Cake’s String Reviews

String arrived, and there’s a HUGE difference. I honestly don’t think I can go back to 50/50: it’s just that good!

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Where you using 50/50 cotton/poly or nylon/poly big difference in experiences… personally I look at nylon poly blends as the best of both worlds and honestly crazy as it sounds nylon cottons pretty nice besides the lack of durability

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It was cotton poly 50/50.

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Ohh yeah good 100% poly is night and day over cotton and cotton/poly. Wait until you try some nylon or nylon/poly blends. Rayon/poly is neat too.

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I was just getting used to nylon existing and you’re telling me there’s also rayon?! What even is rayon?

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Well now I can’t go spoiling what cake has down the line can I? Otherwise it would be my review thread. But project44 has some rayon. Twisted strings also made Kevlar at one time. I imagine there are other crazy strings out there but honestly cotton or cotton blend for your fixed axle poly or poly blend for your loopers and unresponsive and nylon or nylon blends for your unresponsive are all you really need. I do also toss some nylon blends in my modern responsives at times.

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I don’t even think I could conceive how long they would last considering that’s what they make bulletproof vests out of :open_mouth:

Anyways, I’ll keep all this in mind!

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Just want to say I love that this thread exists (pun intended). :heart:

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string saturday!! feel free to have a conversation about what string y’all have been using, your next plans for string, and how wrong i am about this next review

Sochi x Zipline AlphaLine || B+ (88/100)

I used the psycho sunbird color, and oh my lord, amazing feel right out of the box. Thickness felt amazing, slacks and whips felt amazing, and I was fully sure this would be my favorite poly string. Every part of this string in the first 20 minutes was amazing, and I really couldn’t put it down. Even after the hour, the string was still playing very well. However, the comfort level dropped faster than I expected. The tension got pretty bad pretty fast, and I feel that if i played with it for like 30 more minutes, tension hold would be almost unmanageable. This string loses quality fast, and I would definetly recommend changing it out when you start noticing it. If you don’t notice it though, there’s no reason to stop using it. Besides that, I would love it just a hair less thick feeling, simply for a different preferable feel than the thickness. If you love the kinda thicc, this is your kind of pick (i made it rhyme hehe).
Anyways, amazing quality. DEFINITELY picking up another pack eventually. I’m personally disappointed that this made B+ instead of A-, but rules are rules. If I ever compete, this string be my pick. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (3.5) pink dye, maybe add .5/1 pt to compensate? no clue
Durability 1 hr (4) !!
Personal Thickness Feel (5) monarch sweep
Whip Feel Break-In (5)
Whip Feel 1 hr (4.5) feels a bit heavier for some reason
Slack Feel Break-In (4.5) amazing weight and feel
Slack Feel 1 hr (4.5) weight still shining
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall (3) super annoying, even with constant tension fixing. still not as bad as other strings. playing w mainly nylon blends could add bias to this
Softness during break-in (4.5) doesn’t get much better, but does get worse eventually :frowning:
Overall consistency over 1 hour (4.5) YES
Total: 44 x 2, = 88, 88 = B+ graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

thanks for reading (・ω<)☆

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Might use alphaline after my kitty runs out! A high quality yet cheap bulk string sounds awesome!

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alphaline does die a very ugly death for me too, yea.

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I’ve had my eye on these for a while. Probably gonna be my next purchase!

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String Saturday! This is an important review but it’s kinda long, sorry about that (@_@)

I think this was one of the reviews that I had trouble just working through; everyone knows of kitty, everyone’s used kitty, and professional players who are way more qualified than me die by this string, so anything I have to say about it is going to be understood and critiqued way harder than the other strings. I thought that was a bit scary, but it’s always good for everyone to have a reference for how I grade (I grade like a strict professor) if people want to take my reviews more seriously.
This was a scary hurdle for me to jump, so I hope y’all enjoy :3

Kitty String First Class (Fat) || B- (82/100)
Kitty String First Class - 100 Count

If you told me this was XL string, I would’ve believed you. This had a solid thickness to it not only when you bind but when you use slack and whips, I think you can really feel it moving in the air. Every trick in my arsenal felt doable with Kitty, which was a really good feeling. This goes hand in hand with the consistency of the string, which doesn’t have that gambling feel of whipping and slacking with nylon where you never know how it’s going to move. Almost every performance factor was great, but not perfect in my opinion. The only “perfect” was slacks around 30 or 40 minutes in, because dear lord. They were so good I feel like that’s what the string was made for. I always knew where it was and how it moved, and I was always able to tweak it, which is also made possible by the great consistency. Besides performance, the string does have downsides as always. After the hour, it felt and looked worn, and the stretchiness of it was pretty used up. Along with that, this was not soft by any means, and I think it actually got less soft as time went on, which is weird since I’m used to string getting smoother as time goes on. The tension was pretty good though, which was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t mind TOO much correcting it.
Final verdict: This is great performing string, just make sure you change it out often if you’re throwing constantly, or else you’re going to be getting string burn and bad tension. There’s no reason to not use this, but if you have the money, I’d recommend trying out other brands. Stats below.

Durability 30 min (4)
Durability 1 hr (3) looks bad visibly, not as stretchy anymore
Personal Thickness Feel (4.5) waow ,
Whip Feel Break-In (4.5) perfectly doable
Whip Feel 1 hr (4)
Slack Feel Break-In (4.5) weight and feel is BEAUTIFUL
Slack Feel 1 hr (5) i can definitely see why pros use this now
Tension Hold over 1 hour overall(3.5) good
Softness during break-in (3.5) sandpaperish, got better after break in
Overall consistency over 1 hour (4.5) not bad at ALL
Total: 41 x 2 = 82 graded based on letter system (A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 60<)

To help read reviews better, I recommend identifying which factors you care about most (consistency for comp, slack and whips for your personal style, thickness and softness for comfort, etc.) and keeping those more in mind than others. I like to give general overviews, and let you all decide your specifics if that makes sense. Agreeing isn’t necessary, and disagreeing is healthy since it helps you grow your own opinion! I hope you all liked this one, thanks for reading :heart_hands:

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I read this one! Nice review

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Hey Cake, I’m kinda curious, do you have a preferred color of string?

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uhhh if pink didn’t have durability issues i’d go with pink, but i like to alternate between pinks, yellows, and white, really anything bright i’m fine with

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Silly question but I wasn’t aware there are pink durability issue I just know when pink gets dirty it’s gross. What makes pink a problem?

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no clue to be honest, just heard the dye leads to it breaking down in terms of color and stretchiness, i could 100% be wrong tho, id get @EOS44 on this

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@theendofcake which brand/model you use the most everyday?

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Coming directly from Zipline, color definitely does affect how a string plays. So a white Ep.20/20 plays differently than a yellow Ep.20/20 plays differently than a pink Ep.20/20. I didn’t specifically ask about durability, but anecdotally I can say I have tracked a difference in longevity across the different colors. Considering they did confirm differences in play and feel, I suspect my assumptions on durability based on personal observation are correct.

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