A Website Designed to Help Stringers, Tennis
Players, and Other Racquet Sports Enthusiasts
(Tennis, Badminton, Racquetball, Squash) with Stringing Machine Research
This site is a work in
progress, begun in November 2006, and is the result of contributions from many
individuals ranging from professional to amateur stringers, tennis players
and other racquet sports enthusiasts, and manufacturer/vendor representatives.
We Need Your Help!
Please consider contributing
photos
of your stringing machines and related equipment to help build this image reference
library.
If you would like to contribute some of
your own stringing machine photos to be posted here, or if you have
feedback, questions, or comments about the content of this website, please
e-mail
Al Ruscelli
What is the Purpose of This Website? The pages on this site represent a digital photography effort
to produce a visual research
aid (an image base or photo library) for tennis players, stringers, or small
business owners interested in:
Purchasing their first tennis racquet
stringing machine
Upgrading their existing stringing
machine
Switching to a different style or model
of stringing machine
Visually comparing makes and models
of stringing machines
Viewing stringing machine images for
general reference purposes
Who Contributes Photos to This Website? Contributors include professional and
individual stringers, tennis players and enthusiasts, and
manufacturers/vendors. Anyone who would
like to participate is welcome to contribute their own stringing machine photos to the
project (with full photo credit given when requested and as appropriate).
Who Is Coordinating the Effort? Al Ruscelli of Al Ruscelli Photography
(www.ruscelli.com)
provides the website
space for the project is coordinating the effort of placing all image
contributions into their appropriate categories within the site. He may
be contacted via the following e-mail address:
al@ruscelli.com). Al Ruscelli is a professional photographer, writer and editor,
tennis player/enthusiast, and aspiring amateur stringer (as well as
designer/builder of this website).
Why
Put Together a Website Like This? Many of
us who have gone through the exercise of doing Internet research on stringing
machines have found
that there are few sites with detailed reference photos of these machines beyond the usual stock photos
seen on various vendor sites. Often, the same manufacturer-provided
stock photos are used from site to site and vendor to vendor. These
stock images typically do not provide the researcher a very detailed look
stringing machine details. Generic,
stock photos are great for representing the overall look of the machines, but
what about details and images of specific components or mechanisms? It can be quite
difficult to find images of this type, and often just as difficult to find
basic images of lesser known or obsolete stringing machines.
Why Not Just Do General Internet Searches for Photos
You Want to Find? It's
not that detailed photos and images of stringing machines can't be found on the Internet
or
elsewhere (via hardcopy literature, etc.). But, the effort for most
individuals to find detailed photos/images is usually tedious at best.
Most of the available Internet-based photos/images are scattered around various
websites, and very few of those sites are dedicated to anything like a
consolidated image base (or photo library). We hope that the photos on this site make the research process easier
for anyone who is looking for good photos of stringing
machines and related equipment, tools, or accessories.
What
About Technical Information and Instructional/User Manuals? At
present, we are not attempting to provide detailed technical information on
this site since
that type of information is available elsewhere (from manufacturers,
vendors, and other professional sites dedicated to stringing
techniques and equipment). The consolidation of such information is
beyond the scope of what is practical for us to attempt on this site. Here, we are focused on photos and other images to help fill in that missing visual gap that
many people
encounter when researching stringing machines. However, we will
provide links, as appropriate, to manufacturer sites, vendor sites, and
instructional/informational sites on our
Links page and at other
strategic locations within this website. We also expand other
information as we can. Please view our internal site links for what
can be found on this site.
Can Anyone Contribute to This Site? Yes!
Initial contributions to the site have come from members of the
Tennis
Warehouse Forums , the
Stringforum.net Board,
the
GrandSlamStringers.com Message Forum and various other sources around the world But, if you are a member of
another forum/discussion group where stringing
machines are discussed, or if you are a stringer/player or
manufacturer/vendor representative who would like to share digital
images of your own machines with the larger tennis community, please contact
Al Ruscelli. Plans for this site include images of stringing machines
and related tools/accessories from all
major manufacturers on an international level.
What
Kinds of Photos or Images Do You Need? We need digital photos, but
our digital photo needs are fairly
simple. We do not require professional photos, but the
nicer the photos, and the larger the selection you can send, the better.
Ideal photo sets for any given machine include full-length machine
shots and close-ups of components, including turntables, tensioners,
clamps, stands, accessories, or other relevant images. But, we'll take
whatever you can send so that we can fill out the
image collection as best we can. Submittals may include currently
produced stringing machines or out-of-production models. Even if you can contribute only one
unique photo, please do so. Larger digital files are better than
smaller files because that gives us a much greater ability to crop images,
zoom in for detail, or
otherwise size them for placement on the site.
What Information Do You Need from
Contributors? Please provide whatever additional details you can about the
images you submit. Basic information includes make and model of
machines (please be as specific as possible), descriptions of what is being
sent, your preferred "credit to" name, and any general commentary you would
like to provide. Photos alone are great, but any extra details
you can easily provide are very helpful for us to ensure that the machines
or accessories are categorized correctly.
We need lots of digital photos for
this project, and any images you care to contribute may be e-mailed directly to
Al Ruscelli or sent
on disk, if desired (contact
Al Ruscelli via e-mail for a mailing address). If you have
your personal stringing machine photos available on another website and can
send a link to those images, we will gladly (with your permission) copy those photos for
inclusion here, with full credit as applicable and as desired. Send us
one or two or a couple of dozen or a hundred photos. Whatever you can
contribute and whatever you want to contribute.
Please note that Al Ruscelli is not a seller or
distributor of any tennis racquet stringing machines or accessories
from any manufacturer. This site is based on his personal interest as a
tennis enthusiast and all attempts are made to portray any equipment
photo submittals in a fair and objective manner.
As a side note, most
of the small images on this
home page can be seen in much greater detail by visiting Al Ruscelli's initial sample page
here: Gamma
6004 Stringing Machine. (A Gamma 6004
recently assembled and photographed by Al Ruscelli in his home.)
If you would like to contribute some of
your own stringing machine photos to be posted here, or if you have feedback,
questions, or comments about the content of these pages, please e-mail
Al Ruscelli
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