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Head to head

Head Rip Control 17 (1.25) vs Pacific Prime Natural Gut 16

Prime Natural Gut 16 leads on 5 of 6 measurements. The widest gap is ball bite, where Rip Control 17 (1.25) is 16 percentile points ahead. Every figure is a testing-machine result at a fixed reference tension.

Measured, side by side

Head

Rip Control 17 (1.25)

Nylon/Polyolefin · 17 ga

Pacific

Prime Natural Gut 16

Gut · 16 ga

Stiffness lower = softer, kinder on the arm
1385th pct
851st pct
Tension loss lower = stays where you strung it
1812th pct
142nd pct
Energy return higher = livelier, more free power
9492nd pct
9596th pct
Spin potential higher = more spin off the string bed
4.235th pct
4.440th pct
Ball bite higher = grabs the ball harder
0.48974th pct
0.45358th pct
String friction lower = strings slide and snap back
0.11781st pct
0.10367th 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 Rip Control 17 (1.25) at 52 lb

String Prime Natural Gut 16 at 70.0 lb 31.8 kg

Clamped. The proportional answer was 84.0 lb, outside what most frames are rated for. These two are too far apart in stiffness to match by tension alone.

Coming from Prime Natural Gut 16 at 52 lb

String Rip Control 17 (1.25) at 32.2 lb 14.6 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.

Rip Control 17 (1.25) mains / Prime Natural Gut 16 crosses

Stiffness3rd pct · 1 measured
Tension loss8th pct · 1 measured
Energy return94th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential36th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite71st pct · 1 measured
String friction79th pct · 1 measured

Prime Natural Gut 16 mains / Rip Control 17 (1.25) crosses

Stiffness2nd pct · 1 measured
Tension loss5th pct · 1 measured
Energy return95th pct · 1 measured
Spin potential38th pct · 1 measured
Ball bite61st pct · 1 measured
String friction71st 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.

Rip Control 17 (1.25)

~36 hours of play

Prime Natural Gut 16

~39 hours of play

Both strings in full

Every published measurement
StringGaugePriceStiff lb/inLoss %Power %SpinBite COFFriction COF
Head Rip Control 17 (1.25) Nylon/Polyolefin17$11.0013818944.20.4890.117
Pacific Prime Natural Gut 16 Gut16find8514954.40.4530.103

Add a third string Rip Control 17 (1.25) in full Prime Natural Gut 16 in full