I have been playing a lot more (5-6 times a week) since summer hit. I decided to experiment with a hybrid synthetic gut and poly. I usually play a full bed of RPM Blast, Restring Zero or Luxilon 4G at 52. My new summer hybrid setup is Head syn gut blue 16 GA in the mains at 52 and Solinco Confidential 16 GA in the crosses at 50. I am super happy. It feels easy on the elbow and the subtle loss of spin is easily offset by exceptional pocketing, control and a sound that is free from excessive twanginess. Whatever is smoothing out the sound is more than Ok by me. Power might be slightly greater than my full poly beds but overall I am very impressed with how this combo plays in my Shift 99.
My initial hope was the square shape of the Solinco string wouldn’t notch the syn gut too rapidly. But, when I had him string my backup racket identically my stringer quickly commented about the possibility of the Confidential going all cheese grater on the syn gut. I told him not to worry, that I was happy to experiment. If the syn gut really takes a beating I will try the Head syn gut with Tru Pro Ghostwire.
In fact, the Head syn gut got notched up pretty fast but the syn gut / Confidential hybrid still feels great. Since blue is part of what I’m looking for I bought a couple sets of Head Velocity MLT 16 GA, in blue of course. Since I now have two Wilson Shift 99 (more on Son of El Shifto later) rackets I will have the original Shift (codename: El Shifto) to be restrung with MLT at 50 pounds. Tt
