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Stringing the Ektelon DPR

Q: I’ve read through the stringing instructions for the Ektelon DPR 2500 and DPR 2500 Lite, and I have only one question: How the heck do you string these darn things? With the frame mounted in the stringing machine, you can’t get to the “dual power rings,” and even without mounting it, it seems just about impossible to get the string around one of the power rings but not around the other. Help!

A: As is the case with many of the new racquetball racquets, the Ektelon DPRs require a bit of ingenuity to get strung properly. Here are a couple of techniques that will make the job easier:

First, take your needle-nose pliers and kink the string about 3/16 inches from both ends. This will allow you to thread the string around the desired power ring when feeding from the outside up through the center.

Second, pre-lace the mains — either with the frame off of the machine, or, on six-point machines, mounted using only the head and shoulder supports, leaving the throat support loose so you have access to the power rings. Once you have pre-laced the mains, mount the frame as you normally would.

One further complication of these frames is that the mains “stack” around the left power ring from bottom to top, while they stack around the right power ring from top to bottom. (This is true no matter which side is up when you mount the frame.) The stacking order seems to be important only in that when done as specified, the strung racquet will look as it did when it came from the factory. If you stack the mains from top to bottom around both power rings, the “fans” of string at the throat will look different, but playability should be the same, especially considering the fact that the ball is not often struck using that area of the stringbed.

From the January 2005 issue
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