The truth about Mezz shafts

Drop The Rock

Drop The Rock

1652nd on AZ Money List
Silver Member
Out of most of the low deflection shafts I have hit with Mezz shafts seem to be the most solid but they also feel the stiffest. I don't care for a whippy shaft like a Meucci but damn I also don't want to feel like I'm playing with with rebar. This is especially true IMO with the WX700. I would rather play with probably any other shaft on the market than that one, mainly because it requires so much effort to put draw on the ball and it feels like shit to me. (hit with)

The WX900 on the other hand is the best conical taper LD shaft ever made (owned). The amount of English possible with that shaft is ridiculous and it feels very solid but there are some things that you can't do because it isn't a pro taper.

The Hybrid Pro Alpha isn't supossed to have many LD characteristics but hits well according to some I have talked to. It used to be Mika's shaft of choice. Jeff De Luna plays with it currently.

Now the HPII is a great shaft(owned). It has a little more deflection than the WX900 but is graduated(google it) taper. I have a few good friends who play quite well that swear by the HPII and I have played with one before and like it well enough.

I haven't played with the EX Pro or heard much about it so if you have info or a review feel free to reply.

Now. HOLY S@$T THESE SHAFTS ARE #$%#$% EXPENSIVE. I'm guessing Mezz doesn't sell blanks, which is smart because that means they control the market for their shaft very efficiently and can charge pretty much whatever they want. For the WX900 and WX700 they charge $240-$280 depending on the joint. The EX Pro is $400 as of now but only in the Mezz joints so probably more for other joint types. The HPII and HP A are both $330 to $370. Mezz has a break shaft they charge $330 for...

I have also seen the shaft wood they use and I don't care what kind of core your shaft has, is there is a knot in the shaft wood it is going to affect how it hits.

Edit: The truth is they are expensive. That was my point. I'm not knocking them merely stating they are one of the most if not the most expensive production shaft on the market with predator following close behind. I didn't want to just post a thread sating they were expensive and sound like a hater, because I'm not. I am also not against LD shafts. LD and laminated are two different things, and if the wood is quality they both have their merits. PFD, Klapp, Lambros, Durbin(don't remember if they are laminated or not) and couple other custom cue makers have LD shafts.
 
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Double-Dave

Double-Dave

Developing cue-addict
Silver Member
Without trying to be rude, if you feel the WX700 is too stiff but the HPII is great then it's going
to be hard for me to take anything after that statement serious. The HPII is more then a little
bit MORE stiff then the WX700.

The EX-Pro is very similar to the HP2, slightly softer taper, and a soft instead of a medium tip as standard.

gr. Dave
 
trinacria

trinacria

in efren we trust
Silver Member
I recently hit with a brand new Mezz my friend ordered custom directly from them, very nice figured wood stained grey with nice rings. He LOVES IT he says, I thought it felt like its made of plastic, it felt hollow and very stiff. The LD property of the shaft is absolutley fantastic, I hit a shot full table with extreme right and the ball went right where it was supposed to, but its been said that mezz feels like the closest thing to custom you can get from a production cue, I disagree wholeheartedly. the closest thing to custom from production is Schon and Jacoby to me, the mezz has the best ld, but it feels weird. I always say that this subject on cue hits is subjective, which it is, but for that kinda money I'll go OB, Predator or Jacoby for LD shafts. SS360 shafts I read about everyonce in a while people say are good, but the maker of that shaft was a huge DI-CK to me once so I won't buy it out of principle. thats my opinion and im sticking with it.
 
Straightpool_99

Straightpool_99

I see dead balls
Silver Member
Agree with you on the stiffness of the shafts. The HPII is the worst feeling shaft ever. It feels like they cored it with iron, no worse: plastic. I don't like them. IMO the whole ld-shaft thing is a giant scam, and I say that as someone who has played with Predator Z/Z2's from the beginning. Take my Z2 for instance. The wood used in that shaft would have been discarded at a matchstick factory, and I paid through my nose for that thing...It's impossible to keep clean because of the poor quality of the wood. The deflection of the Z2 is however unmatched. It has lower deflection than any other shaft I've ever tried (with the possible exception of OB2). 11.75 with a tiny lightweight ferrule and a hollow front section...How are you going to beat that without having too small of a tip? You can't and even if you could it would be with an insignificant amount of deflection reduction at a huge cost. As it is I play most of my inside shots in a way where the ball actually swerves in more than it deflects out..What would be the point of less deflection than that?

If I had known when I started playing, what I know today, I'd have stayed with a standard maple shaft. Paying ridiculous amounts of money for trash is stupid. I'd much rather have a nice quality maple shaft if I could only get used to the deflection. As it is, I'm too used to the ld shafts and it's impossible to go back without 6 months playing like crap. I sure as hell am not going to pay even more money for shafts that are stiff as logs (Mezz) and deflect more. That makes zero sense to me.
 
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I

ivicafranic

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
LD shafts are funny,not consistent,not quality built,built with cheap materials,too expensive,and holly crap in the matter of fact:smile::smile::smile:
Companies who build them,all they do great is marketing them good and progressive what makes people believe they are good or worthed of money.
There is nothing better than a great Maple or lakewood shaft:):):)
 
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Drop The Rock

Drop The Rock

1652nd on AZ Money List
Silver Member
Double-Dave said:
Without trying to be rude, if you feel the WX700 is too stiff but the HPII is great then it's going
to be hard for me to take anything after that statement serious. The HPII is more then a little
bit MORE stiff then the WX700.

The EX-Pro is very similar to the HP2, slightly softer taper, and a soft instead of a medium tip as standard.

gr. Dave
Click to expand...

I quite frankly don't care if you don't take anything after that statement serious. I personally have hit with both and have friends who have compared both shafts and we ALL get better action out of the HPII...The HPII may be stiffer (I did not mention this in my post) but it has better action and feel than the WX700 by far. I may not play like a champ but the APA 8 Ball Champ in the top tier this year and one of the better one pocket players in Texas agree with me lol.

Also the WD700 vs. WX700 lol. You know what changed? The tip.
 
M

mudball

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Drop The Rock said:
I quite frankly don't care if you don't take anything after that statement serious. I personally have hit with both and have friends who have compared both shafts and we ALL get better action out of the HPII...The HPII may be stiffer (I did not mention this in my post) but it has better action and feel than the WX700 by far. I may not play like a champ but the APA 8 Ball Champ in the top tier this year and one of the better one pocket players in Texas agree with me lol.

Also the WD700 vs. WX700 lol. You know what changed? The tip.
Click to expand...

Are you ok?
 
Drop The Rock

Drop The Rock

1652nd on AZ Money List
Silver Member
mudball said:
Are you ok?
Click to expand...

Yep. Just don't care if someone doesn't take what I'm saying is serious or not. Didn't mean to sound angry or anything. I was also making some clarifications about me post =]

Edit: Also just because someone says the don't think they can take what I say seriously, does that mean I'm supposed to apologize and beg for forgiveness? I guess it was something I could have ignored. Mind you Double Dave basically said "no offense but..." If his intentions were to not be rude he could have posed a question to me rather stated what he did.
 
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Kim Bye

Kim Bye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In thereview section I have made a thread dedicated to Mezz shafts. I have written a pretty detailed description of all their shafts, the break shafts too.
Exceed EX Pro is the only Mezz shaft I don't personally own.
 
jb1911

jb1911

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The WX700 shaft if by far the best shaft I've ever tried. There is nothing about it that I would change. Maybe it's the tip that you don't like? Just my opinion of course.
 
Drop The Rock

Drop The Rock

1652nd on AZ Money List
Silver Member
jb1911 said:
The WX700 shaft if by far the best shaft I've ever tried. There is nothing about it that I would change. Maybe it's the tip that you don't like? Just my opinion of course.
Click to expand...

Its possible. I really think that there are two kinds of pool players in this world. Those who love the WX700 and those who can't stand it haha.
 
Double-Dave

Double-Dave

Developing cue-addict
Silver Member
Drop The Rock said:
I quite frankly don't care if you don't take anything after that statement serious. I personally have hit with both and have friends who have compared both shafts and we ALL get better action out of the HPII...The HPII may be stiffer (I did not mention this in my post) but it has better action and feel than the WX700 by far. I may not play like a champ but the APA 8 Ball Champ in the top tier this year and one of the better one pocket players in Texas agree with me lol.

Also the WD700 vs. WX700 lol. You know what changed? The tip.
Click to expand...

OK, feel free tot not like or feel offended, that's fine.

But, translated to chocolate what you said in your OP is:
I think 50% dark chocolate is way too bitter but I love 70% dark chocolate.

You're going to get called out on such statements because they make no sense.

A HP2 is considerably stiffer then a WX700, not up for debate. Maybe the one
your buddy uses has been turned down and/or ferrule change? I don't know.

Anyway, they did not change the tip between the WD and WX only the ferrule.
The tip change from Moori to Kamui was a seperate event. For a while you would
not know what tip would be on a Mezz shaft when ordering as a dealer.

Fwiw I have been a Mezz dealer for years and probably played with
close to 50 different Mezz shafts. I can also run a rack or 2.

gr. Dave
 
Drop The Rock

Drop The Rock

1652nd on AZ Money List
Silver Member
Double-Dave said:
OK, feel free tot not like or feel offended, that's fine.

But, translated to chocolate what you said in your OP is:
I think 50% dark chocolate is way too bitter but I love 70% dark chocolate.

You're going to get called out on such statements because they make no sense.

A HP2 is considerably stiffer then a WX700, not up for debate. Maybe the one
your buddy uses has been turned down and/or ferrule change? I don't know.

Anyway, they did not change the tip between the WD and WX only the ferrule.
The tip change from Moori to Kamui was a seperate event. For a while you would
not know what tip would be on a Mezz shaft when ordering as a dealer.

Fwiw I have been a Mezz dealer for years and probably played with
close to 50 different Mezz shafts. I can also run a rack or 2.

gr. Dave
Click to expand...

"But, translated to chocolate what you said in your OP is:
I think 50% dark chocolate is way too bitter but I love 70% dark chocolate."

No it says 50% dark chocolate is too bitter but I love 70% dark chocolate with ice cream and a handy. AGAIN I didn't say the HPII was less stiff than the WX700 and I also mentioned that the WX feels dead and requires a lot of effort.

Thats all well and fine and the HPII is stiffer but the construction and tapers are completely different... Sorry should have said WX700 is stiff and feels like absolute shit (IMO) which may or may not be due to how stiff it is or isn't compared to any other shaft on the market. The shaft feels dead IMO. The HPII although very stiff, does not.
 
C

Cezar Morales

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Mezz shaft

Guys, have anyone wondered why a " majority " of pros are playing with LD shaft and not standard shaft ?
I know its the indian and not the arrow.

Apart from the taiwanese pro who swear by their southwest .

I can't possibly think of any top pros not using mezz predator or ob.

Just something i've always been wondering about ??
Hopefully someone can chime in :)
 
Drop The Rock

Drop The Rock

1652nd on AZ Money List
Silver Member
Cezar Morales said:
Guys, have anyone wondered why a " majority " of pros are playing with LD shaft and not standard shaft ?
I know its the indian and not the arrow.

Apart from the taiwanese pro who swear by their southwest .

I can't possibly think of any top pros not using mezz predator or ob.

Just something i've always been wondering about ??
Hopefully someone can chime in :)
Click to expand...

Because the care about running balls and making shots more than "feel" lol! Those guys can run out with broom handles sure but I don't care what anyone says, two tips of inside for a long thin cut is easier with an LD shaft. I have had pros and short stops tell me this including Manny Chau and Charlie Bryant. For them its easier to shoot shoot certain shots and inside is one the hardest ways to make a ball.
 
KRJ

KRJ

Support UKRAINE
Silver Member
Straightpool_99 said:
Agree with you on the stiffness of the shafts. The HPII is the worst feeling shaft ever. It feels like they cored it with iron, no worse: plastic. I don't like them. IMO the whole ld-shaft thing is a giant scam, and I say that as someone who has played with Predator Z/Z2's from the beginning. Take my Z2 for instance. The wood used in that shaft would have been discarded at a matchstick factory, and I paid through my nose for that thing...It's impossible to keep clean because of the poor quality of the wood. The deflection of the Z2 is however unmatched. It has lower deflection than any other shaft I've ever tried (with the possible exception of OB2). 11.75 with a tiny lightweight ferrule and a hollow front section...How are you going to beat that without having too small of a tip? You can't and even if you could it would be with an insignificant amount of deflection reduction at a huge cost. As it is I play most of my inside shots in a way where the ball actually swerves in more than it deflects out..What would be the point of less deflection than that?

If I had known when I started playing, what I know today, I'd have stayed with a standard maple shaft. Paying ridiculous amounts of money for trash is stupid. I'd much rather have a nice quality maple shaft if I could only get used to the deflection. As it is, I'm too used to the ld shafts and it's impossible to go back without 6 months playing like crap. I sure as hell am not going to pay even more money for shafts that are stiff as logs (Mezz) and deflect more. That makes zero sense to me.
Click to expand...

Ok, let me see if I got this straight. The entire LD shaft thing is a scam, as you call it. But, Predator shaft deflects less than any other shaft you have ever played with.
Color me confused ??
 
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