Layered Tips Review

Doctorlove

Doctorlove

Old Schooler
Silver Member
As many of you, I believe that layered tips is one of the most important improvements in billiards equipment in the last years and, along with some enthusiasts and with the help of some custom tip makers, I’ve decided to carry some tests, with the help of some friends, on some of the best layered tips available, to check both its result against the regular ones and the differences among them.

I have to apologize in advance to all our readers for our clumsiness and inexperience while carrying and documenting the trials. We are just a group of pool lovers who want to have fun, learn a bit and, if possible, help others improve their game. We have very limited means to carry our “scientific tests” and the results have to be taken for what they are (if after reading this you think that our opinion is no better than yours, you are completely right).

The trials will begin this week and are going to be carried for the next two or three months. Once they are finished, I’ll post the results here.

Testing Method:

Being aware that it’s completely impossible to scientifically measure some of the factors that make a cue tip better than another or more suitable for a particular style of play, we decided to take an organized subjective trial, with two groups of three players using the different tips on the tests and self-evaluating their results, impressions and “feel”.

The first group is formed by three medium-level players (regional league competitors) using standard “House Cues”, while the second group is formed by three players with very different ability (trying to represent the beginner-intermediate-high level of ability and experience) using their own cues.

The first group used the tips without knowing which one they were using, while the second group knew it from the beginning.

All the tips are going to be installed by the same person and they are going to be worn artificially form their “brand new” state to a “medium use” state and then to a “final life” state to check the results on these three situations.

The TIPS:

Kamui Black and Kamui (Brown) Layered Tips
Moori Layered Tips
Sniper Layered Tips.
“UltraSkin” Layered Tips by Tom Hay.
“CM360” Layered Tips by Duc Lam.

The CUES:

3 x One-piece of brand new Brunswick Tru-Balance cues, weighting 18oz, 19oz and 20oz.
1 x Predator SP6GL cue with a 314² shaft, 18.5oz.
1 x Vincent Hadamard’s Custom cue with its original shaft, 19oz.
1 x Adam AD-DX8 cue with its original shaft 19.5oz.

Also, before we start, I’ll like to send my sincere gratitude to Mr. Tom Hay and to Mr. Duc Lam. Not only because without these gentlemen’s cooperation and help this review would have been impossible, but also because their hard work and inventive benefits us all by improving the equipment for this game we love.

Of course, any advice, comment or criticism you want to share with me before we start will be welcome.

Thank you gentlemen,

Iago

YOU CAN FIND THE FIRST RESULTS POST HERE: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=3996628
 
Last edited:
Kudos for putting in the effort , it's nice to see people do things like this of their own accord.


Doctorlove said:
As many of you, I believe that layered tips is one of the most important improvements in billiards.....
Click to expand...

Personally however , I'm not at all one of those people.

:)
 
real world testing. Looking forward to the results. I know what you are doing is not perfect but it's probably the best we can get.
 
Last edited:
I'll be looking forward to the results of your study, although my money is on the UltraSkins. Thank you for your time and effort. :)
 
Tramp Steamer said:
I'll be looking forward to the results of your study, although my money is on the UltraSkins. Thank you for your time and effort. :)
Click to expand...

I bought a box of Ultraskins several years ago. And I still have eleven left.

Freddie <~~~ would rather not use one
 
Moori med

I love what u doing, can u add a moori med for us old school guys?
I can't imagine anything better or outperform it!!!
 
8onthebreak said:
I love what u doing, can u add a moori med for us old school guys?
I can't imagine anything better or outperform it!!!
Click to expand...

Thank you all for your support. As for the idea to add some more brands, as Moori, we have considered it and personally I'll love to but, unfortunately, our budget is quite limited so it will probably have to wait (although Moori is the next on our list if we can make it).
 
Take a donation via PayPal...

Doctorlove said:
Thank you all for your support. As for the idea to add some more brands, as Moori, we have considered it and personally I'll love to but, unfortunately, our budget is quite limited so it will probably have to wait (although Moori is the next on our list if we can make it).
Click to expand...

How much you need to add moori, maybe a few of us old schoolers could contribute a couple nickels to the cause :cool:

Pm me if u think a few small contributions would help, cuz I won't likely remember to follow the thread,
 
8onthebreak said:
How much you need to add moori, maybe a few of us old schoolers could contribute a couple nickels to the cause :cool:

Pm me if u think a few small contributions would help, cuz I won't likely remember to follow the thread,
Click to expand...

Dear 8onthebreak,

Your kind offering is very generous and, in the very short time that I've been member, I've had the chance to see how openhanded the AZB's community can be for a good cause but I won't feel confortable taking anyone's money (specially when there's so many people in need).

We'll try to get the Moori tips on time and do our best to include them in the experiment (I'm putting them in my Christmas gift list).

If you feel generous and want to help a fellow player, take a look to the ones that are near you and I'm sure that you'll find someone suitable. We all know someone in our poolhall or league who tries hard as often as he can afford and who plays with a very limited or bad quality equipment and who could give good use to that old cue we have stored at home.

Again, thank you for your kind offer "8onthebreak" (nice nick, by the way)
 
Why skip Moori Medium... Arguably the benchmark against which all other layered tips have been measured

Sounds like an incomplete test approach to me
 
This is great; I'll be eagerly following. I agree Moori Med should be added and would also nice to add one of the new predator tips; since I believe they are the newest layered tip on the market.
 
Moori Medium Tips Added

Hello Gentlemen,

I've talked with my team about the interest generated by our experiment and the popular demand that the Moori Medium tips should be added that we all have decided to strech our budget to the maximum possible and to include them in our review.

The reason why they were not included in the first term was because, when looking for a "Benchmark Option", Kamui has more sales and recognition here in Spain than Moori has (maybe just because better distributors) and we just happen to have more Kamui and Sniper tips available but, taking your comments into consideration, we decided that we cannot be stingy and leave and important option out just because of budget reasons.

As for the Predator tips, I'm not sure that they are available in Spain and adding more tips to the experiment now will cause the costs and the time required for the test to exceed our current capacity.

Thank you all for your comments and support.
 
Last edited:
Can you do a test on a soft tips hardness and compare it to a hard tip after a month of play and so on? My onyx tip is pretty hard now.
 
RG1 said:
Can you do a test on a soft tips hardness and compare it to a hard tip after a month of play and so on? My onyx tip is pretty hard now.
Click to expand...

Yes "RG1", one of our intentions is to see how the different tips "evolve" through its live and, although we don't have a way to scientifically meassure the exact hardening, we'll document if it happens and what tips are more susceptible to it.

Unfortunately, Onyx is not one of the tips we are going to test directly (at least not in this first experiment) but we'll try to see if this happens to other layered tips as well or not.

Thank you for your input.
 
I am not really interested in one particular tip but i am curious about how long it takes for a quality soft layered tip to play like a hard tip. Also if there is a certain height/layers that will keep a soft tip playing like a soft tip.
 
Last edited:
I don't think a soft tip will ever play like a hard tip. It will get harder over time through normal play but the compression through play will not equal to the compression applied to a hard layered tips. I believe most of the pro prefer softer tips knowing that it will take the tip a while to break in until the it stabilize at a consistent level for them. So generally softer tip take longer to adapt to your liking but once it reach the hardness they'll start to play good. Generally for softer tip "softer hitting", you want the tip to be thicker where as for harder tip "Harder hitting", I like to keep them a little lower. I'm curious about the result of this test and looking forward to my CM360 tips results.

Duc.



RG1 said:
I am not really interested in one particular tip but i am curious about how long it takes for a quality soft layered tip to play like a hard tip. Also if there is a certain height/layers that will keep a soft tip playing like a soft tip.
Click to expand...
 
Cuemaster98 said:
I don't think a soft tip will ever play like a hard tip. It will get harder over time through normal play but the compression through play will not equal to the compression applied to a hard layered tips. I believe most of the pro prefer softer tips knowing that it will take the tip a while to break in until the it stabilize at a consistent level for them. So generally softer tip take longer to adapt to your liking but once it reach the hardness they'll start to play good. Generally for softer tip "softer hitting", you want the tip to be thicker where as for harder tip "Harder hitting", I like to keep them a little lower. I'm curious about the result of this test and looking forward to my CM360 tips results.

Duc.
Click to expand...

Well i personally think a soft tip can play like a hard tip in a short period of time if you play pool regularly at a above average speed and you do not play every shot soft. it may not have the compression of a hard tip but it will have enough compression to play like a hard tip...my opinion :smile:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top