When to get a new tip

Scott Lee said:

This is the definitive answer. The other poster's estimate of time passed is total nonsense. I've played with the same tip for years with no degradation or loss of playability.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

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Scott, your'e an instructor. You should know that gradual change will result in gradual adjustment. The recommendation is when they no longer play like brand new. Not for when they are no longer playable. Chalk has a lot to do with it as well. It is hard to tell when the hit is different for a lot of players because of feedback from the cue. But is it mechanics, or the tip? Chalk can easily cover up a dry tip and make the hit feel smooth. But how fast is the white coming off the tip? That is the difference between a soft playing like a hard.

You can easily adjust stroke to compensate for the tip as well. As an advanced player like yourself this may be done easily.

Sorry, but your argument just doesn't hold water. I have 40 year old tips that play perfectly well. I won't get into the fake vs real argument, as I only buy real tips. IMO tips can have a long life if you quit screwing with them every time you miscue. I scuff a tip when it's new, and then don't touch it for the rest of it's life. The tip shapes itself from playing. I can tell you for certain, that 100x more miscues come from stroke error, than come from a bad tip.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Physiqz said:

Scott, your'e an instructor. You should know that gradual change will result in gradual adjustment. The recommendation is when they no longer play like brand new. Not for when they are no longer playable. Chalk has a lot to do with it as well. It is hard to tell when the hit is different for a lot of players because of feedback from the cue. But is it mechanics, or the tip? Chalk can easily cover up a dry tip and make the hit feel smooth. But how fast is the white coming off the tip? That is the difference between a soft playing like a hard.

You can easily adjust stroke to compensate for the tip as well. As an advanced player like yourself this may be done easily.

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Scott Lee said:

IMO tips can have a long life if you quit screwing with them every time you miscue. I scuff a tip when it's new, and then don't touch it for the rest of it's life. The tip shapes itself from playing. I can tell you for certain, that 100x more miscues come from stroke error, than come from a bad tip.

Scott Lee

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Yeah that's what I do (or don't do). I'm reading these posts about mushrooming and shaping and changing every 3 months and I'm thinking I must be some kind of idiot because I don't notice a need for any of this (OK some tips can mushroom but I never had a layered tip mushroom on me).

Tip in the photo

DelawareDogs said:

Great advice. I really do appreciate all this insight everyone!!! This place is a wealth of knowledge.

MM -- What tip do you have there in the picture? I haven't played with a non-layered tip in a hot minute. Except for one pool room, all the bar cues were dufferins (mid level house cue range, as dufferin makes multiple bar cues) and I did love the way it hit.

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That was a Ultra Skin

I have pictures of several different tips installed
Kamui
Triangle
Moori fakes

I do not know the secret to which tip what player likes .
I know some old school players who like harder tips , my best guess is they normally are hitting very close to center of cue ball were allot of new players really don't understand because when they started playing pool it was with a tip that jas a allot of grip ....

A good cheap @ss elk master has tons of grip , and I know a couple of players that do things with a rock hard Lepro that I cant even dream of doing .
I don't have the crystal ball and know what is good tip for someone online.
It would be along the lines what I like.

I carry extra shafts for my main player all with different tips on each shaft just to try to give the customer who doesn't know what tip the want the best educated guess we can come up with, and even then if the customer doesn't like the tip I only charge my cost on installing the next tip we guess the person will like.

That is why when someone says tips dry out in less then a year, I have to say that is odd to say the least because of the amount of cues I own, I repair cues as a hobby .
I am starting to make my own cues .
And I do have few grand warped up in buying tips .
Plus I live in the desert.

If I was going to a new tip on my main player it would be a kamui soft or super soft ..
From there it could be any dozen of different tips .
But please note I am hell bent to only buy my tips from certain people or certain billiard supply companies.
And there are some tips that I will only buy factory direct .
I stand 100% behind everything I make and/or sale, everything I repair is a different story.
I fix some things that is a salvage repair and no warranty .

The fake tips on the market is a big issue IMO .
Bad enough to have made into my shop out in the middle of BFE

The reason why I can play with most soft or medium tips and a few medium hard is because I practice hitting center of cue ball.
I have a shaft that I had some old piece of clear plastic I found in my front yard and glued it on a extra shaft and never chalk the plastic tip .

Its like greasing your tip, if you are not hitting center cue ball you are miss cueing . every sense I did that I can play allot better with allot of different tips, and I improved hitting my straight in shots .

This is the tip that got me thinking I had got a order of fake moori tips in .
The picture is weird, I put on a carbon fiber pad because the ferrule is elk antler .
After installing the tip and trimming it to size and burnishing it .
all of the tip fell off except one layer .

All I did was barley touch the tip....
So I install anther tip on top of the layer stuck to the pad .
It didn't burnish out very smooth very easy IMO, feels dried out and flaky .

That's when I contact the person I got the fake moori tips from ..
and figured out where he got the fake moori tips from .
I will by pass the argument and getting contacted by some large billiard supply companies wanting to sue me for slander ....

DelawareDogs said:

I tried the searching for this, because I thought I had seen it.

When do y'all think is the cutoff point for getting a new tip put on?

Just wondering because it's been on my mind to get a new tip on my player for about three weeks now. Every time I pull my cues out of the case to play, I look at the tip and say "huh.... I should probably get this replaced soon"

It's a Sarin tip [Poison] and I know they don't have the best reviews, but it came on it, and as of last night, there's just enough meat on it to still burnish the sides. It holds shape.

What do some of you recommend as a good way to measure when one needs to be replaced?

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Nickel thickness,or immediately after you crack the ferrule because tip was too thin. Then you replace tip and ferrule !!!