Do you (or anybody) know what these mean?
pj <- clueless
chgo
In theory a pro taper has zero taper all the way from tip to where a person bridges, 14"-16". A wooden shaft with no taper will play like crap, flexing near the area it starts to grow so what you really get is a very slow taper until past the bridging area. It has to grow fast enough that the shaft flexes like a good fishing rod.
A conical taper is a constant taper from tip to bumper. This isn't real popular either so this taper is modified once past the bridge area. It grows faster than a pro taper from the tip but rarely in a true conical taper today. It grows faster in an area behind the bridging area.
Small diameter wooden shafts are often unplayable with a pro taper, making some version of a modified shaft required. However, all of these descriptions and particularly "modified" anything, means whatever the builder wants them to mean!
With the carbon fiber shafts of today it is possible to have an inside taper as well as the outside taper and I am expecting to see some real innovation in shafts.
I bought an 11.8mm Cynergy and am not pleased with it. The taper is quite fast for eight or ten inches then the shaft seems the same diameter as larger shafts. I wanted a slender shaft in the bridge area but buying a shaft sight unseen got me something I didn't want.
When terms that once meant almost opposites are combined like "conical pro" or "pro conical" it is anybody's guess what is meant. I call the modified conical tapers an european taper.
My definitions are in fairly common usage for the most part but never any guarantees so best to be sure both parties understand how a shaft tapers. I like to measure one every two inches, maybe closer up near the joint.
My shafts incorporated a polyconic section into a faster taper if needed then into a slower taper under the bridge. I would call it a modified pro taper. It could as easily be called a modified conical taper. Or it could be called Bob, maybe Hank. That is the problem in describing tapers, ten people can use a dozen different terms to describe the same thing!
Hu
PS "Polyconic" in this usage means some sort of "S" curve. The two curves may or may not be reciprocals of each other. Tiny differences in this area make a big difference in how a shaft plays.
