Dunlop Synthetic Gut 16g Tennis String Set
About Paro
This town lies in the Paro Valley on the Paro Chhu, west of Thimphu. It contains Rinpung Dzong and the old watchtower now used as the National Museum, while the country’s main international airport occupies the valley floor nearby.
THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
Dunlop Synthetic Gut in 16 gauge, supplied as a single set — 40 feet, enough for one racquet and nothing left over.
Synthetic gut is the general-purpose string, and this one is built the standard way: a solid nylon core inside wear-resistant outer wraps. The solid core is what makes the response predictable, giving the same reading on the hundredth ball as on the first; the wraps take the abrasion at the crossing points, which is where a nylon bed usually fails first.
Nothing about it is exotic, and that is the specification — balanced power, control and feel, with no single property bought at the cost of the others.
Sixteen gauge measures 1.30 mm, the thicker end of the common range, which trades a little feel and spin for a longer working life.
Paro sits at roughly 2,200 metres in a Himalayan valley where mornings stay cold well into the year.
Nylon is the more comfortable string in cold air: a polyester bed stiffens noticeably as the temperature drops, while a solid-core nylon keeps much more of its feel.
Specifications
| Type | Synthetic gut, solid nylon core |
|---|---|
| Construction | Solid core with wear-resistant outer wraps |
| Gauge | 16 / 1.30 mm |
| Set length | 40 ft / approx. 12 m |
| Covers | One racquet |
| Characteristics | Balanced power, control and feel |
| Best for | Club and recreational play |
| Brand | Dunlop |
A single set is the format for a player who restrings a few times a season; the same string is sold on a 200-metre reel for anyone doing it in volume.
LET Dunlop Synthetic Gut 16g Tennis String Set SHOW YOU Paro
String: Dunlop Synthetic Gut 16g Tennis Strings Set: Okay. First stop of my first tour and it's THE one — Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest, Bhutan's most celebrated monument, a monastery built onto a cliff nine hundred metres above the Paro valley floor. Nine hundred. My notes say Guru Rinpoche, the eighth-century master who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, flew up here on a tiger — sorry, a tigress, it is specifically a tigress and I am not going to be the guy who gets that wrong — and meditated in the cave, sanctifying the site. Temple complex built 1692 under Gyalse Tenzin Rabgye, ruler of Bhutan. A fire in 1998 damaged it badly; restored by 2005. No road. Steep footpath through pine forest. We walk.
String: Dunlop Synthetic Gut 16g Tennis Strings Set: Rinpung Dzong. It means fortress of the heap of jewels, and I have said that out loud roughly forty times since Tuesday. Built 1644 to 1646 under Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the unifier of Bhutan, on the site of an earlier fortress, to defend the valley against repeated Tibetan invasions. Here is the part nobody told me until training: a dzong holds BOTH the district monk body and the government offices, around that great central tower, the utse. We cross on Nyamai Zam, the roofed cantilever bridge. The old watchtower above is the National Museum. And each spring this courtyard hosts Paro Tshechu — masked dances, a giant sacred banner, thousands in their finest.
String: Dunlop Synthetic Gut 16g Tennis Strings Set: One of the oldest temples in Bhutan, and I need you to hear the founding story properly. Seventh century: the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo builds 108 temples in ONE night — one — to pin down a demoness sprawled across the Himalayas. This one pinned her left foot. Left foot. It is on my card and I underlined it myself. Inside are some of Bhutan's most sacred treasures, including a revered Jowo Sakyamuni statue said to date from the founding era. Later rulers enlarged the complex, and in 1968 the Queen Mother Ashi Kesang Choden Wangchuck built a matching second temple beside the original. Those orange trees reportedly fruit year-round.
String: Dunlop Synthetic Gut 16g Tennis Strings Set: Ta Dzong, 1649, put up on the slope above Rinpung Dzong to guard the fortress against Tibetan attack. Round plan, shaped like a conch shell, walls over two metres thick. Two metres. I tried to measure it with my arms, which I am told is not an approved technique. Tradition says the future first king, Ugyen Wangchuck, was once held prisoner inside during the nineteenth-century civil conflicts. Then in 1968 the third king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, converted it into the National Museum of Bhutan — thangkas, bronzes, ancient arms and armour, textiles, stamps, natural history, all up the spiralling floors. Damaged in the 2011 earthquake, restored since. The building is also the exhibit.
Jackson Phillips here. Owner of TTT. We are working hard every day to bring you the most useful product reviews in the business. Our goal is putting the right product in every hand. If you have time, shoot me an email at jacksonphillips@thetennistactician.com and tell me exactly what you think of your purchase. The more feedback we get, the better we can serve. Thank you for your patronage. And Burn, Laugh, and Learn.