Cake’s String Reviews

[Albertino (Waltz.Romantic)]

Totally agree on this but if you learning how to do a trapeze you not gonna feel the difference between a magicyoyo string or a boutique string, is just a string.

I have some boutique Zipline and I love them, every now and then I like to setup one if I have for example very long sessions where I know I will not get disturbed and I am chill at home.

For the everyday life I just take bulk strings and are absolutely amazing (as much as boutique), sometimes with little less personality but they do the job more than fine .

I think it all depend also at the level or knowledge you have, I still stay on the side that if you learning a cheap yoyo and a cheap string will do, I mean many of us started on a velocity and I had the string inside the velocity package for 4 months lmao

[rkalajian (Berv Throwington (He/They))]

Honestly, I’d recommend some good bulk strings for a beginner. Get a cheap 100 pack and learn your stuff. If you can, try out different boutique strings now and then to get a feel for what your preferences are.

I love super tightly wound strings, so all the strings I make are VERY tightly wound. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

[Captrogers (Brandon Rogers)]

I get this. I wouldn’t give anyone a pack of Watieoboo string but I have a bunch of bulk magic string and hand it out at club to kids who have ratty over used string. Cause a worn out string is worse than a cheap string.

Also helps me track who is actually still playing vs just showing up so I can see who needs incentive vs just a new challenge to stick with it.

[oops]

The #1 ranked string is in stock on Zipline’s site right now in most colors (it is my favorite string and absolutely fantastic).

YYSL Nytro types are available on YYE right now. YYSL Plutonium, Ammo, Venom, Type X are all great strings and available on YYE in small packs and direct through YYSL in larger quantities at lower prices. I used Venom for over 10 years and it smokes every bulk string in performance and durability imo.

[theendofcake (they / she)]

your profile says you’re new, so welcome! I think @Albertino nailed it on the head with his descriptions.

@Albertino

Zipline - Alphaline, Monkey finger - Vines, Sochi - Phoenix, OT string, Kitty - First Class, Aceyo (yellow)

I tried all of them (neon yellow and fat) and they all work pretty much in the same way at the end of the day, the rest is just hobbism and a bit of obsession

@Albertino

if you learning a cheap yoyo and a cheap string will do

no need to worry about boutique strings or having the most optimized setup at the moment. when your tricks start getting more intricate (check the Trick-A-Week threads for these intermediate combos), you can start exploring higher quality bulk options like the ones he listed. good luck!

side note, maybe if we bug sochi enough they can restock alphaline hehe

[VidTrent]

@Albertino

Zipline - Alphaline, Monkey finger - Vines, Sochi - Phoenix, OT string, Kitty - First Class, Aceyo (yellow)

Good point man, I will take your advice. I’ve got plenty of better things to worry about right now, like getting good or building good calluses on my hands so I don’t feel like I have paper cuts all over them (I’m getting there with the calluses, I’m far from good though). When I get to throwing, I can go for long periods of time and I don’t notice the damage it does until the following day (I was up until 3am last night) but I’m also older and my body just doesn’t like me as much these days, haha. Good advice, I’m taking it and running with it.
Thanks!

[VidTrent]

I agree with everything you all are saying… sometimes, it’s easy to get hung up on the small things.

However, what if I’m not learning on cheap yoyo? I really don’t think the Throwback strings are too bad but I’m all for trying better… but totally agree, that can come with time. For now, I have over 500 Throwback Strings that I need to use up, so I can revisit this down the road.

Thanks for the advice. I love the idea of this thread but yeah, for a novice, all the choices can get a bit overwhelming. I just need to chill and have fun with it.

[theendofcake (they / she)]

oh the cheap yoyo doesn’t matter that much, i feel like the point stands regardless. you’ll start to know when the tricks you’re doing might want better string, but throwback string isn’t a bad start by ANY means, it’s just less talked about

[VidTrent]

Yes, there are some objectively bad strings out there. I bought 100 pack for like 8 bucks on Amazon… I mainly bought them because they were supposed to come with these finger protectors (10 of them, they looked nice in the picture). However, I only got one with my strings, it may have fit on my pinky if they were quality, they were literally the elastic part of Juicy Couture underwear that were cut up and glued together with a hot glue gun.

Here is the proof of the high quality finger guards they included:

Sorry, the picture is kind of blurry but you can make out that it’s JC undies… I just hope they washed em first!

[GTDropKnot (Henry)]

@VidTrent

I really don’t think the Throwback strings are too bad

These were the first strings I ordered when I got into the hobby, then I went on a quest to try a lot of strings and after all that, they’re some of my favorite bulk strings. It’s very easy to get focused on the little things that don’t matter that much when diving into the hobby and it’s cool to see you’re taking good advice well! Have fun!

[VidTrent]

That’s awesome to hear! Thanks for the response. I agree, I haven’t tried many strings but out of the strings I have tried, so far, Throwback strings have been my favorite and I think the price is fair. I bought a bunch awhile back and I have no regrets, I’m going through strings pretty fast because I’m putting a lot of practice in. I think it’s great advice just to throw in an order of some different brands from time to time and just use what I’ve got now.

[theendofcake (they / she)]

week 3 let’s do it

Throw-Yo SOLUTIONS Elixir || C (75/100)

I have no idea how to start this one, so I’m just going to type things off the top of my head. This is virtually indestructible, and in comparison to the last reviewed one (Ink), this feels way more playable. It has a VERY TIGHT WIND, which makes it actually really difficult to string it onto the yoyo. Binds also suffer from tightwind-itis, which makes binds snappy while minimizing snags. It actually feels a bit like the pads are bigger but only when binding.

Playing this is a beast. Whips are still incredibly fast, but it’s more controllable in comparison to the rayon blend. It’s a bit faster than MarkMont trilobal, I’d say (which is impressive). The string is so tight that if you bend a super small segment it’ll fall but stay somewhat frozen in the shape. This feature kind of wants to come out in slacks (especially 3d slacks tricks), but somewhat fails to do so due to its natural speed. It’s visible in 1.0 and 1.5 suicides, but not much else I could find.

Tension holding was really good, I’m pleasantly surprised by it. It’s a bit of a hassle to fix via sidewinders, and it whipped me hard a few times. Given the durability, it keeps its roughness throughout the hour and realistically WAY more. Consistency is sort of a mess: binds/whips/slacks all feel foreign, which may be due to my lack of trilobal use (I use alphaline as my bulk of choice, which is on like 70% of yo-yos i own). As far as I know, the consistency is average. Overall, good! Depending on color and price I might pick up some more for outdoor throws, but it’s still a toss up. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (6)
Durability 1 hr (6)
Personal Thickness Feel (4) kinda thin feeling but good!
Whip Feel Break-In (3)
Whip Feel 1 hr (3)
Slack Feel Break-In (3.5)
Slack Feel 1 hr (3.5)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (4)
Softness during break-in (2)
Overall consistency over 1 hour (2.5)
Total: 37.5 x 2 = 75, 75 = C graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

[theendofcake (they / she)]

tired day, finals this week shudders, day 4!

Throw-Yo SOLUTIONS Ether || D+ (68/100)

I went into this wanting to like it, but this is a perfect example of a string that would be wonderful if it was either thinner or less tightly wound. It feels both soft and rough, but the roughness slightly overpowers the softness. It feels kind of gross for my preferences, as the string feels too snappy when it comes up on a bind. It’s not thick, but when it binds it’s like I have XL snow tires on 19mm pads, which ruins the feel for me. For that one reason, I don’t personally see me using this, but I can see how it can be a sought-after quality.

Slacks were good! String felt a bit heavy (?) but the fastness that comes with trilobal was dampened, leaving the nice openness available. Whips felt a bit like OT in the fastness category where the speed doesn’t hurt (like some other solutions). Both of these qualities would be better, but for some reason the feel of this string knocks out any sort of likability for me. That’s not even mentioning the slightly-less-than-average tension holding. Wasn’t my favorite string, but wasn’t my worst by a long shot. My heart says a D, numbers gave a D+. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (5)
Durability 1 hr (4.5)
Personal Thickness Feel (2)
Whip Feel Break-In (4)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4)
Slack Feel Break-In (3.5)
Slack Feel 1 hr (3.5)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (2)
Softness during break-in (3)
Overall consistency over 1 hour (2.5)
Total: 34 x 2 = 68, 68 = D+ graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

[theendofcake (they / she)]

day 5! posting this early since i need to study up over the weekend, going into my finals. last one!

Throw-Yo SOLUTIONS Solvent || C- (73/100)

This is a weird little guy. Comes off a bit rough, but feels SUPER thick. My best comparison is a playable version of Rope. It’s definitely functional, but the trend with these strings is that the quality slacks and interesting whips get overshadowed by how awkward they feel on a catch, a bind, and my fingers. Slacks were great! Due to the tight wind, slacks were very frozen. However, this also froze a bit of tension in the slack during the trick. These features kind of cancelled each other out, ending up with a slightly fast slack with two quirks. Whips were a good speed, definitely on the faster side though. The thickness gives a different feel during hooks, which is just too fat for me. Again, playable rope.

Speaking of too thick, binds are incredibly snappy, being arguably worse than the last strings I reviewed. It’s only in undermount binds with my palm up, but the yoyo comes back with loose string at the very end and a super tight bind around the bearing. Very weird, and I’m not knowledgeable enough to comment on how that affects power. Regardless, tension holding and consistency were surprisingly pleasant, which is good to see. However, I don’t think those alone can save the string’s score. It’s too awkward feeling and almost fuzzy, both in physical feel and vibe (I know that means nothing, but the string has a fuzzy kind of vibe to me).

I’m not gonna lie to you all, the entire experience with these strings was a constant “i’m sure i’ll prefer the next one” that never really came. The trends with this brand is that they’re INCREDIBLY tightly wound, very thick-feeling, fast on whips and hit-or-miss on slacks. Binds and softness are a no go. All 4 of the main strings (rope doesn’t count because i say so) felt like ordering someone’s super specific order at a restaurant with a billion customizations, VERY specific and fit towards an unknown taste that I can’t pinpoint. I hope this streak of reviews helped gain some traction for this brand. The effort that goes into making these is not unnoticed, bur they’ll remain unwanted in my personal rotation. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (5)
Durability 1 hr (4.5)
Personal Thickness Feel (1.5)
Whip Feel Break-In (3.5)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4)
Slack Feel Break-In (4)
Slack Feel 1 hr (4)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (4)
Softness during break-in (3)
Overall consistency over 1 hour (3)
Total: 36.5 x 2 = 73, 73 = C- graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

thanks again to @rkalajian for taking a chance on me and my silly little rants i call reviews, as long as one person out there is more informed because of these ill call it worthwhile

[rkalajian (Berv Throwington (He/They))]

I just want to thank you for taking the time to try each of the different types out! I know they’re a bit niche, but hopefully some people out there will dig them!

[theendofcake (they / she)]

busy week so no time for new review, here’s backlog #1 from early March?

MagicYoyo String || D- (60/100)

This wasn’t a very good string. From the start, the thickness was pretty good and the string itself felt incredibly plush, but not solid. This non-solid feeling was also present in slacks, where i couldn’t feel where the slack was going at all. It reminded me of being blindfolded, even though i could see the slack and somewhat knew where it would eventually land. The very light weight of the string contributes to this feeling too, creating an experience that i’m not much of a fan of. With openness of slacks, it’s much higher quality than I would expect, but the blindness effect continues.
Whips stayed kind of average for the whole hour, nothing too much to notice with them. Most of the performative features changed over time from tension holding and consistency.

Tension built up somewhat fast, but didn’t seem to get fully out, even when the string was perfectly neutral I would still get twists in slackicides and other tricks dependant on free slack. Combined with the mediocre durability (which frayed the string, made binds a bit worse feeling, but managed to keep the stretch), I’d only recommend this string if you’re in the beginner to intermediate range. The hindrances of the string shouldn’t harm a new player too much, so for the purpose of coming with those $20 bundles on [website redacted], this is fine. However, upgrade when you can! Stats below.

Durability 30 min (2.5)
Durability 1 hr (3.5) lots of grays but still has bouncer
Personal Thickness Feel (4)
Whip Feel Break-In (2.5) praying
Whip Feel 1 hr (2.5)
Slack Feel Break-In (3) feels light and blindfolded
Slack Feel 1 hr (3) flabby and invisible
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (2.5)
Softness during break-in (4) very plush
Overall consistency over 1 hour (2.5)
Total: 30 x 2 = 60, 60 = D-, graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

[theendofcake (they / she)]

the week continues and i’m still busy, this is also from April!

Zipline EP .20/20 Betty Gallegos Edition || B+ (87/100)

This string feels funny! It’s slick, but not fluffy and plush like nylon. Since I have naturally moist hands, the string started to feel sort of sticky, but not humidity sticky (edit: a few hours in and it does start to feel humidity sticky, heads up if you live in a humid environment). Interesting feeling! Binds are GREAT, they feel thick but still have a small bit of slip to them to give the tight and full feel I like so much, at least on the monarch shore 60 pad setup. Performance-wise, it’s pretty good! It started off good, slacks were very light feeling and kind of slow, sometimes like I couldn’t feel them. That feeling was overshadowed by the openness of the slack, though. Just an accustomed taste! Whips also felt good, but not hand-holding or overdone like with some trilobal and nylon string. I prefer my strings to be a slight bit faster, but this is nothing bad at all, definitely lands in the whippy category. I see it as a solid performing option, but not nearly the best. The feeling and pace of the string kind of makes you not want to play hard, but kind of methodical and intricate if that makes sense, i understand that’s VERY subjective. Durability was also so good I didn’t even notice it while playing, only mentioning it here at the end because of how basically good it is. Overall, great feeling string. You can’t go wrong with this, but don’t expect anything fast-paced.

Durability 30 min (5)
Durability 1 hr (4.5) normal aesthetic wear
Personal Thickness Feel (5) waow
Whip Feel Break-In (4)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4)
Slack Feel Break-In (4.5)
Slack Feel 1 hr (4.5)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (3)
Softness during break-in (4.5) oh yeah
Overall consistency over 1 hour (4.5)
Total: 43.5 x 2 = 87, 87 = B+ graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

[theendofcake (they / she)]

aiming for a current review next week, here’s backlog #3 from March!

Zipline CS118 Easter Edition || C (76/100)

It’s very soft, like a super nice smooth blanket, so keep that in mind if you don’t want a smooth blanket texture for your string. I think my main problem with this is that it feels amazing, looks amazing, but plays decent. It works, you can adjust to it, but it’s not very performance-oriented. Whips felt well-paced, but that fast pace combined with the floppy nature of the string to make slacks that didn’t hold shape too well. The floppiness (probably stemming from both the material blend and the dull tension holding) also lowered the consistency score. Slacks did start to improve later, but by then it was the hour. The thickness was questionable, and most of the time it was too thick for my taste (Alphaline). I put it on a recessed flowable yoyo and it was perfect, so everything’s fine as long as you pick the right yoyo for it. Whether this is a good quality in a string is up to y’all, but i say a questionable no.

It makes me REALLY sad that this string wasn’t amazing, since I love the colors of it. I guess that’s the point of Zipline Case Studies, there’s always room for improvement. If you don’t mind a long break-in for decent poly, i see no problems. Maybe the casual laid back soft string is what they were going for, which i say they accomplished. Don’t put this on any competition-oriented yoyo though, the whiplash (and binds) might hurt. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (4)
Durability 1 hr (4.5)
Personal Thickness Feel (3.5)
Whip Feel Break-In (4)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4)
Slack Feel Break-In (3)
Slack Feel 1 hr (4)
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (3.5)
Softness during break-in (4.5) SOFT, but minimal loss of texture
Overall consistency over 1 hour (3)
Total: 38 x 2 = 76, 76 = C graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

[Afkor (Andrew K.)]

I’d be curious for you to try big bang Bangalore’s string theory, it’s a pure nylon string that’s super weird. Takes forever to break in but it supposedly lasts years.

[theendofcake (they / she)]

string review cancelled this week, personal events happened i need to deal with