PACIFIC nylon, polyamide, and copolymer strings

Nylon strings are the mainstay of the industry, they are the most practical alternative to natural gut in that they play well, are durable, and are cost effective. Not surprisingly, while natural gut is PACIFIC's mainstay, nylons are the bulk of our product line.

The line is extensive and is organized into families based upon construction and purpose. Here is a very brief overview of the most common types of string construction:

String Constructions

Solid core

Solid core strings are where modern synthetics started. The first truly successful one was a nylon made by Howard Head for his newly invented Prince racquet.

This construction was a single monofilament strand of nylon. It is an efficient and cost effective way to make strong, powerful and durable strings. Generally, they play well but tend to be stiff and harsh.

MultiFilament

As the name implies, the string is made up of lots of small filaments (or fibers) bound together. This allows infinite room for creativity. It can even be a combination of several different constructions, for instance a multifilament core, wrapped with a braided multifilament. Different materials can be mixed and matched, once again the combinations are endless.

In the end the only thing that matters is multifilament strings are generally softer than monofilament with more feel and comfort. On the down side they can loose tension and wear out faster.

Solid core multifilament

An obvious progression is to combine the two. Put in a solid core for performance and durability, wrap it with a multifilament construction to improve playability and comfort.

Materials

Next we have the materials strings are made from. The nylon, or polyamide, family is a big one with lots of relatives, both close and distant. At PACIFIC we have settled on just a few. Without splitting the hairs too thin, here are the basics.

Nylon 66 and 6

Nylon 66 is where it all began back in the thirties at one of DuPont’s research laboratories. Type 6 was developed to circumvent DuPont’s patents. These provide the base upon which most nylon strings are made.

Copolymers

Chemistry is a wonderful thing, and a polymer chemist can mix and match ingredients (just like Emeril) and cook up products with lots if different and special characteristic. These various formulations can be stiffer or softer, stretchy or brittle, elastic, or like chewing gum.

In order to product softer strings while preserving performance life, PACIFIC developed one of these designer polymers, which we simply call Copolymer. It is used extensively in our product line.

Aramid

A superstrong, heat resistant polymer which is also a nylon relation. Kevlar is one of its trade names.