StringSpec
String finder

Browse all 788

Head to head

Dunlop Pearl 16 (1.30) vs Luxilon Natural Gut 1.25

Natural Gut 1.25 leads on 4 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is ball bite, where Natural Gut 1.25 is 24 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Dunlop

Pearl 16 (1.30)

Nylon · 16 ga

Luxilon

Natural Gut 1.25

Gut

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
1385th pct
820th pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
1810th pct
131st pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
9388th pct
9698th pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
3.927th pct
3.723rd pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.43145th pct
0.47970th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.11177th pct
0.12987th pct

Bars are percentile against all 788 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 Pearl 16 (1.30) at 52 lb

String Natural Gut 1.25 at 70.0 lb 31.8 kg

Clamped. The proportional answer was 87.4 lb, outside what most frames are rated for. These two are too far apart in stiffness to match by tension alone.

Coming from Natural Gut 1.25 at 52 lb

String Pearl 16 (1.30) at 30.9 lb 14.0 kg

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.

Pearl 16 (1.30) mains / Natural Gut 1.25 crosses

Stiffness3rd pct · 1 measured
Tension loss7th pct · 1 measured
Energy return95th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential25th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite50th pct · 1 measured
String friction80th pct · 1 measured

Natural Gut 1.25 mains / Pearl 16 (1.30) crosses

Stiffness2nd pct · 1 measured
Tension loss4th pct · 1 measured
Energy return96th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential24th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite67th pct · 1 measured
String friction85th 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.

Pearl 16 (1.30)

~37 hours of play

Natural Gut 1.25

~40 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Dunlop Pearl 16 (1.30) Nylon16find13818933.90.4310.111
Luxilon Natural Gut 1.25 Gut—find8213963.70.4790.129

Add a third string Pearl 16 (1.30) in full Natural Gut 1.25 in full