't go too high tension on these yesteryear rackets. I broke quite a few when my strings snapped back in the days
After playing with sub-80 gram rackets the past 6 months, I picked up my friends First Gen AT700 again just for the heck of it (the same one I bought the first time and sold back to him). Immediately it felt like it was alive in my hand compared to the whicker brooms I had been using, I felt the potential for power from the weight, and that weight felt like I had more control. I played a few games with it, and fell in love with it again, even though it bit me several times drawing blood on the back of my opposite hand while whispering "you're not good enough for me, send me home." It's a good thing I did gain experience using those lighter rackets though, because now I know what a fast, maneuverable racket should feel like, and the AT700 isn't it. It felt very sluggish on defense, at the net and returning smashes, so I had to put more effort into it to get it to respond fast enough. Today my shoulder and back muscles are sore from the extra effort, but the feel, control, and extra power it can generate are worth it. I immediately sold my light-weight, and bought back the AT700 for $100 ... again.
Since it was asked, the balance point of this 1st generation AT700 is 293 mm from the butt, weighs 92 grams, and is 26.25 inches long. I know the BP seems wrong, but this racket has two layers of Yonex Super Grap tape wrapped up, over the ferrule as shown in the picture, and is strung with BG 65. So to try to compensate for the extra grip wrap, I taped 6 pennies together (15g) and placed them in the middle of the racket head. This is the only problem, I had no idea where to put the pennies. Any other location would skew this measurement considerably, but done so, the BP was 328 mm. If anyone has a better way to do this without taking off the second layer of tape, I'd be happy to remeasure to your specs
