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Missing String Selector listing?

Q: I was trying to use the String Selector to find strings comparable to a string that was discontinued a couple of years ago. However, when I select the manufacturer of the discontinued string, the String Selector shows only current strings. Can I use the String Selector to compare older, discontinued strings against current strings?

A: It depends to some degree on when the string was discontinued. While we have been lab-testing string for several years now, we switched to a new testing protocol in 2004. After switching to the new protocol, however, we did attempt to retest every available string that we had tested using the previous protocol.

Therefore, if you can’t find the lab test results for a string that was discontinued since 2004, it’s likely that we never obtained a sample of that string for testing. If the string you’re trying to match was discontinued before 2004, there is an outside chance that — despite our best efforts — it was not retested using the new protocol.

Your best bet will be to check back issues of RSI and RacquetTECH magazine to see if it appears in our published lab test results. If so, compare it to other strings in that year’s results. You want to find a comparable string that is still available today. Then, look up that other comparable string in the most recently published lab test results. This will allow you to find other current strings that have similar characteristics.

From the January 2008 issue
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