I got 6 Imperials for a church family fun night. Each had a different length string. One was only 3 feet long! Only 1 of the 6 was long enough to turn the top. :-(
My main top is a spintastics sidewinder the string is about 5 feet.
We have cut the strings to our lengths to our shoulders.
Ha! An unbiased observation supporting my argument.
You might be living near enough to someone on this board to get some hands on instruction. Might check that out.