I usually have my racket strung at 28 lbs. But now that I am in Far East Russia where badminton isn't so popular, I am happy to find a local club and a local stringer who does it at his own spare time. I've asked him to string my racket recently, but he refused to string at 28 lbs in fear that the strings will just break. He's strung it at a much lower tension. I found out when I got back my racket and started playing. It feels loose. He strung at 10kg or 22 lbs. I wanted 28 lbs, so in his units, it would be approx 13kg. Is it a worthy concern? Anyway, I had the same racket strung at much higher tension back home and had no issues. He is using a mechanical stringer - not digital. I look forward to your experience and guidance on how I can advice the stringer on what precautions to take to minimize string breakage at higher tensions. He's not a professional stringer.
1) I think it's great that the stringer is honest and up front with you that he is not comfortable stringing at this tension for fear of breaking the string and/or the racket. 2) Clearly he's comfortable stringing up to 10 kg. Maybe ask for 11 kg or 12 kg next time? Slowly ease him upwards? 3) If you insist to him that you want 28 lbs, you need to bear the risk that if your racket is broken you can't lay the fault on him since he already warned you. You bear the responsibility. 4) You could find out more about his machine (2 point vs 6 point supports). I can understand why he would be uncomfortable if his machine has 2 point supports instead of 6. Whether the machine is electronic or not should not have much influence on the quality of the string job. It's the stringer's skill and ability. 5) To find out more about his abilities you can ask him how many rackets he's strung and the highest tension he has strung. This will help you get more a background and comfort level of him. I hope this helps. This should be a good guide to anyone looking for a new stringer wherever they are. I could go further about whether they provide grommet removal, but I think it's important to ask questions first! I do have to warn you that the forum members here are more meticulous and anal than your typical badminton player especially those that post on the stringing forums . There's a reason why we own machines .
I think you should just tell him to pull 13kg and if the string breaks, not to worry about it that you'll pay him even if the string snaps. I've snapped strings while pulling +35lbs. Scary as heck, but no big deal. Lost some string, but the racket was always fine. Whatever do you mean? Oh, hold on. Let me pull this Gosen R4X 110 at 17kg.
All valid points and I think a good suggestion how to proceed. I would also give that new stringer a clear plus point for being open and honest about it. I know what would happen if I approached many of the German stringers (especially those in sport shops) and requesting 13 kg - they would be nodding their heads and string the racket with their usual 10 kg maximum, because "nobody needs a higher tension than that!". Just talk to your new stringer about his experience and the type of machine he's using. And again I'm fully with Howard - in case he's using a simple 2 point support machine then I can understand his concerns. If he has a decent 6 point support machine then maybe you two can go through that learning curve together.
Monster did say the stringer was afraid of breaking strings. So I assume that the only thing holding the stringer back is having to pay up for breaking strings. However, unless the string is somehow damaged beforehand or bad grommets, there's very little risk of having strings snapping.
which tells us that he doesn't know what he is talking about and thus doesn't know what he is doing. what i would check though, is instead of whether he will break the string, is whether he will bring the racket. it doesn't take too much skill to string 28 lbs. heck, even my wife's first stringing was 26lbs. but it does require a decent machine with good support. that takes away quite a bit of risk.
I suppose it's odd for stringers like Mark and myself, none of our customers ask for tensions as high as we use. I have one that uses 30lb on a 5U JS10, that was fun the first time. In the summer I go upto 32lb and Mark is a 34lb man himself. I find anything lower than 24lb a pain to weave as the mains are soft
This had me in fits for the longest time. Seeing youtube videos of kwun doing that fast and smooth weaving of the crosses made me green with envy. 99% of my stringing jobs are 20-24lbs with the MBS HiQua strings, so I always thought it was the string. So now for low tension jobs, I skip pre-stretching and put an additional 2lbs of overclock just to have those temporarily harder mains to work with.
I think that the stringer acted right. I also had clients who tried to get a replace after 4 weeks intensive play with BG80@28 lbs. Often you have as a stringer draw the short straw. While other complain that the tension is a bit low, other complain that the string didn't last long. Maybe he made bad experiences with other clients so he tried to avoid trouble with a new guy.
I had a guy that came to me once "Dave, this BG80 only lasted me 5 weeks". He was a uni player strung at 28lb playing at least 2 hours a day. We had a little chat, a miracle worker I am not.
