What’s your go-to string of choice?
I’ll start, I spin my own. I’ve never bought bulk or premium strings, other than the ones that come stock with new yoyos.
If I had a fat wallet I’d only use wooly nylon, the companies that make those always small ones that come and go, bigyoyostrings, crocostrings, epic threads, spoil thread, now Airetic, but I’ve supported every single one of them.
I’m a broke college student though so I only use them on my favorite throw or two, everything else is mixture of mainly bulk poly(mainly kitty and YYE) and a few boutique polys(YYSL, zipline)
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I jump back and forth between kitty and buddha xl for bulk string, and then zipline strings for my “good” yoyos
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If YYSL ever made nylon strings I probably wouldn’t use anything else ever again
@MattB please make it happen someday 
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My own stuff. I like non serger poly mostly, though my best colors fall under that type. Some ggod weighty stuff is what I like best like my m70 strings.
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I have a ton of slick 6 and slick 8 (50/50 cotton/poly), as well as some gray poly from another time and place and a bunch of generic cotton. So that’s what I use. Works well for me as the situation calls for.
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@andy569 Hmmm…noted. Last time I looked at this, though, I wasn’t happy with where it was going. That was several years back. I seem to recall no Neon Yellow available, difficulty knotting the end, and something about the performance.
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I have personally kinda settled on Kitty Fat as the McDonald’s of string – and I don’t mean that as a negative, I mean it as a compliment. It’s reliable, consistent, reasonably cheap in bulk ($19 for 100, thus 19 cents a string), comes in a wide variety of colors, and you can get it anywhere.
My beef with a lot of the fancy artisanal specialty strings is there is such a wide variance in thickness, slack-i-ness, bounciness, and so on. I don’t mind trying it … but overall, when it comes to strings, I prefer consistency most of all.
As far as fancy string goes, I definitely like YoYoStringLab, more AMMO because of thickness, but Type X is also good and about the same thickness as kitty fat.
I have not been able to warm up to any nylon or nylon blend strings. I’ll keep trying though. Apparently the big argument in favor of nylon over poly is durability, but I’m not sure extreme string durability is really … a feature? I definitely don’t get people who insist on using the same string for a month (or more), strings should be bought in bulk and replaced frequently and often!
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I make my own strings, mostly just standard type 6 or 8 poly. Wooly nylon has started to grow on me though: it’s so much better in almost every way, just a massive pain to work with.
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Love love love Matt’s YoYoStringLab Type X. Since the first time I threw it. And it works as well for the responsive stuff I do as the unresponsive. New Plutonium is also amazing!
Wish he had the setup to do thick cotton (which I’ll always love for wood) but I understand that might not be cost-effective (lol) and I’m cool with the type 10 at YYE.
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Nylon is just better in every way tbh. Whips better, slacks better, holds tension better, softer, lasts longer. Also noticed I get snagging considerably less with nylon strings, maybe because it’s slicker or something like that. And because it’s slicker, it’s a little better when it’s a little more humid.
As far as the durability argument goes, I don’t really have an issue with using the same string for 10+ hours. I only have 3 nylon strings left so I’ve been using the same one for definitely over 20 hours at this point and it’s still going strong, no major fraying or dip in performance. If it gets a little gross I’ll just through it into one of my pockets when I’m doing laundry. I know Markmont did the same thing with his signature dragon strings, 10 hours of play, wash, another 10 hours of play.
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I use all sorts of strings depending on my mood and the yoyo. I have a big batch of buddah XL in neon yellow, a handful of ziplines & airetic strings, and a pile of ones that I made myself out of woolly nylon, tri-lobal polyester, textured nylon, and spun polyester in various combinations.
I use the buddah XL to get a baseline for what I think most yoyos are designed to play like.
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Extreme string durability is a feature, imo.
Take my situation. I do not have money to spare on buying string, as I am a father of three and work a job that barely gets us by. Spending money on toys feels, well, selfish for me personally rn. A spool of thread costs about three bucks, and can give me enough strings to last several months. I can easily sneak into the garage and spin up a small batch after the kiddos go to sleep. And plus, I really enjoy the whole process of making my own.
Durability for me, is a nylon/trilobal blend. That means that for the time and money investment, I get the absolute best value. I only have to spin about once a month or so. Now, I don’t know about 1 string lasting a whole month, but several days to a week of 1 to 2 hours of solid play a day, yes. They get dirty and soggy just like any other string, but side by side compared to the durability of bulk poly, it’s no question that my blend works much much better for my situation.
And this isn’t even talking about actual performance lol. The takeaway is “different strokes for different folks”.
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That’s a great idea, washing them. I’ve washed by hand before, but this seems easier and faster
Ive bought, played, and destroyed a TON of strings from most brands and makers around. SOme were alright, a couple were great and most were “meh”. Going through YYE’s string section, ive had a solid 90% of that list at one time or another.
I do not like any of the bulk strings. They feel aweful on my hands and crap out within an hour or two of play.
Some brands they do not make any more and were very nice. Others were grossly over priced even though they did last and perform very well, and lasted 100+ hours of play time on a single string, to cheap-o strings 30 mins in and the crap broke.
I ended up making my own blends and spent alot of time tweaking the recipe untill its just about perfect for me. I don’t think ill buy another string again, but Im happy to buy my threads and spin them myself. Having control of tightness, thickness, textures, and blends is spoiling.
Alot of makers got pretty good products, but mine are my favorites by a long shot.
Also, side note, If you have a problem of your strings getting dirty after an hour or two of play, please, wash your hands before you play.
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Preach it brother! Haha
I totally agree
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About the only negative I’ve had with nylon, is sometimes an inconsistency with binds. I always get tight binds, but sometimes the riskier binds aren’t as forgiving as far as them catching goes.
I use nylon or nylon poly blend for almost all of my unresponsive yoyos. I think the Heartstring “Whites” (I think they’re called?) are my all time favorite, and his blends are right up there too. The Whites are long lasting, if not as long lasting as some other nylon strings I’ve tried, but they play so well, and I don’t have that same binding issue I mentioned above with them.
I like Angle Hair and the BBB pure nylons as well. They last forever, but take a while to break in, and can be finicky with binds. Same with Cloud String. Those are so nice, but I have so much trouble with any kind of laceration bind with them.
Another I really liked was the Epic, Whips Whippy, but I guess they are gone…
For responsive bearing, I tend to use Poly, and my favorites are Ammo, and Venom.
For fixed, I use cotton. I usually use the bulk YYE type 10, and that’s the only bulk string I ever buy. There was some wood yo-yo maker that had some fancy cotton string, and I almost bought some, but didn’t. Now I can’t remember who it was. They had some really wide wood yo-yos, and had some where you wet the axle to hold them together…
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It makes me happy to see HeartStrings mentioned. Thank you. Ive got a batch of “The Whites” i just spun up for a new throw i got recently, kept winding till I ran out of threads. If you ever need anymore, hit me up @Myk_Myk anytime. While the website isnt live at the moment, I still make “The Whites” as needed.
They are my favorite as well! 
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^ That’s good to know! I will for sure, as I am out of The White.
It probably doesn’t get them as clean, but you can also easily do a quick clean in the sink. I use just a little liquid hand soap, and rub the string between my palms. Rinse and dry. So easy and quick!
I do it if the binds start to slip, or fail. The soap gets rid of the hand oils. I may even take a q-tip, and clean the silicone with isopropyl.
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I usually use tall kitty thick but sometimes I mix it up and use MIYO string. Anyone else tried MIYO strings? That’s some weird stuff, man…
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