> BTW, who sells Shindaiwa? I've never seen them in any big stores.
My neighbor is a contractor, I imagine he bought it from a dealer, same with his Toro Titan 4500 zero turn. With the hassle he has over his Kobalt 40v articulated hedge trimmer attachment (they only sell it now as a kit and refuse to honor his broken one), he probably will be avoiding many more big box store purchases. They stopped selling just the attachment ($70-$80) nation wide as far as I can tell.
> My WOT is 9600 with a cheesy Chinese aftermarket carb.
Check to see if the butterflies including choke open all the way.
The Echo trimmers I have worked on cut fine and better then most, sort of like the Honda RM-215 lawn mower I am repairing, a pay me now or pay me later thing. I finally got the Honda running and even without the self-propelled it did a far better job cutting my weeds/grass then my cheaper self propelled Toro and Craftsman mowers. Though going by the reviews on HD, the Echo stuff (chainsaws) has had big quality control issues the last 18 months or so.