Let's take a look at the Yonex Exbolt 63 --- Yonex's latest string for 2021. In today's post, I will share with you some of its specs and my experience of stringing and playing with it.
First of all, let's take a look at the external features and packaging. The string comes in yellow and white colours. You might notice that Yonex has rebranded its Repulsion series as Quick Repulsion. In terms of packaging, Yonex has also updated its individual string set packaging slightly and now features an environmentally friendly logo on the back saying it's used some bio-based materials. All good for the planet so that's a good direction!
On the packaging, Yonex has cheekily given the string an 11 out of 10 rating for quick repulsion so we'll check on that in a bit. Hitting sound and control parameters are both given a 10 out of 10 as well.
The new material that is marketed by Yonex for the Exbolt 63 is the Forged Fiber on the outer casing of the string. It claims to produce amazing sounds alongside amazing drives too, let's see!
To test the strings out, I strung it on my usual racket, the Arcsaber 10 at 27lbs tension on the mains and 29lbs tension on the cross to make an overall 28lbs tension.
Upon opening the string pack, the initial feelings of the strings are quite matt and dry. It reminds me a little bit of the Yonex Aerosonic, which is Yonex's thinnest string at 0.61mm. You can run your fingers through the string and feel slight textures of the string. For the Exbolt 63, I find its surface to be pretty smooth with almost no grip, unlike the Aerobite which is slightly sticky or grippy.
I spent about 4 to 6 hours testing the Exbolt 63 and I feel the string is slightly medium-hard and also feels slightly metallic --- definitely in between the 66 Ultimax and Nanogy 98 for me. It reminded me a lot of the Nanogy 98 which has been my favourite string for many years. However, when I looked at the Yonex strings matrix, I was surprised that Yonex had placed the 66 Ultimax and the Nanogy 98 at the same level in terms of feeling (i.e the degree of hardness or softness, depending on which way you look).
Personally, I disagree with Yonex's classification and would put the Nanogy 98 slightly higher up on the chart, towards the hard feeling region. On the other hand, I would place the Exbolt 63 in parallel with the Aerobite. But I do agree that the Exbolt 63 feels slightly harder than the 66 Ultimax as shown in the string matrix.
Performance wise, The Exbolt 63 is certainly very "repulsive" --- I mean this in a good way of course and here's my explanation.
Anything that is caught with good timing in the sweet spot will just scream off the racket with a lot of pace. You can actually hear that the strings have a pretty clean but slightly "stiffer" sound compared to, say, the 66 Ultimax.
I also found the Exbolt 63 to be not as forgiving as the 66 Ultimax. Anything that is off the sweet spot will feel quite stiff and doesn't bounce off the racket well. Perhaps this is a compromise that Yonex made in order to increase the durability of the strings. If the shuttle is caught on the sweet spot, you're golden; if it's off the sweet spot, it doesn't feel as good but on the bright side, your string doesn't break easily! Sounds like a pretty good compromise if you ask me. In fact, I have yet to break the Exbolt 63 string even after a fair few mishits. If this was the 66 Ultimax or the Nanogy 98, I'm pretty sure that they would have snapped. So I think Yonex did a good job in striking a balance between feeling and durability for the Exbolt 63.
Pricing wise, the Exbolt 63 is definitely on the expensive side. In the UK, it costs more than £7 for a pack and over £100 for a reel.
Overall, I had a pretty good experience stringing and playing with the Exbolt 63. It doesn't kink or knot itself too much when being pulled -- pretty good all round!
Check out my YouTube video in the link below to hear what it sounds like after stringing. Have you tried these strings yet? Let me know in the comments section and I'll see you in the next post!
Buy the Yonex Exbolt 63 here:
Yonex Exbolt 63 (UK): https://geni.us/ycxb63
Use code 'CKYEW' for more discount.
Yonex Exbolt 63 (Worldwide): https://geni.us/xb63