A few years ago my girl bought me a break/jump cue ( about $80 ) for Christmas. I was never really impressed with it. Still i used it regularly. I went to SBE yesterday and had a new tip put on it. The cue mechanic suggested I try a Zento tip. He installed a green tip on it for me. I got the stick home and was amazed. It is nothing like it used to be. The rack seems to explode on break shots and jump shots are effortless. My main question here I guess is if the tip is that important where is the improvement seen in more expensive jump / break cues.
Break jump cue or tip
- Thread starter Kevin3824
- Start date
Between the ears
Just an opinion, but I think it has to do with the play between weight, balance and stiffness.
I think you need a stiff shaft in order to feel like you're transferring power efficiently.
With most lower-end break cues, this is usually accomplished by having a much wider tip and conical taper, resulting in a very heavy front end shaft. Often it's also paired with a thick heavy butt to balance it out, resulting it what almost feels like a log.
Having a battering ram log with a 14mm tip, might be great on some breaks but say for second ball instead of headball, or soft vs hard breaking, you want something more well rounded to be able to optimally break at all speeds and positions.
I think the more expensive break-only cues, try to achieve a very stiff hit, without shifting all the weight into the shaft. If you can accomplish a lighter but still very stiff shaft, it allows you to pair it with a lighter butt while still maintaining balance.
so to re-cap, a good break cue has good balance, and high stiffness with a tip size and taper that are suitable for . But it is done without just increasing the tip size to increase the shaft size, and without adding weight to the back just to balance out the front. It seems like a one thing leads to another that leads to another type situation.
Then expensive break-jump cues are trying to get as closed to: manageable tip size, shaft thickness and taper, balance of the front in relation to the back and cue weight. While also being a good jump cue, and things you might want in a break cue might not be what you want in a jump cue. The more expensive jump cues are trying to find a medium between two very different cues in the name of convenience and some jump-break cues accomplish it better than others.
So if you take into account that the jump cue section on a j/b cue means an extra metal joint in the butt of the cue, a very logical conclusion is to use a heavier front shaft to balance it out. I think that's why most jump break cues have a tendency to lean towards those 14mm conical thicker heavier type shafts. It's stiff for breaking and being front heavy enough to jump. If you want to shy away from that in favour of a lighter shaft break cue, you'll end up with a worse jump cue.
Again, this is all just made up after I read your question so....
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