Lead tape on the pt57a and pro placement of lead tape in general:

[GeoffWilliams]

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=295789&highlight=lead+tape

Most pro sticks have lead on the hoop, 1/4", under the head guards, from at leastt 10-2 oclock, and some, such as Soderling, have it all the way around to the edge of the head guard. Fed uses it to balance his sticks, which vary, but the lead balances them out, as he uses the blx mold/material. His lead varies from 10-2 to 3-9, a 2" diff. under the head guards of his sticks.
In this pic, this is a pj of a pt57a, flex pt, pj, and the lead has been under the head guard from day one. You can see it's been degraded from friction somewhat, yet, retained much of its mass, even after many years of play. The head guard has been removed for the picture, and was replaced with a new grommet strip, which the stock mg mp will fit the pt57a/e sticks.

5

[GeoffWilliams]

Soderling uses the pt57a, with lead all the way around under the head guard, which adds a lot of weight to the head. He uses alu power I believe, as does Gulbis and Delpotro. Gulbis used to use pacific poly force extreme, 1.25mm, a triple layered poly, with good spin/power/control, similar to alu power, but with better tension loss. Not as powerful. Not as much spin as spiky shark, but more power than shark, which is a gear toothed, 8 sided string put out by Kirshbaum, in a 17 or 16g. http://www.stringforum.net/thumbnail...=g&id=97&w=150

[mac1984]

How much lead does Federer use?

Since I stopped playing around with lead tape, my rackets feel better. My strokes have become consistent. I use a Flex Point Prestige mid; before that (on the recommendation of racquet research), the i-Prestige, which feels much heavier. I thought I would lose power by making the switch, but I don't miss it after all. I am a Parks player as well (I actually play with Roger and Zonia Alston at San Pablo Park 2X month), so I rarely experience the type of sheer power that would make me go back and "beef up" my racket.

I have a hard time believing that Fed uses tape at all. But, I can be convinced!

[GeoffWilliams]

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3259/dsc01443ii.jpg

Here are some of fed's sticks with lead under the bumper guards.dsc01443ii.jpg The diff. amounts are there to balance out the sticks swing wt.