I know exactly what your talking about Vic. My Thunderstikc is is just like that......I had the brace at 7 1/4 which is the max....was atad loud for me........so I swhithed to a Dyna flight string from some bonehead named Chad.Got even louder.Of course blamed Chad (LBR). So was playin around a week later, lower the brace to around 7"......Noise gone,even felt better in the hand...Beats me.......but it worked...JT