As soon as I saw, Strung from Above‘s new Quantum Mesh on Instagram I just had to try it. Wesley, the creator of Quantum Mesh, sent me over a piece to review and I put it to the test.
Quantum Mesh is completely hand strung with cross lace by Wesley Kitagawa from Strung from Above. It’s strung very consistently and every knot is strung exactly the same with the same tension. The quality of the piece of mesh is definitely impressive.
Since each piece is hand strung, it can be made in a variety of diamond sizes and designs or colors. The piece I was sent was the Level 6 (six diamonds across) with a single black striker going down the center of it, which I thought looked awesome and super clean. I strung it up in my dyed black STX Super Power Plus. This mesh was a bit tough to string. I’m an experienced stringer and I had to use some creativity in coming up with the pocket, using a few different techniques that I had never used before. Although it was tough to string, I was still able to get a pretty good, shifty pocket (although I plan on still playing with my pattern until I come up with something perfect). If you’re not an experienced stringer and want to try Quantum Mesh, definitely have it get strung up for you by someone who know’s what they’re doing.
Once I got the mesh all strung up, I loved the feel of it. It’s unlike any other “mesh” I’ve ever tried and actually has a similar feel to traditional. In my opinion, the best feel you could get in a pocket is with a traditional and I love a well broken in trad, feeling the ball as it goes over each knot in the pocket. But there are a lot of issues with traditional and it needs constant care and adjustment. Quantum Mesh gives you a very similar feel on the ball as a traditional pocket but with the consistency, easy care and very short break in time of today’s mesh. It also gives a great release, a very good amount of hold and allows you to string up a nice versatile pocket. The mesh is quite soft but still stiff enough that, with the right pocket, you will get consistent passes and shots with it, without needing to adjust it.
An issue with most traditional pockets is that if they get wet, the leathers will stretch out and bag out the pocket badly (depending on the leathers you use). I soaked the Quantum Mesh pocket and although it stretched out a tiny bit, it still stayed pretty consistent. So even though it might not be the best in wet weather conditions, it still performs pretty well and stays play-able.
Overall, although it will be difficult to string for a lot of players, Quantum Mesh is a great new offering, different from everything else on the market. It gives the great feel of traditional, while being much similar to maintain and care for. It gives you the closest feel to traditional, while still having all the benefits of mesh.
