Specifications:
Brand: String-Kong Type: Bonobo 1.30 Thickness: 16/1.30 mm String type: comfortable multifilament for extra vibration damping and touch Comparable strings: Wilson Sensation 16 , Diadem Impulse 16 , Babolat Addiction 16Tested by:
Name: Mike Playing strength: 4/4 Type of player: somewhat classic player, flat groundstrokes, generates little spin himself. Until recently had shoulder problems Racket: Prince Textreme Warrior 107 (107 sq/inch, 16/19 string pattern) String hardness: 24/23 kg with a stringing range of 23-27 kilos Test duration: 2 hours Favorite string player: Diadem Solstice Power 17Judgement:
Durability: 7 Tension retention: 7 Spin/slice: 7.5 Ball feel: 9 Power: 8 Control: 7.5 Comfort/arm friendliness: 9Setup and stringing:
I tested the String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 in my trusted Prince Textreme Warrior 107 at 24/23 kg. In the past I have had problems with my shoulder. That was one of the main reasons to choose the comfortable Textreme Warrior 107 at the time. I was very curious whether the String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 could add some extra comfort. Stringing this string is very easy: little to no coil memory and threading the cross strings is very easy due to the supple character of the string.
Review String-Kong Bonobo 1.30:
With the first balls with this String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 the fine damping of the string was immediately noticeable. The string offers a very soft and comfortable playing feeling, very nice for my shoulder! Another big plus of the string is the ball feeling / touch that you have with it. You have a lot of connection with the string, partly because the ball is held in this elastic string for a little longer, before it is released again.
Also in the area of tension retention this string should score well according to the specifications on the packaging. After stringing I came to a DT (Dynamic Tension) of 36. After a (tough) training of one and a half hours this had dropped to DT 28 . I must note that there were 2 weeks between the moment of stringing and playing. This was due to my participation in the Rotterdam marathon. Therefore I would call the tension retention average.
The String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 multifilament is nicely balanced. The string is lively enough for easy power from the baseline. Yet the string did not feel so 'jumpy' that this was at the expense of control. I found the balance between power and control to be very good. The spin and slice also came out of this string well. My favorite string is the Diadem Solstice Power 17, a string with a star-shaped construction for extra ball bite and spin . This round String-Kong string did not match the Solstice Power in terms of ball rotation, but this string did win in terms of arm friendliness.
Sustainability and advice:
After roughly 2 hours of play on clay, the String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 gave up the ghost. 2 hours of play with a 1.30 mm full bed multifilament string was not too bad. Especially considering the head size and stringing pattern of my Prince Textreme Warrior 107. I think this string could work very well in a hybrid setup with a polyester string lengthwise. Lately I have also experimented with a Natural Gut string lengthwise and a thin polyester string widthwise. I think the String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 is too soft for this. Nevertheless, the string could work very well as a cross string in a hybrid setup.
In summary, the String-Kong Bonobo 1.30 multifilament is a nice choice for infrequent string breakers looking for extra comfort! Also, the touch/ball feel of the string is very pleasant and the string has a very forgiving character.
