Ashaway MonoGut ZX Tennis String Review
I am a natural gut player for many reasons. First I started playing with Gut cuz playing with Polyester gave me tennis elbow. Sure it was a lot of reasons like bad form, hitting the ball late, muscling the ball etc but I feel pretty sure that the stiffness of my Babloat Pro Drive married with old Polyester strings did my arm in.
Once Physical therapy was near completion, I started looking at what changes I could make in equipment to make sure I don’t continue stressing my arm. For racquet change I moved to the Prince Original Graphite and played with that for a while until the Prince EXO3 TOUR came out which has a flex rating of 52. That is astoundingly low considering the flex rating of my Bab ProDrive was in the high 70s. Strings was a no brainer as I was told by everyone that Gut is the best most flexible choice for your arm. Sure it’ costs $50 to restring your racquet but my rationale was that my arm and the ability to keep playing is completely worth it. Thankfully I was not a string breaker too so a restring of natural gut would last me btween 3-6 months playing 3 times a week. I also used the...
Comment
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Comment by phillip k. on June 21, 2013 at 9:19am
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This is my 3rd week hitting with the Monogut ZX in my prince exo3 Tour 100. So far i really enjoy the softness of the string with the ping of additional power. I notice that I have a lot more weight and spin on the ball with this string and when i switch back to my Babolat natural gut set up I feel the string is less lively but softer on the arm and with a bit more control and touch. I don't notice a lot of movement for a soft string and don't find myself adjusting my strings much. Feels like the tension is holding after week three playing 3x a week and I don't see any shredding or breakage like I do with natural gut. The research continues!
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Comment by Tim Prapong on June 17, 2013 at 1:55am
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The name is misleading.
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Here's a very good rundown on Zyex along with polyolefin strings:
Zyex
Zyex (the trade term for PEEK, or polyetheretherketone) is a material developed in the 1980s and rapidly used by many string companies for its gut-like playability and feel (its sound is also unique, and it is used quite widely for musical instrument strings). Newer versions also show remarkably good tension maintenance and a firm, controlled feel to the string face. Ball pocketing with Zyex is as close to natural gut as you will find.
Earlier Zyex strings had problems with material bonding, largely fixed now. Zyex’s main drawback is its stiff feel, making it a poor choice for those with arm problems; lower string tensions are required to eliminate this “boardy” feel to the string face. Zyex strings also suffer from excessive string movement.
I offer Zyex in two different strings: it is used as an additional material in Gamma Live Wire XP, or offered as a core material with a microfiber outer wear layer in Ashaway Dynamite.
Polyolefin
The basic elements found in polyolefin are propylene and ethylene. They are gaseous at room temperature but, when heated and fused, they form a strong and flexible chain with thousands of links. These chains are normally made into ribbons and then bonded together, making strings with good tension maintenance and a soft feel for those with arm problems.
Head IntelliTour is my sole polyolefin string offering.
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