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Head to head

Ashaway MonoGut ZX 16 vs Yonex Poly Tour Air 16L

MonoGut ZX 16 leads on 4 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is ball bite, where Poly Tour Air 16L is 42 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Ashaway

MonoGut ZX 16

Nylon/Zyex · 16 ga

Yonex

Poly Tour Air 16L

Polyester · 16L ga

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
1062nd pct
15518th pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
4883rd pct
4169th pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
8952nd pct
8846th pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
4.440th pct
4.235th pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.39118th pct
0.45760th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.08842nd pct
0.10874th pct

Bars are percentile against all 791 strings, and the marked side is the one that measures better, which is not always the one you want. A firmer bed is worse for your elbow and better for your control, and no measurement knows which of those you came for.

Which one wins, by problem

Each string's standing on the site's rankings, out of every measured string in the database. This is where a comparison stops being arithmetic and starts being a decision.

Swapping between them: what tension?

Bed stiffness is published at one reference tension, so the only honest conversion is to scale it. These are starting points from 52 lb, not prescriptions. The calculator takes your own tension.

Coming from MonoGut ZX 16 at 52 lb

String Poly Tour Air 16L at 35.5 lb 16.1 kg

Coming from Poly Tour Air 16L at 52 lb

String MonoGut ZX 16 at 70.0 lb 31.8 kg

Clamped. The proportional answer was 76.2 lb, outside what most frames are rated for.

Hybrid: what if you used both?

Estimated, not measured. No hybrid combination has been tested as a bed. These figures are the two strings' own lab measurements weighted by how much of the bed each one actually is. Treat them as a guide to which way a pairing moves, never as lab data.

MonoGut ZX 16 mains / Poly Tour Air 16L crosses

Stiffness3rd pct · 1 measured
Tension loss77th pct · 1 measured
Energy return49th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential38th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite24th pct · 1 measured
String friction53rd pct · 1 measured

Poly Tour Air 16L mains / MonoGut ZX 16 crosses

Stiffness4th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss73rd pct · 1 measured
Energy return48th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential36th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite54th pct · 1 measured
String friction68th pct · 1 measured

Open this in the hybrid builder

Which goes dead first?

Estimated from tension loss, which is the only thing the database measures about ageing. This is when the bed stops playing the way you strung it, not when the string breaks.

MonoGut ZX 16

~15 hours of play

Poly Tour Air 16L

~19 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Ashaway MonoGut ZX 16 Nylon/Zyex16find10648894.40.3910.088
Yonex Poly Tour Air 16L Polyester16Lfind15541884.20.4570.108

Add a third string MonoGut ZX 16 in full Poly Tour Air 16L in full