Head to head

Gamma IO Soft 16 (1.28) vs Signum Pro Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22)

Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) leads on 4 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is ball bite, where Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) is 60 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Gamma

IO Soft 16 (1.28)

Polyester · 16 ga

Signum Pro

Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22)

Polyester · 17 ga

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
20068th pct
19866th pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
3455th pct
3353rd pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
8955th pct
8850th pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
6.180th pct
6.383rd pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.41936th pct
0.61496th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.0694th pct
0.09759th 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 IO Soft 16 (1.28) at 52 lb

String Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) at 52.6 lb 23.9 kg

Coming from Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) at 52 lb

String IO Soft 16 (1.28) at 51.4 lb 23.3 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.

IO Soft 16 (1.28) mains / Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) crosses

Stiffness67th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss55th pct · 1 measured
Energy return54th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential81st pct · 1 measured
Ball bite55th pct · 1 measured
String friction16th pct · 1 measured

Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) mains / IO Soft 16 (1.28) crosses

Stiffness67th pct · 1 measured
Tension loss54th pct · 1 measured
Energy return53rd pct · 1 measured
Spin potential83rd pct · 1 measured
Ball bite94th pct · 1 measured
String friction48th 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.

IO Soft 16 (1.28)

~23 hours of play

Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22)

~24 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Gamma IO Soft 16 (1.28) Polyester16find20034896.10.4190.069
Signum Pro Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) Polyester17find19833886.30.6140.097

Add a third string IO Soft 16 (1.28) in full Yellow Jacket 17g (1.22) in full