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
