With so many LD shafts on the market now, how can one decide?

[mattb]

I tried every one i could get my hands on. Every time someone would have one at the pool hall, the local tournament or even the big tournaments like Derby City, I would ask to hit a few balls with different ones. This let me know if I wanted to try it more, or if it just wasn’t my style.

From those trials, i did own a Predator with a 314 for a while and was great for straight in or light angles but never did adjust for banks with that one. I had one of the Meucci’s low deflection which actually played pretty good. Not sure why I sold it come to think of it. I have a Jacoby Edge Hybrid I bought on a whim. Nice shaft and has potential if i would stop using everything else and just dedicate time to it. I think the Edge plays closer to a regular maple shaft than any of the others wether that’s good or bad. I have recently hit with a Revo and honestly was not impressed. Not sure if it was the hit or just the looks i could not get used to.

In the end, I still prefer a great OLD maple shaft. Most of mine have come used and are 20 plus years old. A few have been made new by the likes of Runde or Gilbert but still nothing beats the feel of an older maple shaft to me.

 

[336Robin]

I'm a Jacoby Hybrid original fan. You still have to deal with some squirt but its
less than 12.80 long taper maple. Its enough of a difference to definitely be LD.

I hear they've come out with another version but haven't tried it yet.

I really liked the maple shaft hit but with a soft tip this shaft works well for me and if
you're a fan of BHE the pivot point is around 12in on the shafts I have and that really
works for me.

 

[Straightpool_99]

Start with tip diameter and taper (conical or pro).

Then price.

I'd recommend: Mezz, Jacoby, Tiger

I'd not recommend: OB

Middle of the road: McDermott (good quality, so so ld performance). Predator (good performance, bad build quality, high price)

If you want conical taper small tip, the best recommendation would be Tiger Pro X IMO.
If you want pro(ish) taper, I'd recommend Mezz WX 700.

 

[tjlmbklr]

Start with tip diameter and taper (conical or pro).

Then price.

I'd recommend: Mezz, Jacoby, Tiger

I'd not recommend: OB

Middle of the road: McDermott (good quality, so so ld performance). Predator (good performance, bad build quality, high price)

If you want conical taper small tip, the best recommendation would be Tiger Pro X IMO.
If you want pro(ish) taper, I'd recommend Mezz WX 700.

I'm leaning to the Meucci Pro shaft mainly because not only do I hear a lot of great reviews about them on azbilliards among other places but they offer a 31 inch length shaft which is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm going to go with a 30 inch butt and a 31 inch shaft.

Why the odd length? Currently I play with a standard 58 inch cue with a 3in extension in the middle of it and I love the length.

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[tjlmbklr]

I'm a Jacoby Hybrid original fan. You still have to deal with some squirt but its
less than 12.80 long taper maple. Its enough of a difference to definitely be LD.

I hear they've come out with another version but haven't tried it yet.

I really liked the maple shaft hit but with a soft tip this shaft works well for me and if
you're a fan of BHE the pivot point is around 12in on the shafts I have and that really
works for me.

I am a fan of backhanding English.

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[KMRUNOUT]

I'm leaning to the Meucci Pro shaft mainly because not only do I hear a lot of great reviews about them on azbilliards among other places but they offer a 31 inch length shaft which is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm going to go with a 30 inch butt and a 31 inch shaft.

Why the odd length? Currently I play with a standard 58 inch cue with a 3in extension in the middle of it and I love the length.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

FYI, every longer than 29" shaft I've tried I've hated. Not the same feel at all. I currently play with a custom made 4" mid extension. I love the setup.

I'm using a wrapless Andy Gilbert butt, 4" mid extension, and a 314-2 at about 12.5mm. I'm actually contemplating going to a Revo.

You may like the extra long shaft, but I definitely did not.

I recently hit with a 31" butt with a 12.4 standard length Revo and that was spectacular. I'd get your extra length in the butt. It makes for a more solid hit with more consistent shaft performance in my opinion.

Hope it helps,

KMRUNOUT


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[JoeyInCali]

I can only imagine how whippy a 30" Meucci would be.

 

[Straightpool_99]

I can only imagine how whippy a 30" Meucci would be.

Apparently the Pro shafts are fairly stiff (for a Meucci). It's a rare shaft, I've never come across one.

Any shaft longer than 30 inches is going to feel strange. The best one I've tried was custom made, the builder made a special effort to minimize the extra flexing and it worked (sort of). All other have felt super bendy and weird to me.

 

[tjlmbklr]

FYI, every longer than 29" shaft I've tried I've hated. Not the same feel at all. I currently play with a custom made 4" mid extension. I love the setup.

I'm using a wrapless Andy Gilbert butt, 4" mid extension, and a 314-2 at about 12.5mm. I'm actually contemplating going to a Revo.

You may like the extra long shaft, but I definitely did not.

I recently hit with a 31" butt with a 12.4 standard length Revo and that was spectacular. I'd get your extra length in the butt. It makes for a more solid hit with more consistent shaft performance in my opinion.

Hope it helps,

KMRUNOUT


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Newsherriffintown made me a 3" mid cue extension. That's how I realized I liked 61". However my cue was an impulse buy to get me back in the game after a long hiatus.

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[gregnice37]

The pro and ultimate weapon shafts are both great shafts. Nothing like the other whippy Meucci shafts. If I wasn't using the Revo full time I'd definitely be using an ultimate weapon as my main shaft. I have chubby fingers and use a closed bridge 99% of the time so that's why I prefer the UW over the pro.

 

[Knels]

Thing about meucci pro shafts are the ferrule construction. I played great for a two years or so of heavy play until it all went downhill for a good chunk of my tournament season. After driving myself nuts trying to figure out the weird sound coming from my shaft, I showed it to a cuemaker and he pointed out my ferrule was loose of which I could barely see. I told him to change the ferrule seeing as how it wasn't doing me any good. He did and told me the tenon was cracked and they had a ton of space inside the ferrule. It didn't play any better so I ditched it and got a mezz axi r after researching various ferrules on current shafts. I did play with a z2 around 5 years ago but their ferrule let me down too. The mezz right now is killer, especially their 4 inch extension. Everything lines up perfectly straight. The meucci shaft played great but in the long run kinda let me down, just to give you something to think about.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

IMO, noticeable difference between LD and solid maple, small difference between any of the LD's.
Skinny ones tend to be less forgiving.

How are skinny ones less forgiving? I have a 10 mm tip on a LD pool cue and don't have any issues with it.

pj
chgo

 

[denzilla171]

I am a fan of backhanding English.

If you're a fan of backhanding English, then an LD shaft will challenge you, as it moves the pivot point so much further back. I also was a "backhand" fan, but made the switch to LD a couple years ago, beginning with a Lucasi Zero Flexpoint, and now an OB+1.

Some observations. With an LD shaft, the amount of squirt compensation varies quite a bit with the speed of the shot. With my OB+1, at slow speed a parallel shift (no deflection) works well, at medium speed front-hand English only works over most distances, but with high-speed shots a combination of front and back hand adjustment is needed, and quite frankly I haven't yet developed an instinctive feel for it.

I sometimes miss the simplicity of a regular shaft and backhand English that seems to work over a wide variety of speeds and distances (at least thats the way I remember it). But... I'm thinking of going to a super-LD next like a Revo or Tiger XPro just to torture myself, lol.

If you want to try a LD shaft with minimal commitment, I'll part with my Lucasi Zero-Flexpoint for like $50 (reg. $205). It's got a Kamui Black Soft tip, and Uni-Loc joint.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

...ZERO deflection. No matter how hard you hit and the amount of spin.

With lower squirt swerve is a bigger part of the equation, and that can look like zero squirt - but I think actual zero squirt is technically impossible.

pj
chgo

 

[tjlmbklr]

If you're a fan of backhanding English, then an LD shaft will challenge you, as it moves the pivot point so much further back. I also was a "backhand" fan, but made the switch to LD a couple years ago, beginning with a Lucasi Zero Flexpoint, and now an OB+1.

Some observations. With an LD shaft, the amount of squirt compensation varies quite a bit with the speed of the shot. With my OB+1, at slow speed a parallel shift (no deflection) works well, at medium speed front-hand English only works over most distances, but with high-speed shots a combination of front and back hand adjustment is needed, and quite frankly I haven't yet developed an instinctive feel for it.

I sometimes miss the simplicity of a regular shaft and backhand English that seems to work over a wide variety of speeds and distances (at least thats the way I remember it). But... I'm thinking of going to a super-LD next like a Revo or Tiger XPro just to torture myself, lol.

If you want to try a LD shaft with minimal commitment, I'll part with my Lucasi Zero-Flexpoint for like $50 (reg. $205). It's got a Kamui Black Soft tip, and Uni-Loc joint.

Thanks for the offer but not only do I not have a Uni-loc butt, but if I can't have at least a total length of 60" minimum on my cue it won't work for me.

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[JoeyInCali]

With lower squirt swerve is a bigger part of the equation, and that can look like zero squirt - but I think actual zero squirt is technically impossible.

pj
chgo

It's an impossibility.

 

[ctyhntr]

According to the folks at marketing, you're supposed to buy each and every one of these new fangled shafts. So, right after you buy Revo, Predator will come out with Revo 2!

 

[AlexandruM]

Get a look at Cuechanger AAA shafts. They get great reviews from Germany.

https://www.doubledavecues.com/cuechanger-exclusive-aaa-ld-shaft-295-p-3993.html

 

[LeonD123]

Which OB? I had a 30" OB with a Sniper tip on a cue I owned like 7 years ago. I miss that cue.

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I don't know. OB+ I think.

 

[Diege]

Thoughts on Predator 314-3 vs. Jacoby Edge vs. Meucci Black Dot?