String Review: Solinco Prototype Multi-filament

Solinco is testing a prototype multifilament I just got to try out.  I don’t really know any specific details about the string from Solinco but it looks like it’s 16 gauge.  No word on price.  The photo above is from my friend’s racquet on a mishit break to show the filaments inside.  As you can see it’s kind of a tan, almost latte like color on the outside, very similar to the color of Wilson Triplecore if you’ve seen that.  The filaments inside look white.   It has a lighter spiral line twisting around it, kinda like Prince Topspin and the surface is matte instead of shiny and slippery like on a poly.

PLAY UPDATE 1:
Have hit about 2 hours with it.  My initial impressions are very positive.  It takes about 30 min to break in and stabilize.  Initially it felt like a somewhat stiff synthetic gut, but after 30 min it became distinctly softer and livelier.  Even the sound of the ball impact seemed to improve after break in.  It has a very crisp & sweet impact sound, like a stereotypical perfect sweetspot shot sound effect.  It makes my poly setup sound thin and twangy.  Comfort wise, even after break in this string is not as soft as your average multi and I attribute this to it’s relatively thick and ridgid outer shell.  Comparing it to the latest multi I’ve used (Wilson NXT Control), the outer shell or wrap is at least twice as thick and hard.  On the NXT you could actually gouge the string with your fingernail if you pressed hard enough, not going to happen with this Solinco.  I’m guessing Solinco went for a mix of durability instead of outright comfort.  Playability wise I think the best word to describe the feel is “crisp”, really crisp and punchy.  I don’t think I was hitting a higher ratio of balls on the sweetspot, but this string made it feel like I was.  I believe it dampens off-center shots and it feels terrific.  I felt I could place the ball well and with really nice power.  I definitely was getting more power from this than my usual poly setup, not needing to swing as hard to get comparable pace and depth.  Volleys were punchier also.  Spin was also terrific, actually surprisingly generous on spin considering it’s not textured at all, I wasn’t expecting that.  I usually hit with Solinco Tour Bite or Pro Supex Blue Gear, both heavily textured, spin-friendly polys.  But this string could hold its own with those other polys in the spin department.  I think it has to do with the outer coating being a matte, non-slick surface.  It creates more friction on the ball than a slick outer coating.  I found a similar result with Technifibre Pro Red Code which also has a matte, untextured surface, but created immense spin.  The strings will move around on you, it’s definitely not a poly but it wasn’t too bad.  String movement doesn’t really bug me, but I did notice my friend was picking at his strings a lot using this multi.  Durability and tension maintenance remain uncertain until I’ve get more time on these strings.  If they can last a decent time, (I hope so because the compromise on comfort needs to pay some kind of dividend) and keep playing like they have been, I may consider switching to this string or at least hybridizing it with a poly.

PLAY UPDATE 2:
They broke after 6.6 hours of play.  Considering I break polys at around 7 – 8 hours, this is quite durable for a multi.  So the trade-off they made in comfort did in fact pay off in durability.  The strings also played very consistently from beginning to end and without any significant tension drop.  With more back to back comparison with my typical poly setup (tour bite/blue gear) under the belt I can say with more certainty these multis feel significantly more comfortable, powerful and and responsive than my poly setup.  But the poly setup has a clear edge on spin production.  Tour Bite & Blue Gear are of course spin polys so that’s no surprise.  I’ve attached photos of the break point and notching detail.

String Review: Solinco Barb Wire

Solinco’s Tour Bite has quickly become a very popular string, especially now that Tennis Warehouse carries it.  I love Tour Bite and you can read my full review here.  But if you haven’t heard of Tour Bite, it’s claim to fame is its ability to generate tremendous spin.  So I’m assuming Solinco thought, with all the other string companies now twisting their shaped strings, what would happen if we did it to Tour Bite?  Oh and let’s make it black colored cos that’s what’s cool with the kids these days.

Summary

I have been playing with Barb Wire many months already before it’s officially released.   Below you will find my intial impressions from then.  It was before I knew what this string was going to be called so  I was calling it “twisted Tour Bite”.

PLAY UPDATE 1:
I got one of my racquets strung with this new twisted Tour Bite and have hit about 2 hours with it.  My initial impressions are that it is slightly softer & more comfortable than Tour Bite with more pop.  Gauge seems to be 16L.  There is indeed more spin than even Tour Bite.  This was most noticeable to me on touch and slower speed shots like slice volleys.  The strings really bite into the ball and delivered more slice and sidespin than ever on my shots.  With full power topspin shots I didn’t feel as much of a difference, but I did indeed have less shots go long because spin was keeping it in.  No word on durability yet, we’ll see, but I have a feeling due to it’s thinner gauge and extra twisted texture (which would cause the crosses to saw the mains even faster) it won’t be as durable as Tour Bite.  Overall, this is my new go-to string.  This string provides honest spin increase, good comfort &  good playability.  No word yet on when it will be officially released or what they’re naming it.  Below is a closeup photo of it on my racquet.  If you live in Southern California & want to try this new string go to La Habra Tennis Center, they are the only ones I know of that have this string right now.

PLAY UPDATE 2:
Just a short one but a biggie.  After about 5 hours on these strings there has been a huge tension drop from intial.  Strung it at 60lbs, now it feels like 40lbs.  I’m hitting long a lot more, losing confidence on shots.  Ball bite seems to also have dropped.  Tour Bite has better tension maintenance than this.

PLAY UPDATE 3:
The string broke after 7 hours of play time.  This is about average for me, Tour Bite & Black Code break at around 6-7 hours for me.  So the durability of this string seems to be the same as Tour Bite.  The way the string broke was also characteristic of my Tour Bite breaks.  Instead of a completely “clean” break, this string and Tour Bite both tend to shear.  They leave elongated, stretched “tails”  at each break point that taper off, almost like they were pulled apart rather than just snapping apart.

Final Summary
I have used Barb Wire 2 more times since the above updates.  Because I found the string to be slightly softer than I’m used to and because of tension drop problem, I tried stringing this at 60 & 62 (55lb is my norm).  Raising tension didn’t alleviate the sudden tension drop.   My impressions of this string remain the same.  Excellent bite, slightly better than even Tour Bite.  You will not find a string with more spin & bite than this on the market right now.  Also a little softer than Tour Bite with more spring and responsiveness.   Durability is about the same as Tour Bite, all my breaks were consistently within 6-7 hours.  Tension maintenance remains the hole in this string’s armor.  Tension took a big dip for me right at the 5 hours mark, to the point where it would have been prudent to just cut them out.  I was spraying balls long and the string bed was very spongy & lazy feeling.   I no longer use these strings because of the tension issue, I’ve gone back to Tour Bite.  Your mileage my vary so please give these strings a try because when they’re good, they’re awesome.  And if you’re not a frequent string breaker and thus not notching your strings really fast, the tension should maintain better than with me.

My Rating:
Playability – 8/10
Spin – 10/10
Durability – 6.5/10
Value – 7/10

MiAdidas Barricade VI

Just ordered a pair of Barricade 6′s from miadidas.com.  Right now the normal Barricade 6′s only come in the Smurfy extra blue Murray colorway, not a fan.  And I’m not patient enough to wait for the colorway I want so bit the bullet and built custom ones on MiAdidas.  Pic from site below, will post pics of actual shoes when they arrive.

Mi Adidas Custom Barricade V’s

Ok I designed these custom Barricades using the Mi Adidas online store in May 2009.  And at the US Open and in the tournaments leading up to it, many of the pros sponsored by Adidas (Safin, Gonzales, Tsonga, Bryan Bros.) have been sporting Barricades with almost this identical color scheme.  Do you think Adidas took my design?  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s their property anyways.

Painted My Racquets Black

Check it out I painted my racquets matte black, what do you think?  I have four Dunlop Visions in rotation and they’re getting pretty beat up.  Their original color is matte orange with some glossy, exposed carbon fiber looking “muscle weave”.  I just used Rustoleum matte black spray paint.  I masked off the glossy, carbon fiber parts because I didn’t want to paint over those.  Then I put 2 light coats and let it dry.  I love how they turned out.  Throw in Tecnifibre Black Code strings and the black theme is in full gear.  Unfortunately, the paint is not that durable, really hard mishits on the frame can rub the paint off.  One option is matte clear coat, yes they sell that at Home Depot.  But I don’t want to add any more weight to my racquet because I like it light.  The other option, which I like better, work on eliminating framers.  Lastly, probably if I sanded all the paint off and first sprayed on a coat of primer, the paint would have adhered much better, but I’m too lazy for that.

String Review: Gosen Polyon Ice 16

Just to recap, I’m a NTRP 4.0 player who plays on average 6 hours a week.  My game style is mostly baseline with pretty heavy spin &  I tend to go through strings very quickly.  As a result I also get to try lots of different strings.  I was browsing one day and looking for the cheapest strings and I saw this Gosen Polylon that was only $2.99 and was also completely see through.  I was intruiged and for $2.99 it was def worth a try.  It really looks a lot like thick fishing line, fortunately it does not play like it.  I’m just guessing fishing line wouldn’t play very well.

Gosen’s site says:

A single structure polyester offering superior durability with minimum tension loss.

So if it’s a poly string, why Polylon as if it had nylon?  Well it does play like a high quality nylon.  Which overall isn’t saying much is it?  It doesn’t have a lot of pop or feel, in fact it kinda made my kevlar strings feel like they were lively.  But when it came down to results, I hit just fine with these strings, in fact I hit very well. Although there was not much feedback, shots were solid and spin was very good for a totally smooth string. These strings do need a little time break-in.  Initial feel is as if the tension is higher than you requested, but it loosens up after 30 min or so.

Compared to other polys this one also felt a little softer on impact.  But strangely it has more audible vibration, there’s a distinct “ping” sound when hitting, but it didn’t transfer to vibration in my arm.  And the best part, these strings lasted me 19.7 hours!  That’s the longest any string has lasted me so far.  Second best has been Gosen X7 kevlar hybrid at 15.3 hours.  Gosen claims great tension maintenance but I felt there was actually fairly noticeable tension loss as time passed.  Now to be fair, I also had these strings on my racquet far longer than any other string.  Though tension loss was there, it was not to a degree that really damaged my game.

All in all, this is a string I really liked.  The bang for buck is just unbeatable.  It doesn’t knock your socks off in feel, but for me it’s quite acceptable.  Spin is good, durability is off the wall and the totally clear look is at the very least, interesting.  Frequent string breakers should really try this out.  In fact I’m considering buying a reel of it.  That would take the overall cost down to only $2.00 a set!  Considering how durable the 16 gauge is, I just bought some 17 guage Polylon to compare.  I’ll let you know once I have results.

My Rating:
Playability – 5/10
Spin – 6.5/10
Durability – 10/10
Value – 10/10

String Review: Forten Thin Blend

Just to recap, I’m a NTRP 4.0 player who plays on average 6 hours a week.  My game style is mostly baseline with pretty heavy spin &  I tend to go through strings very quickly.  Because I’m such a frequent string breaker, for the past several years I’ve been using mainly kevlar hybrids like Prince Pro Blend or Gosen Aramix.  Many and most people claim that kevlars have almost no playability and just feel like hitting with a board.  They’re probably right, but I don’t have a touch game and I like the “feel” of kevlars a lot, mainly because they have a lot of bite.  So I thought, since kevlars last so long, why not try a thinner gauge kevlar for even more bite/spin.

And that’s where Forten Thin Blend comes in.  It’s an 18 gauge kevlar main paired with a 17g synthetic gut cross.  Boy do these strings have bite!  The only string I’ve used with more bite is Solinco Tour Bite which is a square poly.

From their site:

Thin Blend is a durable, powerful, yet playable combination. The main string is FORTEN’s New Age 18. The cross string is Sweet 17 string. The two team up to provide durability, enhanced power, terrific spin control, and astonishing playability. This string truly represents the dawning of a new age in racquet sports.

After just a few minutes hitting with this string they were plastered with ball fuzz.  And compared to standard 16 gauge kevlar, these do have more playability as well, more springiness in the string bed.  I really loved these strings, I hit great with them.  The only con is that they don’t last, I’ve used these about 3 times now and they always break right around 3 hours of actual hitting.  Your mileage will vary.  But I would think a non-kevlar 18 would probably also break in that time.  But at $5.75 a set, they’re pretty cheap overall and deliver wicked spin at a low price.  If you’ve never tried kevlar and would like to try possibly the most durably 18 gauge, these are probably a good place to start.

My Rating:
Playability – 7/10
Spin – 9/10
Durability – 4/10
Value – 7/10

String Review: Solinco Tour Bite 16

OK another string review.  Just to recap, I’m a NTRP 4.0 player who plays on average 6 hours a week.  My game style is mostly baseline with pretty heavy spin.  I tend to go through strings very quickly. Most strings last me from 3 to 10 hours of actual hitting.

Solinco is a small, Taiwanese string company and most people probably haven’t even heard of them, I know I hadn’t before.  They have very limited distribution here in the US and that does bring up the problem of availability.  I got these from a SoCal tennis club (La Habra Tennis Center) who’s one of the first and few dealers of Solinco brand strings.  Call them up and talk to Dave to order a set.  Dave was stringing up a racquet with it and I initially mistook it for Big Banger cos it’s the same greyish color.  He said touch it, and then I could tell it had a very heavy texture to it.  It’s basically a square string, not sure if anyone remembers Gamma Square, but like that in poly form.  My game uses a lot of spin and the better a string bites into a ball the more confidence I have when I hit.  Up until now the hardest biting string I’ve used is Forten Thin Blend which is an 18 gauge kevlar blend.  But that string only lasts me 3 hours.  I don’t know yet how long these Solinco’s will last me, but I can attest that they have extreme bite, more than any other string I’ve used.  And I’ve used stuff like Gamma Ruff, Big Banger Rough, Tecnifibre Black Code, etc.

So they totally deliver on bite and spin, but what about playability?  To me they actually feel less stiff/harsh than Big Banger and have a nice pop.  They also do not move around a lot, very similar to Black Code in that respect.  I’m sure it has something to do with the outer coating of the string.  It also picks up almost no fuzz from the ball.  Unlike Forten Thin Blend which starts looking like I murdered Oscar the Grouch in just a few minutes.

Summary

So the comfort is good, above average for a poly.  The playability and touch are also good, but nothing to write home about.  The strongest aspect of this string is it’s insane bite and ability to generate spin.  If you’re looking for more spin in your game, definitely give these strings a shot.  I cannot report on durability yet but will once I break them.  The strings cost $8.

Update

Ok these strings broke after 9 hours of use.  That’s pretty decent for my use, definitely lasted longer than most any other poly I’ve used.  Black Code lasts me 7 hours, Big Banger 4 hours, Polylon 19 hours (abnormally bad ass poly).  Tension maintenance was fine, no major tension loss.  BUT, and this is a big one, after about 3 hours of hitting, you lose the insane bite.  The square edges get worn down and the initially massive bite goes with it.  It’s still a solid string after that, but it’s best feature is short-lived.  But really this is true for all those “textured” strings, and none of them start out with the bite of Tour Bite.  Honestly, I think pretty much all those other strings are just gimmicks.  I’ve tried so many textured strings, Black Code, Big Banger Rough, Signum Pro Tornado, Volkl Cyclone, Gamma Rough, Super Spiky Shark, etc.  And although some seem to have major texture in the package, when they’re strung, and stretched out under tension, the majority of all that texture disappears.  Tour Bite is the only one of those that I feel truly adds more spin.  I’ve recently strung up with 16L version of this string, didn’t notice any more spin or bite and it broke in 7 hours.  I’d stick with 16 gauge.

My Rating:
Playability – 7/10
Spin – 10/10
Durability – 7/10
Value – 7/10

Insider News on New Solinco String:
Solinco is testing out a new version of Tour Bite that is twisted and black in color.  This sounds very promising to me.  Lots of companies with textured strings have gone with the twisting update (Signum Pro Tornado, Volkl Cyclone, other natural disasters) but none I’ve tried have seemed to be more than gimmicks.  But Tour Bite really does add bite so we’ll see if twisting will actually be able to increase it more.

String Review: Tecnifibre Black Code

Megahouse Portrait of Pirates Figure Review: Shanks & Mihawk

I’m a huge fan of the manga One Piece and without a question, the Megahouse “Portrait of Pirates” line of One Piece figures is one of the highest quality ones I have ever seen.   Although I will try to cover key areas in my review, the galleries of photos I took say more than anything I can write so make sure to check them out.  Mihawk photos.  Shanks photos.

Design & Detail

Now I said these are some of the best figures I’ve ever seen, but why?  First and most important is the accuracy of the figure to the original manga characters.  I’ve seen so many figures that seem to just use the original artist’s work as a starting point and end up looking like someone else’s interpretation of the original.  That’s fine if that’s what you’re looking for, but I want something that faithfully portrays the characters as I’ve come to know them.  Megahouse knows how important this is and goes through painstaking detail to make these figures look as close to the original artwork as possible.  I’m truly impressed by the faithfulness of these figures and it’s the best reason for One Piece fans to get these figures.  Both figures stand a little over 9″ tall.  Mihawk’s ginormous sword is about 10.5″ long.  He comes with 2 different hands, one that can hold the sword and one that is doing a more open handed gesture.  The intricate patterns on his sleeves and inside his collar are actually embossed, they have depth.  The bottom part of the cross around his neck can be removed to reveal a small knife blade, the one he fought Roronoa with.  Shanks doesn’t have any spare parts, but his cape does actually come off to reveal the arm he lost.  Their faces are less than an inch tall but in my closeup photos you can see the incredible detail in them.  There are many fake Portrait of Pirate figures on sale, mostly on ebay.  The fakes generally never have the detail level of the originals and if you look at the faces, they usually just off.  Like the paint lines will be too thick or wavering or messy.  Another thing fakes lack is a gold or silver sticker of authenticity that is on the box.

Paint & Materials

The second best thing about this line of figures is the quality of the paint job and vinyl or whatever plastic they use to create these figures out of.  I didn’t notice any paint messiness or going out of bounds and many areas have nice highlighting or shading. Mihawk’s sword and base are both painted an irridescent color that changes from metallic black to purple to teal green depending what angle you’re viewing from, it’s a great touch.  Another sign of high quality paint jobs is that there are matte areas and shiny areas.  Cheap paint jobs are generally all quite shiny with no variance.  That is another way to spot a fake Portrait of Pirates figure.  In these authentic figures, the majority of areas are matte, but certain areas like Mihawk’s belt buckle or Shank’s sword’s scabbard are more shiny like metal.  The cheap knock-offs you see on ebay are shiny all over.  Sometimes the auctions use photos of the authentic figures though so be careful.  If the price is below $50 (and many of the fakes are like $10) it’s highly unlikely to be an authentic figure.

The material they are made up is very sturdy.  The capes of both figures were scuplted beautifully flowing, buteven though they are the thinnest areas on the figures, they don’t feel like they’d break like on some garage kits.  They’re actually made of quite pliable plastic, not brittle at all.

Conclusion

Although these figures can be rather pricey (I paid between $60-$70 for each) they are truly the BEST One Piece figures out there.  So the price really is justifiable in my opinion.  They also sell out FAST, so often ebay is the best choice but beware of fakes.  If you are a fan of either of these bad ass characters it’s a no-brainer.  These figures are the best of the best and the moment you saw the photos you already knew you had to have them.

Did Dexter Copy Death Note?

For those who haven’t watched Dexter, in a nutshell it’s a about a man who works on the police force (as did his father) but has serial killer tendencies.  He’s a genius at not getting caught and only kills “bad” guys, but of course eventually he will have to help the police find the serial killer that is himself.  The whole suspense of trying to pretend like you’re helping the investigation while at the same time doing what you need to avoid implicating yourself is the strongest point of Dexter’s second season.  It also happens to be the main theme behind Death Note.

Death Note in a nutshell revolves around a man who gains the power of the grim reaper by acquiring a death notebook.  Writing people’s names in it allows the owner the ability to control, where, how, when the person dies.  So the main character decides to start offing criminals to make the world a “better” place and as the death toll rises daily the police must hunt down this serial killer.  Guess what?  The main character is a killer genius who’s father is the lead detective on the case to find this mysterious killer.  AND he manages to get on the police force and the team that is trying to track him down.

In Death Note, a genius investigator named only “L” joins the police team and becomes the key nemesis to the main character.  They play an inspired game of cat and mouse.  In Dexter, an all-star FBI investigator named Lundy joins the police team and becomes one of the main opponents of Dexter.  Either way, both of these stories are brilliant works and are different enough to stand on their own merit.  If you’ve only watched or read one of these and really like it, you have to go watch/read it’s fraternal twin.

If you’ve read “Death Note” and watched “Dexter”, I gotta ask you, do you think Dexter lifted some ideas and or concepts from Death Note?  Death Note was published years ahead of Dexter being on TV.  Do you think the writers for Dexter might have been manga fans that have read Death Note?  The similarities are more than a few aren’t they?  Tell me what you think.