New 'dope' for Predator junkies...... the 'Centro'

I played the Centro tonight for about 30 min. It is AWESOME! It's for sure better than the 314. I'd say it's even better than the Revo. It hits just like a Lambros Ultra Joint with an ivory ferrule from 20 years ago. That's how it felt in my hands, that's immediately where my memory went upon the first hit.

It was marked 12.4 on the joint end. The taper looked about the same as the 12.4 Revo I had next to it. The deflection was either the same as the Revo or maybe even a hair less, I'm not sure. I had no trouble spinning the ball like a top.

It is one piece of wood, no radial laminations like the 314. The grain and pores are tight, it feels like a high end custom old school wood shaft.

If you like wood, this is worth a look for sure.

I'm not switching from the Revo now, I'd have to buy all new cues and shafts again. But it's tempting.

Predator should have probably come out with this 15 years ago and replaced the 314 line with it. I do still think the market "today" is very limited for this shaft. But, if someone hits it, I think they might buy.
 
iusedtoberich said:
I played the Centro tonight for about 30 min. It is AWESOME! It's for sure better than the 314. I'd say it's even better than the Revo. It hits just like a Lambros Ultra Joint with an ivory ferrule from 20 years ago. That's how it felt in my hands, that's immediately where my memory went upon the first hit.

It was marked 12.4 on the joint end. The taper looked about the same as the 12.4 Revo I had next to it. The deflection was either the same as the Revo or maybe even a hair less, I'm not sure. I had no trouble spinning the ball like a top.

It is one piece of wood, no radial laminations like the 314. The grain and pores are tight, it feels like a high end custom old school wood shaft.

If you like wood, this is worth a look for sure.

I'm not switching from the Revo now, I'd have to buy all new cues and shafts again. But it's tempting.

Predator should have probably come out with this 15 years ago and replaced the 314 line with it. I do still think the market "today" is very limited for this shaft. But, if someone hits it, I think they might buy.
Click to expand...
They could have made this long before the carbon shafts but wanted to sell the carbon shafts and then sell these.

I think this will be the end product for shafts. Wood with a carbon tube or filling.

Glad you had the chance to play with one.
 
The idea of the 10 pieces lamination was to give radial consistency and to eliminate the sweet spot.
Before that, players used to mark their shaft for the sweet spot and rotate the cue to align with it.
A full CF shaft also provides this, but I doubt that a wooden shaft with just a front-end CF core would, so are we back to 1995?
 
skor said:
The idea of the 10 pieces lamination was to give radial consistency and to eliminate the sweet spot.
Before that, players used to mark their shaft for the sweet spot and rotate the cue to align with it.
A full CF shaft also provides this, but I doubt that a wooden shaft with just a front-end CF core would, so are we back to 1995?
Click to expand...
Radial inconsistency is the biggest crock of poop in pool.

If there were any radial consistency problems, every pro player would miss every other shot.

In all my years being a pool degenerate, I think I've only ever seen one player mark his shaft.
 
iusedtoberich said:
I played the Centro tonight for about 30 min. It is AWESOME! It's for sure better than the 314. I'd say it's even better than the Revo. It hits just like a Lambros Ultra Joint with an ivory ferrule from 20 years ago. That's how it felt in my hands, that's immediately where my memory went upon the first hit.

It was marked 12.4 on the joint end. The taper looked about the same as the 12.4 Revo I had next to it. The deflection was either the same as the Revo or maybe even a hair less, I'm not sure. I had no trouble spinning the ball like a top.

It is one piece of wood, no radial laminations like the 314. The grain and pores are tight, it feels like a high end custom old school wood shaft.

If you like wood, this is worth a look for sure.

I'm not switching from the Revo now, I'd have to buy all new cues and shafts again. But it's tempting.

Predator should have probably come out with this 15 years ago and replaced the 314 line with it. I do still think the market "today" is very limited for this shaft. But, if someone hits it, I think they might buy.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the review and really looking forward to the one I will have next week.
 
iusedtoberich said:
I played the Centro tonight for about 30 min. It is AWESOME! It's for sure better than the 314. I'd say it's even better than the Revo. It hits just like a Lambros Ultra Joint with an ivory ferrule from 20 years ago. That's how it felt in my hands, that's immediately where my memory went upon the first hit.

It was marked 12.4 on the joint end. The taper looked about the same as the 12.4 Revo I had next to it. The deflection was either the same as the Revo or maybe even a hair less, I'm not sure. I had no trouble spinning the ball like a top.

It is one piece of wood, no radial laminations like the 314. The grain and pores are tight, it feels like a high end custom old school wood shaft.

If you like wood, this is worth a look for sure.

I'm not switching from the Revo now, I'd have to buy all new cues and shafts again. But it's tempting.

Predator should have probably come out with this 15 years ago and replaced the 314 line with it. I do still think the market "today" is very limited for this shaft. But, if someone hits it, I think they might buy.
Click to expand...
I purchased the Centro shaft and have been playing with it for the last couple of days. I agree that deflection was as good as Revo and it has a great feel! Best feeling low deflection shaft I have ever tried!
 
As with all the wood shafts containing a carbon tube, the technology makes no sense to me. Carbon fiber is denser than wood. If Predator wanted to make the front end lighter, they could have omitted the carbon tube and had an even lower deflecting shaft. If a carbon tube in the middle of a wood shaft will keep a shaft from warping as easily (does it??), that is the only benefit I can understand.

If Predator wants to mimic a traditional maple shaft, how about a 13mm tip?
 
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7stud said:
As with all the wood shafts containing a carbon tube, the technology makes no sense to me. Carbon fiber is denser than wood. If Predator wanted to make the front end lighter, they could have omitted the carbon tube and had an even lower deflecting shaft. If a carbon tube in the middle of a wood shaft will keep a shaft from warping as easily (does it??), that is the only benefit I can understand.

If Predator wants to mimic a traditional maple shaft, how about a 13mm tip?
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Carbon fiber is lighter than wood and provides a stronger construction and added power.
What doesn’t make sense is the whole shaft in an era that full CF shafts are well established and became the choice of most pros
 
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Like golf, if you have a pitching wedge that can get 100 yards and you're 100 yards away from the hole you know you can hit near max.

Now lets say you have 125 yards but you have to gently lay it up. More touch. That's carbon.

It still takes skill and preference. Carbons doesn't do anything for me. I've bee playing pool for over 25 years.

Now I'm not a golfer so I don't know what these wedges get you but you get the idea. I take it they measure wedges by degrees.
 
The only advantage - actually it's mostly ad-vantage but the deal maker for me is CF offers the potential for perfect albeit costly specifications and extreme long term durability.
 
Poolmanis said:
Except G-Core suck ass. I got one and played it 4 Times and never again..
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Is that your opinion, after an incredible FOUR times?
Was it 4 shots, 4 minutes, 4 days, or 4 months.?
Great review Sir, your opinion has value! lol
(BTW, I could eat a bowl of Alphabet Soup and shit
a more intelligent statement).
 
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Johnny Rosato said:
Is that your opinion, after an incredible FOUR times?
Was it 4 shots, 4 minutes, 4 days, or 4 months.?
Great review Sir, your opinion has value! lol
(BTW, I could eat a bowl of Alphabet Soup and shit
a more intelligent statement).
Click to expand...
it was 4 days.
maybe 40 hours.
I got G-core as 40th birthday present and i was excited to get it. On that time i used to play snooker with my z2 shaft so i wanted shaft what was low deflection but not so low as z2 shaft.
Except G-core is not low deflection. Only when shooting less than half tip english it work fine but whenever you hit outside of some kind of "edge" then deflection seems to get off from charts. My old 13mm solid maple have less deflection than this "low deflection" G-core.

I tried and tried because hit felt ok but then i finally gave up. After that i decided to learn to play with predator Z2-shaft. It was weird at beginning but after i got used to it i won´t accept anything to myself that have more deflection than it. Revo 11.9 and 12.4 seem to have about same and i probably go 11.9 at some point.

Never sold G-Core either because can´t recommend it to anyone.

earlier review was just short version.. ;)
 
Poolmanis said:
it was 4 days.
maybe 40 hours.
I got G-core as 40th birthday present and i was excited to get it. On that time i used to play snooker with my z2 shaft so i wanted shaft what was low deflection but not so low as z2 shaft.
Except G-core is not low deflection. Only when shooting less than half tip english it work fine but whenever you hit outside of some kind of "edge" then deflection seems to get off from charts. My old 13mm solid maple have less deflection than this "low deflection" G-core.

I tried and tried because hit felt ok but then i finally gave up. After that i decided to learn to play with predator Z2-shaft. It was weird at beginning but after i got used to it i won´t accept anything to myself that have more deflection than it. Revo 11.9 and 12.4 seem to have about same and i probably go 11.9 at some point.

Never sold G-Core either because can´t recommend it to anyone.

earlier review was just short version.. ;)
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I had the McDermott i-3 (Intimidator) in the mid 2000's. It was about the same deflection as the 314 and Z. I played it about one year before switching back to Predator.

The G-Core I had the same experience as you. It was not low deflection like a Predator at all. Someone had it and I tried it a few shots. I gave it right back to them.

The i-1, i-2, i-3 line came out first, and was the top tier. I think the G-core line came out a few years later, and was their mid-tier shaft.

They both had CF somewhere in the shaft.

Oh, now I remember why I stopped the i-3. The ferrule broke. I did cue repair at the time so figured I'd replace it. I turned it off on the lathe, a tiny bit at a time, and there was a small CF tube inside. From memory, it was maybe about 3mm on its outer diameter. I knew there was no way I could fix it and have it play the same, so I trashed the shaft and got out my Predator cues, and never looked back.

Anyway, the point is there are a million ways to make a shaft, including with a CF core inside. That doesn't mean any of them will play even remotely the same.
 
Slightly off topic, I was at the pool hall last night, and a strong local player (630 I think) had me shoot a few shots with his cue. I asked if it was low deflection, he said it was a Revo. I pick it up and say: "wtf did you do to your shaft? I've never seen anyone ruin a Revo before".

He had worn a groove into the shaft with the chalk. I haven't seen that outside of bangers on Walmart cues.
 
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