Do tennis strings make a difference?
Strings (tennis)
In tennis, the strings are the part of a tennis racquet which make contact with the ball. The strings form a woven network inside the head (or "hoop") of the racquet. Strings have been made with a variety of materials and possess varying properties that have been measured, such as dynamic stiffness, tension retention, thickness (gauge), string texture (shape of the string), and rebound efficiency.
Tennis ball
Tennis balls are filled with air and are surfaced by a uniform felt-covered rubber compound. The felt delays flow separation in the boundary layer which reduces aerodynamic drag and gives the ball better flight properties. Often the balls will have a number on them in addition to the brand name. This helps distinguish one set of balls from another of the same brand on an adjacent court.
Tennis scoring system
The tiebreak is sometimes not employed for the final set of a match and an advantage set is used instead. Therefore, the deciding set must be played until one player or team has won two more games than the opponent. Of the major tennis championships, this now only applies in the French Open. In the US Open, a tiebreak is played in the deciding set (fifth set for the men, third set for the women) at 6–6. Starting in 2019, in Wimbledon, a tiebreak will be played if the score reaches 12-12 in the final set. In the Australian Open, a "first to 10" tiebreak is played in the deciding set if it reaches 6-6. (When the tiebreak was first introduced at Wimbledon in 1971, it was invoked at 8–8 rather than 6–6.) The US Open formerly held "Super Saturday" where the two men's semi-finals were played along with the women's final on the second Saturday of the event; therefore a tie-break was more prudent where player rest and scheduling is more important.
Table tennis
Adding spin onto the ball causes major changes in table tennis gameplay. Although nearly every stroke or serve creates some kind of spin, understanding the individual types of spin allows players to defend against and use different spins effectively.
Real tennis
The rules and scoring are similar to those of lawn tennis, which derives from real tennis, but are more complex. Although in both sports game scoring is by fifteens (with the exception of 40, which was shortened from forty-five), in real tennis, six games wins a set, without the need for a two-game buffer as in lawn tennis although some tournaments play up to nine games per set. A match is typically best of three sets, except for the major open tournaments, in which matches are best of five sets for men, and the best of three sets for women.
Tuning wrench
Tuning wrench sockets may be square-shaped or eight-pointed star-shaped, and are found in two basic sizes: a large size for pianos, and a smaller size for most other instruments. For pianos, there are some gradations of size, and several lengths are generally available, and unlike machine-screw sockets which have no taper, piano sockets have a slight taper, to fit tapered tuning pins. Impact piano tuning levers differ from traditional levers in that they are fitted with a weight at the end of the handle. The tuner flicks the lever with his or her wrist, causing the weight to do the actual work of moving the tuning pin. Tuning wrench sockets are often attached snugly to the handle with fine-gauge machine-screw threads, to provide a very firm, immobile joint; this is in contrast to the square snap-on joints found in sockets used for machinery.
Piano acoustics
The strings of a piano vary in thickness, and therefore in mass per length, with bass strings thicker than treble. A typical range is from 1/30 inch (.85 mm) for the highest treble strings to 1/3 inch (8.5 mm) for the lowest bass. These differences in string thickness follow from well-understood acoustic properties of strings.
Tennis technology
Since the sport's inception, the design and manufacture of tennis equipment has been affected by technological advances and regulations. As is common in major sports, regulations became more exacting over time, with improvements affecting the qualities of the tennis racket and the tennis ball.
Twelve-string guitar
Some performers use open tunings and other non-standard guitar tunings on 12-string guitars. Some performers have experimented with tuning the two strings within a course to intervals other than octaves or unisons: jazz guitarists such as Ralph Towner (of Oregon), Larry Coryell, and Philip Catherine have tuned the bass courses of their 12-string guitars to the upper fifths and trebles to the lower fourths instead of octaves and unisons; Michael Gulezian tuned strings in the top two courses to whole-tone intervals (and possibly some of the other strings an octave lower) to achieve a very rich, complex sound. The greater number of strings offers almost endless possibilities.
String instrument
The pitch of a string can also be varied by changing the linear density (mass per unit length) of the string. In practical applications, such as with double bass strings or bass piano strings, extra weight is added to strings by winding them with metal. A string with a heavier metal winding produces a lower pitch than a string of equal length without a metal winding. This can be seen on a 2016-era set of gut strings for double bass. The higher-pitched G string is often made of synthetic material, or sometimes animal intestine, with no metal wrapping. To enable the low E string to produce a much lower pitch with a string of the same length, it is wrapped with many wrappings of thin metal wire. This adds to its mass without making it too stiff. The frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of the linear density:
Tennis court
The dimensions of a tennis court are defined and regulated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) governing body and are written down in the annual 'Rules of Tennis' document. The court is long. Its width is for singles matches and for doubles matches. The service line is from the net. Additional clear space around the court is needed in order for players to reach overrun balls for a total of wide and long. A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. The net is high at the posts, and high in the center. The net posts are outside the doubles court on each side or, for a singles net, outside the singles court on each side.
Guqin strings
Recently in China, production of very good quality silk strings has resumed and more players are beginning to use them. The American qin player and scholar John Thompson advocates for the use of both silk and nylon-wrapped metal strings for different styles of qin music, much like the guitar exists in both classical (nylon-string) and steel-string forms. Playing silk strings is different from playing metal-nylon one, as you need to pluck much more gently in order to avoid buzzing and the string slapping on the surface. Thus, silk strings are slightly more difficult to play.
Basic physics of the violin
String tension affects the sound a violin produces in an obvious way. Increasing the tension on a string results in a higher frequency note. The strings of a violin are wrapped around adjustable tuning pegs. By turning its associated peg, each string may be loosened or tightened until it produces the desired pitch, which may be described in terms of frequency. The playing tension of a violin string ranges from about to .
Bass guitar
A variety of tuning options and number of string courses (courses are when strings are put together in groups of two, often at the unison or octave) have been used to extend the range of the instrument, or facilitate different modes of playing, or allow for different playing sounds. The most common are four, five, or six strings:
Some bassists use other types of tuning to extend the range or get other benefits, such as providing multiple octaves of notes at any given position, or a larger tonal range. Instrument types or tunings used for this purpose include basses with fewer than four strings (one-string bass guitars, two-string bass guitars, three-string bass guitars [tuned to E–A–D]) and alternative tunings (e.g., tenor bass).
Baryton
The baryton differs from the bass viol in having an additional set of wire strings. These perform two functions: they vibrate sympathetically with the bowed strings, enriching the tone, and they can also be plucked by the left thumb of the performer, creating a contrasting tonal quality. As can be seen in the illustration, the bowed strings are placed on the right, where they can be easily fingered by the player's left hand. The plucked strings are on the left; they are reachable by the player's thumb from the rear, where the back of the instrument's neck is left open.
Tennis ball
The ITF's "Play and Stay" campaign aims to increase tennis participation worldwide, by improving the way starter players are introduced to the game. The ITF recommends a progression that focuses on a range of slower balls and smaller court sizes to introduce the game effectively to both adults and children. The slowest balls, marked with red, or using half red felt, are oversized and unpressurized, or made from foam rubber. The next, in orange, are unpressurized normal sized balls. The last, with green, are half pressured normal sized.
Violin
While most violins have four strings, there are violins with additional strings. Some have as many as seven strings. Seven strings is generally thought to be the maximum number of strings that can be put on a bowed string instrument, because with more than seven strings, it would be impossible to play a particular inner string individually with the bow. Instruments with seven strings are very rare. The extra strings on such violins typically are lower in pitch than the G-string; these strings are usually tuned to C, F, and B. If the instrument's playing length, or string length from nut to bridge, is equal to that of an ordinary full-scale violin; i.e., a bit less than , then it may be properly termed a violin. Some such instruments are somewhat longer and should be regarded as violas. Violins with five strings or more are typically used in jazz or folk music. Some custom-made instruments have extra strings which are not bowed, but which sound sympathetically, due to the vibrations of the bowed strings.
Strings (tennis)
Racquets are strung either with two separate strings (and thus four knots), or with a single string (resulting in only two knots). Sometimes, a hybrid of two different string types may be used in the same racquet. Traditionally, a double half hitch has been used to tie off tennis string, along with a starting knot. Recently, new kinds of knots have been used called the "pro-knot" and "Parnell knot". Along with the use of a starting clamp, this can make all the knots identical, and improve the aesthetics of a string job.
String (physics)
In string theories of particle physics, the strings are very tiny objects; much smaller than can be observed in today's particle accelerators. The characteristic length scale of strings is typically on the order of the Planck length, about 10 meter, the scale at which the effects of quantum gravity are believed to become significant. Therefore on much larger length scales, such as the scales visible in physics laboratories, such objects would appear to be zero-dimensional point particles. Strings are able to vibrate as harmonic oscillators, and different vibrational states of the same string would appear to be a different type of particle. In string theories, strings vibrating at different frequencies constitute the multiple fundamental particles found in the current Standard Model of particle physics. Strings are also sometimes studied in nuclear physics where they are used to model flux tubes.
Strings (tennis)
Natural gut is produced by drying fibers extracted from a part of the cow intestine called the serous membrane, or serosa, which contains collagen designed to withstand the stretching and contraction of the intestine. It is this elasticity that makes the fibers useful for tennis string. Sheep intestines have also been used for racquet strings in the past.
Guitar picking
The pros of each guitar picking style are indirectly correlated to the cons of the other.Fingerstyle players use up to four (rarely five) surfaces to strike string independently. However, that does not equate to four plectrums, since plectrums can more easily strike strings on both up and downstrokes—which is much more difficult for fingers.To achieve Tremolo effects, varied arpeggios, and rapid, fluent scale passages, the player must practice alternation, that is, plucking strings with a different finger each time. 
Using p to indicate the thumb, i the index finger, m the middle finger and a the ring finger, common alternation patterns include:
String instrument
The length of the string from nut to bridge on bowed or plucked instruments ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For example, a double bass with its low range needs a scale length of around , whilst a violin scale is only about . On the shorter scale of the violin, the left hand may easily reach a range of slightly more than two octaves without shifting position, while on the bass' longer scale, a single octave or a ninth is reachable in lower positions.
Strings (tennis)
Due to the tension present on the strings, elasticity and tension begins to decrease the moment they are installed in a racquet. "Dead strings", or strings which have lost their tension, cut down on the performance of a racquet. Dead strings may also hamper a tennis player's ability to generate power and pace, and may even make their arm sore.
Eight-string guitar
Extended range eight string guitars sometimes will have a multi-scale design where the bass strings will be longer than the treble strings(fanned fret design). This helps with proper intonation of the lower strings, improves string tension balance across the strings, improves harmonic overtones, overtone series, and improves inharmonicity. (See also inharmonicity in pianos). The bass strings on an 8 string typically require the saddle to be pulled back a bit more than the other strings to properly set the intonation. Some bridge designs accommodate this by offsetting back the 7th and 8th strings or providing a bit extra room for adjustment. Longer scale lengths require less offset for proper intonation.
Guqin strings
Until modern era, the guqin's strings were always made of various thicknesses of twisted silk 『絲/丝』, but since then most players use modern nylon-flatwound steel strings 『鋼絲/钢丝』. This was partly due to the scarcity of high quality silk strings and partly due to the newer strings' greater durability and louder tone.
Sympathetic string
The guitar is normally unable to produce effective sympathetic string resonance for tones other than E (resonance from the 6th and 5th strings, tuned to E and A, respectively), B (from the 6th string), D (from the 4th string), and A (from the 5th and 4th strings). (The treble strings are negligible in practice, as they are almost constantly being fingered.) However, the ten-string guitar invented in 1963 by Narciso Yepes, adds four strings tuned to C, A, G, F, which resolves the imbalance of resonance on the guitar. By adding the abovementioned resonances and, of course, their fifths (the fifth being a strong resonant frequency)—that is to say, G, F, D, C—the guitar's strings now resonate more equally with all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, bringing the guitar's sound closer to the consistency and sustainability of the harpsichord and piano.
Strings (tennis)
The process of installing strings in the racquet is called "stringing," and is done with a racquet string machine. These machines vary in complexity, accuracy and price.
Guitar tunings
Some alternative tunings are difficult or even impossible to achieve with conventional sets of guitar strings, which have gauges optimized for standard tuning. With conventional sets, some higher tunings increase string-tension until playing requires more finger-strength and stamina or even until a string snaps or the guitar is warped; with lower tunings, strings may be loose and buzz. Therefore, many alternative tunings benefit from re-stringing of the guitar with string gauges chosen to optimize particular tunings by using lighter strings for higher notes (to lower tension) and heavier strings for lower notes (to prevent string buzz); tone is also negatively affected by incorrect string gauge choice.
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
Among the features that differentiate The Championships from the other Grand Slams are that they are played on grass courts, they require the players to wear white, and they schedule a day off on the middle Sunday of the tournament (though sometimes — such as in 2004 and 2016 — poor weather has meant play has needed to take place). The winner of the Gentlemen's singles at The Championships receives a gold trophy inscribed with the words: "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World".
Michael Masley
The lid can be flexed, which will bend the pitch. While many stringed instruments can pitch bend, others bend along only one direction, altering the pitch of only a single set of strings, and by changing the tension of all strings together, their musical interval relationships stay constant. By having two courses of strings which are not parallel, the pitch bending changes the tonal relationships between the two sets of strings. If the instrument is flexed parallel to one set of strings, that set of strings remains unaltered, but the perpendicular set of strings deepens in pitch. If the instrument is flexed at an angle to both sets of strings, the pitch of both sets varies in a mathematically related fashion. Past a certain degree of flex, the two courses of strings touch and dampen each other, and the sounds produced by the spring dominate.
Badminton
Badminton strings are thin, high performing strings with thicknesses ranging from about 0.62 to 0.73 mm. Thicker strings are more durable, but many players prefer the feel of thinner strings. String tension is normally in the range of 80 to 160 N (18 to 36 lbf). Recreational players generally string at lower tensions than professionals, typically between 80 and 110 N (18 and 25 lbf). Professionals string between about 110 and 160 N (25 and 36 lbf). Some string manufacturers measure the thickness of their strings under tension so they are actually thicker than specified when slack. Ashaway Micropower is actually 0.7mm but Yonex BG-66 is about 0.72mm.
Strings (tennis)
All racquets come with recommended string tensions, most of which lie between 50 and 70 pounds (220 to 310 N).
String (music)
Steel or metal strings have become the foundation of strings for the electric guitar and bass. They have a nice, bright tone when compared to nylon string guitars. Their metal composition varies greatly, sometimes using many different alloys as plating. Much of the history about metal strings evolved through innovations with the piano. In fact, the first wound metal strings ever used were used in a piano. However, when it came to getting super small diameter strings with good elastic properties, the electric guitar took the metal string to the next level adapting it for the use of pickups.
Suroz
It has three or four main strings for playing which are tuned 1. low E - 2. low A - 3. a (440 Hz) - 4. e. Strings one, two and four are made of steel while string three is made of thick gut. there are five to eight sympathetic strings, made of thin steel and tuned according to the raag to be played. The playing strings are some millimeters higher on the bridge than the sympathetic strings, so that the latter cannot be touched by the bow. The strings are not played like on the sarangi by pressing them with the nails, but by touching them with the fingers, but without pressing them onto the neck.
Tune-o-matic
Guitar strings, especially steel strings, are not "ideal vibrators". Generally the thicker the string, the shorter the "effective length". This refers to the length of string involved in producing a sound, as opposed to the length between the nut and the bridge. Many guitar designs with fixed bridges have the bridge slanted or stepped so that the distance from nut to bridge is larger for thick strings. The Tune-o-matic extends this idea to make the distance adjustable for all the strings, within limits.
Double bass
When choosing a bass with a fifth string, the player may decide between adding a higher-pitched string (a high C string) or a lower-pitched string (typically a low B). Six-stringed instruments are generally regarded as impractical. To accommodate the additional fifth string, the fingerboard is usually slightly widened, and the top slightly thicker, to handle the increased tension. Some five-stringed instruments are converted four-string instruments. Because these do not have wider fingerboards, some players find them more difficult to finger and bow. Converted four-string basses usually require either a new, thicker top, or lighter strings to compensate for the increased tension.
Jascha Heifetz
Heifetz was very particular about his choice of strings. He used a silver wound Tricolore gut G string, plain gut unvarnished D and A strings, and a Goldbrokat steel E string medium including clear Hill brand rosin sparingly. Heifetz believed that playing on gut strings was important in rendering an individual sound.
Piano acoustics
Given two strings, equally taut and heavy, one twice as long as the other, the longer would vibrate with a pitch one octave lower than the shorter. However, if one were to use this principle to design a piano it would be impossible to fit the bass strings onto a frame of any reasonable size. Furthermore, in such a hypothetical, gigantic piano, the lowest strings would travel so far in vibrating that they would strike one another. Instead, piano makers take advantage of the fact that a heavy string vibrates more slowly than a light string of identical length and tension; thus, the bass strings on the piano are much thicker than the others.
String instrument
Some instruments that have strings have an attached keyboards that the player presses keys on to trigger a mechanism that sounds the strings, instead of directly manipulating the strings. These include the piano, the clavichord, and the harpsichord. With these keyboard instruments too, strings are occasionally plucked or bowed by hand. Modern composers such as Henry Cowell wrote music that requires that the player reach inside the piano and pluck the strings directly, "bow" them with bow hair wrapped around the strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a brass instrument such as a trombone on the array of strings. However, these are relatively rarely used special techniques.
Tennis
Many companies manufacture and distribute tennis rackets. Wilson, Head and Babolat are some of the more commonly used brands; however, many more companies exist. The same companies sponsor players to use these rackets in the hopes that the company name will become more well known by the public.
Tennis balls were originally made of cloth strips stitched together with thread and stuffed with feathers. Modern tennis balls are made of hollow vulcanized rubber with a felt coating. Traditionally white, the predominant colour was gradually changed to optic yellow in the latter part of the 20th century to allow for improved visibility. Tennis balls must conform to certain criteria for size, weight, deformation, and bounce to be approved for regulation play. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) defines the official diameter as . Balls must weigh between . Tennis balls were traditionally manufactured in the United States and Europe. Although the process of producing the balls has remained virtually unchanged for the past 100 years, the majority of manufacturing now takes place in the Far East. The relocation is due to cheaper labour costs and materials in the region.
Strings (tennis)
Metal wire, usually piano wire, was used in some historical racquets.
String (structure)
In tennis, the strings are the part of a tennis racquet which make contact with the ball. The strings form a woven network inside the head (or "hoop") of the racquet. Strings have been made with a variety of materials and possess varying properties that have been measured, such as dynamic stiffness, tension retention, thickness (gauge), string texture (shape of the string), and rebound efficiency.
Twelve-string guitar
The 12-string guitar's greater number of strings and higher cumulative string tension complicates playing, in both hands. Fretting chords requires greater force, and the width of the neck and the added string tension combine to make soloing and string-bending challenging. The gap between the dual-string courses is usually narrower than that between the single-string courses of a conventional six-string guitar, so more precision is required with the pick or fingertip when not simply strumming chords. Consequently, the instrument is most commonly used for accompaniment, though several players have taken the time to develop the 12-string guitar as a solo instrument. Flat-picking solos are more frequently seen with electric players, whereas a few acoustic players, such as Leo Kottke, have adapted fingerstyle techniques to the instrument; players such as Ralph Towner have applied classical playing techniques.
History of tennis
Wingfield did patent his hourglass court in 1874, but not his eight-page rule book titled "Sphairistike or Lawn Tennis", but he failed in enforcing his patent. In his version, the game was played on an hourglass-shaped court, and the net was higher (4 feet 8 inches) than it is in official lawn tennis. The service had to be made from a diamond-shaped box in the middle of one side of the court only, and the service had to bounce beyond the service line instead of in front of it. He adopted the rackets-based system of scoring where games consisted of 15 points (called 'aces'). None of these quirks survived the Marylebone Cricket Club's 1875 "Rules of Lawn Tennis" that have been official, with periodic slight modifications, ever since then. Those rules were adopted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first Lawn Tennis Championship, at Wimbledon in 1877 (the men who devised those rules were members of both clubs). Wingfield does deserve great credit for popularizing the game of lawn tennis, as he marketed, in one boxed set, all the equipment needed to play his or other versions of it, equipment that had been available previously only at several different outlets. Because of this convenience, versions of the game spread like wildfire in Britain, and by 1875 lawn tennis had virtually supplanted croquet and badminton as outdoor games for both men and women.
Super Tennis
All tennis players, whether playable or the opponents, are cute, short representations of the then-top world players, though their last names are left out of the game. Each playable tennis player has their own talents on the court. Multiple of the right-hand buttons of the SNES controller perform different tennis racket moves and the direction of the ball when hit is influenced by the control pad, which also moves the player around their side of the tennis court in anticipation of the ball. "Super Tennis" takes time to master, as the game neither tells the player how to play, nor gives them any knowledge on how the many different playable characters subtly differ in play style.
Types of tennis match
An informal and unsanctioned form of tennis, this is played with similar rules to Canadian doubles, only in this version, players rotate court position after each game. As such, each player plays doubles and singles over the course of a match, with the singles player always serving. Scoring styles vary, but one popular method is to assign a value of 2 points to each game, with the server taking both points if he or she holds serve, and the doubles team each taking one if they break. Throughout the United Kingdom (particularly England) and Australia this format is usually known as "American doubles", whereas in South Africa you would call it "American singles", or cut-throat tennis. It is also found in the Caribbean
String (music)
The invention of wound strings, such as nylon covered in wound metal, was a crucial step in string instrument technology, because a metal-wound string can produce a lower pitch than a catgut string of similar thickness. This enabled stringed instruments to be made with less thick bass strings. On string instruments that the player plucks or bows directly (e.g., double bass), this enabled instrument makers to use thinner strings for the lowest-pitched strings, which made the lower-pitch strings easier to play. On stringed instruments in which the player presses a keyboard, causing a mechanism to strike the strings, such as a piano, this enabled piano builders to use shorter, thicker strings to produce the lowest-pitched bass notes, enabling the building of smaller upright pianos designed for small rooms and practice rooms.
String instrument
There are three ways to change the pitch of a vibrating string. String instruments are tuned by varying the strings' tension because adjusting length or mass per unit length is impractical. Instruments with a fingerboard are then played by adjusting the length of the vibrating portion of the strings. The following observations all apply to a string that is infinitely flexible (a theoretical assumption, because in practical applications, strings are not infinitely flexible) strung between two fixed supports. Real strings have finite curvature at the bridge and nut, and the bridge, because of its motion, are not exactly nodes of vibration. Hence the following statements about proportionality are approximations.
Inharmonicity
However, when a string is struck or plucked, as with a piano string that is struck by a hammer, a violin string played pizzicato, or a guitar string that is plucked by a finger or plectrum, the string will exhibit inharmonicity. The inharmonicity of a string depends on its physical characteristics, such as tension, stiffness, and length. For instance, a stiff string under low tension (such as those found in the bass notes of small upright pianos) exhibits a high degree of inharmonicity, while a thinner string under higher tension (such as a treble string in a piano) or a more flexible string (such as a gut or nylon string used on a guitar or harp) will exhibit less inharmonicity. A wound string generally exhibits less inharmonicity than the equivalent solid string, and for that reason wound strings are often preferred.
Turbo Tennis
Unlike regular tennis, games are set to a 30-minute time limit with a klaxon on the fifteenth minute to signify a change of ends from the next game onwards. If games are level after 30 minutes the winner is decided by a sudden death point, but there have been some changes and you have to win 2 out of 3 sudden death points to win the match. Other main differences include a 15-second maximum time limit for serves which, if exceeded, results in the player losing the point automatically; lets on serves are also played.
Grunting in tennis
Some tennis players have defended grunting. Michelle Larcher de Brito, who had a reported decibel reading of 109, said: "If people don't like my grunting, they can always leave". In a different interview she said: "Nobody can tell me to stop grunting. Tennis is an individual sport and I'm an individual player. If they have to fine me, go ahead, because I'd rather get fined than lose a match because I had to stop grunting". Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, who has officially reached 101 decibels, stated, "I've done this ever since I started playing tennis and I'm not going to change". Serena Williams said that opponents grunting doesn't affect her: "I just play my game and sometimes I grunt and sometimes I don't. I'm not conscious when I’m doing it. I'm just zoned out. It doesn't really affect me if my opponent is [grunting]".
Strings (tennis)
Polyolefin is one of the softest synthetic string materials, rivaling some Zyex and most nylon multi-filaments. It offers mediocre durability and tension retention, so it is generally used as the cross string in a hybrid string setup. For those who do not break strings very quickly, however, 100% polyolefin stringing may be a good alternative to natural gut and multi-filament strings. This is especially true for those who have had tennis elbow and find natural gut string to be too costly.
Two New Sciences
[139] This leads to a discussion of the vibration of strings and he suggests that not only the length of the string is important for pitch but also the tension and the weight of the string.
Strings (tennis)
A loosely strung racquet will usually have a larger sweet spot and will hit farther but, when swung hard enough, it will shoot balls unpredictably; a tighter string job will help make delicate shots with more finesse and control.
TransTrem
The TransTrem (or TT for short) requires custom double ball end strings to work properly. Each string is calibrated to a specific length: as little as 1/16" deviation from this specification adversely affects string tuning. As of 2009 D'Addario, La Bella, GHS and the Steinberger brand strings are the only ones offering calibrated double ball sets.
Tennis
Aside from the historical significance of these events, they also carry larger prize funds than any other tour event and are worth double the number of ranking points to the champion than in the next echelon of tournaments, the Masters 1000 (men) and Premier events (women). Another distinguishing feature is the number of players in the singles draw. There are 128, more than any other professional tennis tournament. This draw is composed of 32 seeded players, other players ranked in the world's top 100, qualifiers, and players who receive invitations through wild cards. Grand Slam men's tournaments have best-of-five set matches while the women play best-of-three. Grand Slam tournaments are among the small number of events that last two weeks, the others being the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Masters.
Double bass
The change from gut to steel has also affected the instrument's playing technique over the last hundred years. Steel strings can be set up closer to the fingerboard and, additionally, strings can be played in higher positions on the lower strings and still produce clear tone. The classic 19th century Franz Simandl method does not use the low E string in higher positions because older gut strings, set up high over the fingerboard, could not produce clear tone in these higher positions. However, with modern steel strings, bassists can play with clear tone in higher positions on the low E and A strings, particularly when they use modern lighter-gauge, lower-tension steel strings. For information on the strings used in regular and solo tuning (F-B-E-A) and with different types of basses (e.g., four-string and five-string), see the section below on tuning.
Tennis scoring system
The alternation of service between games continues throughout the match without regard to sets, but the ends are changed after each odd game within a set (including the last game). If, for example, the second set of a match ends with the score at 6–3, 1–6, the ends are changed as the last game played was the 7th (odd) game of the set and in spite of it being the 16th (even) game of the match. Even when a set ends with an odd game, ends are again changed after the first game of the following set. A tiebreaker game is treated as a single game for the purposes of this alternation. Since tiebreakers always result in a score of 7–6, there is always a court change after the tiebreaker.
String (music)
Nylon string, traditionally used for classical music, has a more mellow tone and the responsiveness of it can be enjoyed typically for folk but other styles of music use it as well (Willie Nelson performs on a nylon string guitar). Note that nylon strings don't work with magnetic pickups, which require ferrous strings that can interact with the magnetic field of the pickups to produce a signal. Nylon strings are made of a softer, less dense material and are under less tension than steel strings (about 50% less). This means they can be used on older guitars that can't support the tension of modern steel strings.
Tennis
Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface. The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and wide for singles matches and for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun balls. A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. It is held up by either a metal cable or cord that can be no more than . The net is high at the posts and high in the center. The net posts are outside the doubles court on each side or, for a singles net, outside the singles court on each side.
Tennis
A tennis match is intended to be continuous. Because stamina is a relevant factor, arbitrary delays are not permitted. In most cases, service is required to occur no more than 20 seconds after the end of the previous point. This is increased to 90 seconds when the players change ends (after every odd-numbered game), and a 2-minute break is permitted between sets. Other than this, breaks are permitted only when forced by events beyond the players' control, such as rain, damaged footwear, damaged racket, or the need to retrieve an errant ball. Should a player be determined to be stalling repeatedly, the chair umpire may initially give a warning followed by subsequent penalties of "point", "game", and default of the match for the player who is consistently taking longer than the allowed time limit.
Strings (tennis)
Its principal drawbacks are much higher cost to manufacture and purchase than other materials, weakness to shear stresses from off-center hits (typical of beginning players), variable quality control depending upon the brand, batch, age, storage conditions, and grade, difficulty of stringing due to its delicacy, and poor durability when wetted with water. Natural gut is very sensitive to different types of weather and those players who use it normally carry several different racquets with different tensions to compensate for this. Some players, particularly those who hit flat shots and hit the sweet spot consistently, find high-quality gut to be more durable than many other types of strings due to its outstanding tension retention. This may help to offset the high initial cost. The use of a dense string pattern also generally improves the longevity of natural gut.
Types of tennis match
There is an evolution in tennis training that employs the use of low compression balls and in some cases modified court sizes. Organizations around the world have begun to use lower compression balls and modified court sizes as a way to reach out to younger tennis players interested in tennis. The use of low compression balls and modified court sizes is meant to ease the process into becoming a competitive or amateur tennis player. The low compression balls are colored differently to indicate the level of compression. Young players and beginners are likely to find the game easier to learn because the balls do not bounce as high or travel as fast as "normal" balls. The modified smaller courts make covering the court, or reaching the opponents shot, easier as well.
Floyd Rose
Some players, including Eddie Van Halen, prefer to instead have a "half-floating" bridge, which allows only downwards motion. This means the cavity of the tremolo pocket is not fully milled away underneath—and if the tension of the rear springs is slightly stronger than the tension of the strings, the tremolo always rests flush with the body. In this set-up, a broken string has no effect on the pitch of the other strings, as the reduced overall string tension from the broken string doesn't make the bridge move, since it already presses against the body of the guitar. This also allows fitting a device to the bridge that can drop the low E-string down to D to extend the tonal variety of the guitar, even during live performance.
Bending, however, still affects the rest of the strings, which makes some double-stop techniques more difficult to achieve.
Morin khuur
The larger of the two strings (the "male" string) has 130 hairs from a stallion's tail, while the "female" string has 105 hairs from a mare's tail. Nowadays the strings are made of nylon. Traditionally, the strings were tuned a fifth apart, though in modern music they are more often tuned a fourth apart, usually to B-flat and F. The strings are stopped either by pinching them in the joints of the index and middle fingers, or by pinching them between the nail of the little finger and the pad of the ring finger.
Tennis technology
Early rackets were made of wood, which was not as good as modern materials, since wood has inconsistencies, resulting in different feels when striking the ball. Wood rackets needed a brace to stop warping when not in use. Later designs used metals, with experimenting with metals such as aluminum, magnesium and titanium.
String (structure)
The invention of wound strings, such as nylon covered in wound metal, was a crucial step in string instrument technology, because a metal-wound string can produce a lower pitch than a catgut string of similar thickness. This enabled stringed instruments to be made with less thick bass strings. On string instruments that the player plucks or bows directly (e.g., double bass), this enabled instrument makers to use thinner strings for the lowest-pitched strings, which made the lower-pitch strings easier to play. On stringed instruments in which the player presses a keyboard, causing a mechanism to strike the strings, such as a piano, this enabled piano builders to use shorter, thicker strings to produce the lowest-pitched bass notes, enabling the building of smaller upright pianos designed for small rooms and practice rooms.
Stretched tuning
Tines and reeds differ from strings in that they are held at one end and free to vibrate at the other. The frequencies of their fundamental and harmonic vibrations are subject to the same inharmonicity as strings. However, because of the comparative thickness of the bars that terminate the tines in an electric piano, the larger (and stronger) vibrations tend to "see" termination points slightly deeper in the bar than do smaller, weaker vibrations. This enhances inharmonicity in tines.
Guqin strings
There are a number of Chinese characters for the word "string(s)". 『絃』, 『弦』, 『線』 and 『綫』. According to "Chinese Characters" (1915), 『線』 and 『綫/线』 are both the same character (the former used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the later used in mainland China in its simplified form), which meaning is 'thread', 'line' or 'wire'. However, the characters 『絃』 and 『弦』 mean the same thing ('string'), but have different etymological meanings. In the case of 『絃』, the radical is 「糸」, which is the radical for silk, whilst for 『弦』, the radical is 「弓」 which is the radical for the archery 'bow'. It is important to distinguish from the two as they are often used to refer to the strings of the qin, or any other stringed instrument, sometimes together on the same page. However, etymologically, 『絃』 is the correct character to be used to refer to strings of the qin as the radical denotes, qin strings were made of silk (though probably etymologically incorrect for the modern metal-nylon strings). But for 『弦』, it probably denotes a string used on an instrument which requires a bow to play, such as erhu or violin. Maybe, 『弦』 can also be used to refer to metal / metal-nylon strings...
New standard tuning
NST places the guitar strings under greater tension than standard tuning. Standard sets of guitar strings do not work well with the tuning as the lowest strings are too loose and the highest string may snap under the increased tension. Special sets of NST strings have been available for decades, and some guitarists have assembled NST sets from individual strings.
Cosmic string
Much has changed since these early days, primarily due to the second superstring revolution. It is now known that string theory in addition to the fundamental strings which define the theory perturbatively also contains other one-dimensional objects, such as D-strings, and higher-dimensional objects such as D-branes, NS-branes and M-branes partially wrapped on compact internal spacetime dimensions, while being spatially extended in one non-compact dimension. The possibility of large compact dimensions and large warp factors allows strings with tension much lower than the Planck scale. Furthermore, various dualities that have been discovered point to the conclusion that actually all these apparently different types of string are just the same object as it appears in different regions of parameter space. These new developments have largely revived interest in cosmic strings, starting in the early 2000s.
Racket (sports equipment)
Popular lawn tennis rackets vary primarily in length, weight, balance point, stiffness, beam thickness, string pattern, string density, and head size. They generally conform to unofficial standards that differ from past rackets. Currently, almost all adult rackets produced by companies such as Prince Sports, Yonex, Wilson, Babolat , Dunlop Sport, Head, Tecnifibre, and Völkl are made from a graphite composite. Those made from wood, steel, fiberglass, aluminum, or other materials are considered obsolete, although those materials are technically legal for play. Inexpensive rackets often have poor performance characteristics such as excessive flexibility and inadequate weight. No recent manufacturers use single-throated beams, although Prince tried to reintroduce the single throat design in the 1990s: the only professional who used one was Mirjana Lučić. Braided graphite rackets were considered high-end until recently and molded rackets have been the norm for some time. Molding is less expensive to manufacture and offer high stiffness. Dunlop also had a nylon-based "hot melt" process, now obsolete, that produced the midsize 200G racket, once used to great effect by Steffi Graf and John McEnroe, as well as briefly used by Martina Navratilova.
Strings (tennis)
The "gauge" number determines the thickness of the string. A string rated with a high gauge number is a thinner string, and vice versa. Thinner strings typically offer higher performance but break more frequently than thicker strings.
Tennis scoring system
An alternative tie-break system called the "Coman Tie-Break" is sometimes used by the United States Tennis Association. Scoring is the same, but end changes take place after the first point and then after every four points. This approach allows the servers of doubles teams to continue serving from the same end of the court as during the body of the set. It also reduces the advantage the elements (e.g. wind and sun) could give playing the first six points of a seven-point tiebreak on one side of the court.
Tennis games
Six or more players are needed for this game. An equal number of players line up behind each baseline. One side is designated the chumps while the other is designated the champs. A player from each line steps up and plays out a singles point. The point is started with either a drop hit or a serve. The winner of the point goes to the end of the champs’ line while the loser goes to the end of the chump’s line. The game is played for a designated time, and once time is called, the players on the champs side are the winners. This game practices playing a singles point.
Tie (draw)
In most professional tennis matches, a tiebreaker rule applies in each set to avoid lengthy matches, as happens quite frequently if the traditional tennis rule for winning a set is followed. When players reach a score of 6–6 in a set, instead of continuing the set until one opponent wins with a two-game difference, a special game is played to decide the winner of the set; the winner is the first to reach at least seven points with a difference of two over the opponent. This however does not apply to the final set of matches at the French Open, allowing the total number of games in a match to be virtually unlimited (for example, the final set of the Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships ended only when John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70–68). The Australian Open and Wimbledon Championships did not use a final set tiebreaker through the 2018 tournaments, but will begin to use a tiebreaker in 2019 (For Wimbledon, the final set tiebreaker will only occur once the score of the final set reaches 12–12).
Guqin strings
In 2016, the Japanese string maker, Marusan Hashimoto, produced what they call hybrid strings for qin. They are made like traditional silk strings but with a Tetron twisted core and for the four thicker strings having a nylon wrapping. Their main selling point is that they can be tuned to standard pitch without breaking and are more stable. Other than that, they are very similar to silk strings, especially in the sound being the closest compared to the other synthetic strings.
Scale length (string instruments)
Quite an uncommon scale construction using the Novax Fanned-Fret system that "fan outward" for the ability to play in tune with the unequal scale lengths of each string that is used to find the optimal equal tonal response and equal string tension from string-to-string for easier playing is represented by Dingwall Basses, who uses a 37" to 34" span on their Prima, Z1, Z2, and Afterburner original designs and a shorter 34.25" to 32" span for their "Super J" Jazz Bass design.Helios R-Evolution 7 strings bass Heliosguitars
Helios ANTARES 6 strings bass Heliosguitars
The scale length of a piano is the length of the longest string. As this is normally the lowest bass note, it is a single string.
String (music)
Bowed instrument strings, such as for the violin or cello, are usually described by tension rather than gauge. Fretted instruments (guitar, banjo, etc.) strings are usually described by "gauge"—the diameter of the string. The tone of a string depends partly on weight, and, therefore, on its diameter—its gauge. Usually, string manufacturers that don't describe strings by tension list string diameter in thousandths of an inch (0.001 in = 0.0254 mm). The larger the diameter, the heavier the string. Heavier strings require more tension for the same pitch and are, as a consequence, harder to press down to the fingerboard. A fretted instrument that is restrung with different string gauges may require adjustment to the string height above the frets (the "action") to maintain playing ease or keep the strings from buzzing against the frets. The action height of fretless instruments is also adjusted to suit the string gauge or material, as well as the intended playing style.
Follis (ball)
In his testimony, Joan Lluís Vives explains the Jeu de Paume comparing the strings of the racquet from that game, played in Paris with drones gut of the sixth string of a guitar. the demands of a tennis racket stringing regard to the determine the strings of animal intestine are well suited for this use.
Strings (tennis)
Multi-filament strings, known commonly as "multis" are strings that have more than one filament. They are most commonly made of many filaments of nylon, but can incorporate other materials such as polyurethane, Zyex, Vectran, Kevlar, and other materials. Multi-filament strings offer better elasticity than single filament strings, but usually inferior durability. No multi-filament string holds its tension as well as natural gut, and none of them is as soft.
2013 ITF Men's Circuit
The tournaments are played on a rectangular flat surface, commonly referred to as a tennis court. The dimenstion of a tennis court are defined and regulated by the ITF and the court is long, wide. Its width is for singles matches and for doubles matches. Tennis is played on a variety of surfaces and each surface has its own characteristics which affect the playing style of the game. There are four main types of courts depending on the materials used for the court surface, clay, hard, grass and carpet courts with the ITF classifying five different pace settings ranging from slow to fast.
Countries that are hosting a tournament in 2013, but did not in 2012.
Tennis
The components of a tennis racket include a handle, known as the grip, connected to a neck which joins a roughly elliptical frame that holds a matrix of tightly pulled strings. For the first 100 years of the modern game, rackets were made of wood and of standard size, and strings were of animal gut. Laminated wood construction yielded more strength in rackets used through most of the 20th century until first metal and then composites of carbon graphite, ceramics, and lighter metals such as titanium were introduced. These stronger materials enabled the production of oversized rackets that yielded yet more power. Meanwhile, technology led to the use of synthetic strings that match the feel of gut yet with added durability.
Under modern rules of tennis, the rackets must adhere to the following guidelines;The rules regarding rackets have changed over time, as material and engineering advances have been made. For example, the maximum length of the frame had been until 1997, when it was shortened to .
Guqin
Although most contemporary players use nylon-wrapped metal strings, some argue that nylon-wrapped metal strings cannot replace silk strings for their refinement of tone. Additionally, nylon-wrapped metal strings can cause damage to the wood of old qins. Many traditionalists feel that the sound of the fingers of the left hand sliding on the strings to be a distinctive feature of qin music. The modern nylon-wrapped metal strings were very smooth in the past, but are now slightly modified in order to capture these sliding sounds.
Strings (tennis)
Synthetic gut, as it is used for mono-filament nylon strings, is now a misnomer, as the creation of multi-filament strings has provided players with a better approximation of natural gut's performance. Modern "synthetic gut" is actually a multi-filament string that holds its tension extremely well and which has a dynamic stiffness profile that is closest to natural gut, although the industry continues to apply the term to mono-filament nylon strings.
String instrument
A single string at a certain tension and length only produces one note. To produce multiple notes, string instruments use one of two methods. One is to add enough strings to cover the required range of different notes (e.g., as with the piano, which has sets of 88 strings to enable the performer to play 88 different notes). The other is to provide a way to "stop" the strings along their length to shorten the part that vibrates, which is the method used in guitar and violin family instruments to produce different notes from the same string. The piano and harp represent the first method, where each note on the instrument has its own string or course of multiple strings tuned to the same note. (Many notes on a piano are strung with a "choir" of three strings tuned alike, to increase the volume.) A guitar represents the second method—the player's fingers push the string against the fingerboard so that the string is pressed firmly against a metal fret. Pressing the string against a fret while plucking or strumming it shortens the vibrating part and thus produces a different note.
Guqin
Until recently, the guqin's strings were always made of various thicknesses of twisted silk, but since then most players use modern nylon-flatwound steel strings. This was partly due to the scarcity of high quality silk strings and partly due to the newer strings' greater durability and louder tone.
Double bass
An important distinction between the double bass and other members of the violin family is the construction of the pegbox and the tuning mechanism. While the violin, viola, and cello all use friction pegs for tuning adjustments (tightening and loosening the string tension to raise or lower the string's pitch), the double bass has metal machine heads and gears. One of the challenges with tuning pegs is that the friction between the wood peg and the peg hole may become insufficient to hold the peg in place, particularly if the peg hole become worn and enlarged. The key on the tuning machine of a double bass turns a metal "worm", which drives a worm gear that winds the string. Turning the key in one direction tightens the string (thus raising its pitch); turning the key the opposite direction reduces the tension on the string (thus lowering its pitch). While this development makes fine tuners on the tailpiece (important for violin, viola and cello players, as their instruments use friction pegs for major pitch adjustments) unnecessary, a very small number of bassists use them nevertheless. One rationale for using fine tuners on bass is that for instruments with the low C extension, the pulley system for the long string may not effectively transfer turns of the key into changes of string tension/pitch. At the base of the double bass is a metal rod with a spiked or rubberized end called the endpin, which rests on the floor. This endpin is generally thicker and more robust than that of a cello, because of the greater mass of the instrument.
String trimmer
A string trimmer works on the principle that a line that is turned fast enough is held out from its housing (the rotating reel) very stiffly by centrifugal force. The faster it turns the stiffer the line. Even round-section nylon line is able to cut grass and slight, woody plants quite well. Some monofilament lines designed for more powerful cutters have an extruded shape, like a star, that helps the line slash the material being cut; the line is thus able to cut quite large woody plants (small shrubs) or at least ring-bark them very effectively. These lines make disks less necessary for tough jobs.
Tennis scoring system
During informal play of tennis, especially at tennis clubs in the U.S. (also in other English speaking countries), score announcements are frequently shortened with the use of abbreviations. For example, a score 15 is replaced with "five", or in some cases "fif". "Love" is often substituted to indicate "zero". Similarly, the scores of 30 and 40 may sometimes be spoken as "three" or "four" respectively. A score of 15-all may sometimes be announced as "fives." To further confuse score announcements, a score of 30-all (30–30) may often be called "deuce", and the following point referred to as "ad in" or "ad out" (or "my ad" or "your ad"), depending on which player (or team) won the point. The logic for this is that a 30-all score is "effectively" the same as deuce (40–40).
Tennis court
The ITF's Play and Stay campaign promotes playing on smaller courts with slower red, orange and green balls for younger children. This gives children more time and control so they can serve, rally, and score from the first lesson on courts that are sized to fit their bodies. The ITF has mandated that official competition for children under 10 years of age should be played on "Orange" courts long by wide. Competition for children under 8 years is played on "Red" courts that are long and wide. The net is always 0.8 m high in the center.
String (music)
The so-called "Carbon" material has a higher density than nylon, so that a nylon string can be replaced by a carbon string of smaller diameter. This improves the precision of higher fretted notes, and the resulting vibrational behaviour leads to a more brilliant sound with improved harmonics. In particular, classical guitarists who feel that a nylon G-string sounds too dull for their taste can choose a set of strings which includes a carbon G-string.
Racket (sports equipment)
Weights of a racket also vary between unstrung and strung. Until the 1980s, rackets weighted at "medium" were produced. "Heavy" rackets were produced during the height of the wood era (e.g. the 1960s), very sparingly. The "medium" weight is heavier than any of the rackets produced since it was discontinued by companies. Many professionals added weight to their rackets to improve stability. Many continue to do so. Pete Sampras added lead tape to make his racket have a weight and Venus Williams is known for using a frame modified to be quite heavy, in terms of the recent times average. By contrast, Andy Roddick surprised many when he said he used a stock Pro Drive series model, series of racket which was light when compared with the rackets used by most top professionals. In both recreational and professional tennis, the trend has been away from heavy rackets and toward lighter rackets, despite the drawbacks from light rackets, such as increased twisting. Lawn tennis rackets originally flared outward at the bottom of the handle to prevent slippage. The rounded bottom was called a bark bottom after its inventor Matthew Barker. But by 1947, this style became superfluous. More mass gives rackets "plow through", momentum that continues once the player has managed to get the racket into motion and which is more resistant to stoppage from the ball's momentum. This can give the perception that the racket produces shots with more power, although this is complicated by the typically slower stroke production. Higher mass typically involves a slower swing but more energy to execute the swing. More mass also provides more cushioning against ball impact shock, a source of injuries such as tennis elbow. However, high racket mass can cause fatigue in the shoulder area. Typically, it is safer for the body to have higher mass. More mass, additionally, provides more stability. It makes the racket more resistant to twisting forces and pushback. The drawbacks are that heavier rackets have lower maneuverability (reducing reaction time) and require more energy to move. As a racket gets heavier, the player finds it increasingly difficult to do fast reaction shots such as quick volleys and returns of serve. However, the additional mass can help with return of serve, in particular, by making the racket much more resistant to twist from a high-powered service. Light rackets have the additional drawback of making it easier for beginning players to use inappropriate wrist-dominant strokes, which often leads to injury. This is because poor stroke mechanics can be much easier to produce with a lightweight racket, such as in using one's wrist to mostly swing the racket. An extremely typical mistake beginning players make is to choke up heavily on the racket (to try to compensate for twist from a light racket, as well as too high racket angle upon impact) and use the wrist too much. The only professional well-known player to have had success with a strongly choked-up grip is Zina Garrison.
Clavichord
In the clavichord, strings run transversely from the hitchpin rail at the left-hand end to tuning pegs on the right. Towards the right end they pass over a curved wooden bridge. The action is simple, with the keys being levers with a small brass tangent, a small piece of metal similar in shape and size to the head of a flat-bladed screwdriver, at the far end. The strings, which are usually of brass, or else a combination of brass and iron, are usually arranged in pairs, like a lute or mandolin. When the key is pressed, the tangent strikes the strings above, causing them to sound in a similar fashion to the "hammering" technique on a guitar. Unlike in a piano action, the tangent does not rebound from the string; rather, it stays in contact with the string as long as the key is held, acting as both the nut and as the initiator of sound. The volume of the note can be changed by striking harder or softer, and the pitch can also be affected by varying the force of the tangent against the string (known as "Bebung"). When the key is released, the tangent loses contact with the string and the vibration of the string is silenced by strips of damping cloth.
Tennis
Two hands give the player more control, while one hand can generate a slice shot, applying backspin on the ball to produce a low trajectory bounce. Reach is also limited with the two-handed shot. The player long considered to have had the best backhand of all time, Don Budge, had a powerful one-handed stroke in the 1930s and 1940s that imparted topspin onto the ball. Ken Rosewall, another player noted for his one-handed backhand, used a very accurate slice backhand through the 1950s and 1960s. A small number of players, notably Monica Seles, use two hands on both the backhand and forehand sides.
Violin
Strings were first made of sheep gut (commonly known as catgut, which despite the name, did not come from cats), or simply gut, which was stretched, dried, and twisted. In the early years of the 20th century, strings were made of either gut or steel. Modern strings may be gut, solid steel, stranded steel, or various synthetic materials such as perlon, wound with various metals, and sometimes plated with silver. Most E strings are unwound, either plain or plated steel. Gut strings are not as common as they once were, but many performers use them to achieve a specific sound especially in historically informed performance of Baroque music. Strings have a limited lifetime. Eventually, when oil, dirt, corrosion, and rosin accumulate, the mass of the string can become uneven along its length. Apart from obvious things, such as the winding of a string coming undone from wear, players generally change a string when it no longer plays "true" (with good intonation on the harmonics), losing the desired tone, brilliance and intonation. String longevity depends on string quality and playing intensity.
Violin
All notes (except those below the open D) can be played on more than one string. This is a standard design feature of stringed instruments; however, it differs from the piano, which has only one location for each of its 88 notes. For instance, the note of open A on the violin can be played as the open A, or on the D string (in first to fourth positions) or even on the G string (very high up in sixth to ninth positions). Each string has a different tone quality, because of the different weights (thicknesses) of the strings and because of the resonances of other open strings. For instance, the G string is often regarded as having a very full, sonorous sound which is particularly appropriate to late Romantic music. This is often indicated in the music by the marking, for example, "sul G" or "IV" (a Roman numeral indicating to play on the fourth string; by convention, the strings are numbered from thinnest, highest pitch (I) to the lowest pitch (IV). Even without an explicit instructions in the score, an advanced violinist will use her/his discretion and artistic sensibility to select which string to play specific notes or passages.
String (structure)
In music, a string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments such as the guitar, harp, piano (piano wire), and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material that a musical instrument holds under tension so that they can vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain" (consisting only of a single material, like catgut, nylon, or steel). "Wound" strings have a "core" of one material, with an overwinding of other materials. This is to make the string vibrate at the desired pitch, while maintaining a low profile and sufficient flexibility for playability.
Strings (tennis)
Polyester is a stiff and durable string material, originally intended for use by frequent string breakers. It took the string time to become popular, primarily due to its poor tension holding capability. However, players feel they are able to apply more topspin to balls while maintaining control with polyester strings. Polyester's support for heavy topspin in particular has made it the most popular material in the pro tour. The increased topspin due to polyester strings has been verified with controlled experiments today. The exact cause for the increased spin is not known but there is strong evidence that the low friction between strings is a factor.
Kevlar is the stiffest, most durable synthetic string available, and is thus extremely hard to break. Although it is one of the best strings in terms of tension holding capability (next to natural gut), it is the most dangerous string when it comes to developing tennis elbow. Kevlar is often strung with another string, such as nylon), in order to combine both strings' qualities, as Kevlar by itself feels too stiff for many tennis players, especially when combined with a stiff racquet. Some advocate using a very thin gauge Kevlar for increasing comfort, but even in the thinnest gauge it is a stiff string. Another strategy to increase comfort and improve rebound efficiency is to string Kevlar at a low tension.
String instrument
Bowed instruments pose a challenge to instrument builders, as compared with instruments that are only plucked (e.g., guitar), because on bowed instruments, the musician must be able to play one string at a time if they wish. As such, a bowed instrument must have a curved bridge that makes the "outer" strings lower in height than the "inner" strings. With such a curved bridge, the player can select one string at a time to play. On guitars and lutes, the bridge can be flat, because the strings are played by plucking them with the fingers, fingernails or a pick; by moving the fingers or pick to different positions, the player can play different strings. On bowed instruments, the need to play strings individually with the bow also limits the number of strings to about six or seven strings; with more strings, it would be impossible to select individual strings to bow. (Note: bowed strings can also play two bowed notes on two different strings at the same time, a technique called a double stop.) Indeed, on the orchestral string section instruments, four strings are the norm, with the exception of five strings used on some double basses. In contrast, with stringed keyboard instruments, 88 courses are used on a piano, and even though these strings are arranged on a flat bridge, the mechanism can play any of the notes individually.
Strings (tennis)
The first natural gut tennis string was rumored to be manufactured in 1875 by Pierre Babolat, who would launch the VS brand of gut fifty years later. Natural gut is usually offered in coated form, to reduce its tendency to unravel, particularly when humid or wet.