So I had noticed, but thought I was imagining things, that different colors of the same brand and size of string felt quite different. I thought it might be just random batch variation, but from my (admittedly small) sample size, it seems pretty regular! Like OTF neon green seems distinctly softer, fluffier, and a tiny bit bigger than OTF pink. I think I remember some other post about this on this forum, and people thought it was probably ridiculous?
Anyway, I randomly mentioned this to my wife while I was working on a trick. My wife, incidentally, has a PhD in chemistry, is a working chemist, and specializes in photochemistry and dye chemistry. She’s done projects on museum preservation of dyed objects before.
She thought it was completely likely that different dyes would result in different feeling string, because different colors involved different dying agents, which would “very likely” change the physical nature of the string itself. She says in fact it’s less likely to be the dye itself, and more likely to be an additive that is designed to change the nature of the nylon/polyster/etc to make a dye stick. And different colors will involve very different dye molecules, often require very different additives.
She then rolled her eyes and was like, “Jesus, do non-chemists actually think that different colors are like the same chemical and they won’t change the nature of the substrate?”
Anyway, there you go. Random trivial factoid for the day.
I thought it was universal that pink is both the best string color in look and the worst for play consistency. And my favorite but that’s besides the point
This is my current stockpile for making cotton strings. Between four spools (same brand, same thread) I have three different textures and two different thicknesses.
yeah ive definetly noticed this, specifically with all the different colors of alphaline. i know that pink and magenta have shorter lifespans with more fraying, orange sometimes gets slicker when aging, and yellow and green were the base of comparison. its not an extreme difference but its noticeable when you test it
I am so happy to discover that I am not totally insane, always tought green strings play different than neon yellow and white (let’s take Kitty string - First class for example).
I always found neon yellow to be more soft, durable, less coarse and whip faster than the others, even if it was the same string. I have also a pack of green and neon yellow Aceyo string, the neon yellow are far superior also in durability while the green lose it’s power quite fast and the torsion start quicker also it seems less soft on the hand the green one. I noticed green and white are a bit more similar but the white is usually “slower” in slacks but retain a bit better the torsion than the green.
Great post, I always tought it was some placebo effect or something similar but it’s not, those differences are actually very noticeable
