Is one type of cue tip better than another?

J

JoeW

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Does a hard, medium or soft tip yield better control of the cue ball when other factors are held constant?

My interest is in the types of tips more so than the manufacturers. Most people have a current preference for one product over another but that is not the question. What I would like to know is does a hard tip play “better” than a soft tip: Does a hard tip help the player gain more control of the cue ball than other tips?

Have thee been any studies where cue tip types were compared in some standardized way?

Any refernces to good studies would be appreciated.
 
IMO decent tips include Le Pro & Triangle. I love the Elkmaster but it mushrooms on me.
 
Hit is subjective anyway, right? How one person feels about a tip is different on how I might perceive it. I try to stock most of the popular tips that my customers prefer and switch out occasionally so I can give my customers the skinny on how tips play, altho I may not be the best judge.
I've always liked the Le Pro and have yet to try a Triangle but I want to.
I push Talisman tips and get great reviews. I don't think they get the credit or exposure.

I just bought a few tips from EBay called California tip. Five layers and decently made. These tips can be had for pennys over a dollar. I'm seriously impressed as I thought my Milk Duds were the best thing since sliced bread.
So as Neil said, you don't have to cut into your table budget in order to get
a great playing tip.

I believe that your cue/shaft and playing style may also influence on how you perceive a tip to play as well.
For instance, on my Meucci with a Black Dot shaft, I couldn't draw the ball worth a darn with a Dud on it, or rather, I had to put extra effort into it to get the same result from a Dud on other shafts that I use.
With the new California tip I just put on the Dot shaft, I can suck the ball back effortlessly.

Weird or not, depending on your cue and style, experiment and when you find the tip that works well for you with your cue/shaft combination, stick with it.
 
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I don't know if any legitimate tests have been done, but i'd be inclined to believe a hard tip induces more spin due to it not collapsing under impact and absorbing the energy that otherwise would be imparted on the cue ball. That's just my interpretation of simple physics. Of course I could be wrong but until I learn for certain one way or the other i'll continue to believe what makes sense.

Now the question of which is better is not so easy. Regardless of which hardness applies most spin with a given effort, the "best" would depend on the player. A lot of spin may be unwieldy for some folks and prove perfect for others. And likewise. Players should choose tips according to their natural stroke. A guy with a mild stroke speed & power might easily be able to control a tip that induces a lot of spin. A player with a firm, powerful stroke might be better of with a tip that limits his already excessive power to keep things more controlled & predictable. And there's infinity in between. So in the end, I don't know if there is a real answer. Heck, I don't even know for sure if one hardness induces more spin than another. Without actual testing I don't think there's a definitive answer beyond opinion. And if there are results of actual tip hardness vs. playability testing then i'd love to study it.
 
JoeW, I think Platinum billiards used to have some sort of tip ranking system but I think it had to do with brands,hardness rating and chalk retaining qualities.

Soft tip will grab better. I prefer med/hard seems to work for most anything.
 
To me its feel and how they hold up. Mfgs are always changing their mixture, new and improved. LOL WB had a perfect tip (brown in color) but now both the lighter brown and dark brown are hard tips. I can't play with with soft tips, to me they have no feel. While I can play with hard tips I prefer med to med hard.

I doubt how firm the tip is or material has any measurable difference in spin results. If it does your stroke got better or your confidence level went up.

Rod
 
I just finished reading what Dr Dave has to say. He collects info from many sources and it would appear that there are ideas about what happens with different types of tips but there is little that is known. Seems one can come down on either side of the issue.

While I agree that there is not much dwell time difference between hard and soft tips it does seem that the additional dwell time with a soft tip might be an advantage in some situations. I am not too sure that a soft tip creates more deflection because it grabs for a longer distance through the shot, though it is possible.

It does seem odd that there are no studies that sought out optimal hardness across a range of shots. I would not think it would be too difficult to determine.
 
Here is a link to a patent in which the inventor (Frederick Probst )has embedded something like a rubber O ring in the tip to increase the amount of friction in a tip. This may allow for “more” English with fewer mis-cues. He seems to imply that the softer tip could be of more use.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7780538.html

Here are some ideas presented by someone who appears to know what they are talking about.
http://www.squidoo.com/pool-cue-tips-hardness

According to Bob Meucci's tests a hard tip is better

http://searchwarp.com/swa18091.htm

He says he has tested all of the tips on the market and harder tips are better for those who can use them. Hmmm
 
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JoeW said:
It does seem odd that there are no studies that sought out optimal hardness across a range of shots. I would not think it would be too difficult to determine.
Click to expand...

In my opinion it would be impossible to do that. Every cue has a different personality. How cue A reacts with a Moori may be worlds different than how cue B reacts with the same tip.

I'm in the same boat as Neil on this. Find something that you are comfortable with and stick with it. There are waaaaay too many variables that come into play to say that one brand, or hardness, of tip is "better" than the other.
MULLY
but of course, with a Kamui you can get enough spin to drill a hole through the slate
 
Neil said:
Joe, go here http://www.sfbilliards.com/jax_bd150.pdf ,which is the Jacksonville experiments by Bob Jewett and others, and scroll all the way down. Then come back up a little to the section with a picture of the cue ball and the tip hitting the cb. It looks like about 20 cues hitting 20 balls. Read that section.

In that section, Bob states that the biggest difference you can make in a break cue is to use a hard tip because about 30% of the force can be lost in the tip. Now, Bob can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the same theory can be transferred to a spin shot. That is, about 30% of the force creating the spin would be lost with a soft tip. Making a hard tip better for spin. Contact time seems to stay at .001 seconds.
Click to expand...

This is the way I understand the physics as well.
 
Thanks Neil. I had read that and it was part of the basis for my question. It seems that I may be coming around to the idea that a hard tip is "better." I have a Water Buffalo tip on my break cue so tonight I am going to try to use it as a playing cue.

What do you think happens if I place a water buffal tip on my predator Z2 shaft?
 
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