pjJohn McChesney
Here's something interesting we tried in 1991:
At an event we had 16 cues with the butt, joint and the ferrules
covered with masking tape...then numbered.
No one could "see" if the cue was a steel, plastic or wood joint (as in a
Pete), nor
detect by the style of ferrule.
We had 70 players...each hit balls with the cues throughout the weekend.
The results:
Of nearly 800 attempts over the time period, the players guessed wrong
about what type joint was in the cue more than 7 out of 10 times.
A top pro (Meucci staffer) happened to be there, having done an exhibition
and the cue
he liked the most during the attempts:
He thought was surely a Meucci, plastic joint when in reality it was an
older
Adams with a piloted steel joint; and additionally guessed the Meucci he
shot with as a
cue with a steel joint.
Again, I maintain that cues with different joint materials may sound
differently;
may be balanced differently, but what is "hit" ?
Doesn't "hit" have to do with all the senses:
Vibration (feel), sound, balance, etc.
What is a "soft" hit? What is a "hard" hit? (what does this mean, if not
the sound the
cue makes upon impact, or are people ref. to the vibration in the butt?)
Does a hard hit vibrate more and make a different sound?
A soft hit vibrate less with a different sound?
I maintain that the primary criteria that differentiates one cue from
another begins with:
>The tip (soft, med or hard)
>The shaft diameter and density of the wood
>The taper (or stiffness of the shaft)
To this day, I still don't believe the joint has much to do with the
reaction of the cueball
off the shaft, rather it is the 3 aforementioned that have far more bearing
on how a cue
plays than anything else.
Remember, what makes the predator shaft play differently is what is located
at the tip,
inside the shaft, the ferrule and the laminations....not the joint or butt.
In closing, our experiment asked which cue the players liked best:
Of the 70 players, nearly 55 liked the hit of two cues with different
numbers:
When the two were exposed, they both were sneaky petes, wood to wood joints,
(one a Scruggs and the other a Huebler); both about 19 oz., both about 13
1/4mm and
tended to be on the stiff side of "hit". By the way, the 55 who liked the
hit of these two cues:
more than half thought they would be steel jointed.
John McChesney
Texas Express
National Nine Ball Tour
PO Box 700814
Dallas Tx 75370
Voice 214 495 tour (8687)
Fax 214 495 7616
j...@texasexpress.com
http://www.texasexpress.com
Ron Shepard:
...apart from miscues, the tip and shaft characteristics don't have much to do with the cue ball action either. I think it is all in the tip offset and the shot speed.
Well, people have been bringing this test up so i went to searchin' and found it. I remember back when it was done the players involved were quite surprised that the joint really has no effect on how a cue feels.Leave it to you, Gar, to come up with thought-provoking s**t like this. One of the more interesting things I've read in ages... :thumbup2:
Well, people have been bringing this test up so i went to searchin' and found it. I remember back when it was done the players involved were quite surprised that the joint really has no effect on how a cue feels.
Does the brass insert on the Scruggs matter ?For me, this experiment explains my personal preferences.
55 of 70 players preferred two cues...they were both sneaky petes.....
...a Huebler and a Scruggs
I feel there’s some evidence being ignored here...wood to wood hits better.
Played a lot of snooker in my life...I never found a snooker cue with steel, brass or aluminum
that I would keep...they all were weak hitters on the heavier snooker cloth....
...and I had snooker shafts made for my Joss and Szamboti...
...all my snooker cues are wood to wood....carom cue also.
Allan McCarty had a long phone call with me when he was developing the Predator BK..
...he thought the BK would have a stainless steel joint...to his surprise, Iron Willie showed
showed that wood to wood produced 7 to 10% more speed.
:idea2:...I told him that explains why I never kept a snooker cue with metal in the joint,
...snooker cloth requires a stronger hit.
But go figure, all the pool cues I wouldn’t part with over the years have stainless steel...
...except for one Joss sneaky pete from the early 90s...stainless steel doesn’t wear.
Not arguing your points BUT, why are 2pc snooker cues made using that funky brass joint? I've watched a ton online and i've never noticed those guys having any issues using them. I've never seen a 2pc snooker cue with a wood-wood joint. They all seem to use the brass-2-brass joint.For me, this experiment explains my personal preferences.
55 of 70 players preferred two cues...they were both sneaky petes.....
...a Huebler and a Scruggs
I feel there’s some evidence being ignored here...wood to wood hits better.
Played a lot of snooker in my life...I never found a snooker cue with steel, brass or aluminum
that I would keep...they all were weak hitters on the heavier snooker cloth....
...and I had snooker shafts made for my Joss and Szamboti...
...all my snooker cues are wood to wood....carom cue also.
Allan McCarty had a long phone call with me when he was developing the Predator BK..
...he thought the BK would have a stainless steel joint...to his surprise, Iron Willie showed
showed that wood to wood produced 7 to 10% more speed.
:idea2:...I told him that explains why I never kept a snooker cue with metal in the joint,
...snooker cloth requires a stronger hit.
But go figure, all the pool cues I wouldn’t part with over the years have stainless steel...
...except for one Joss sneaky pete from the early 90s...stainless steel doesn’t wear.
Does the brass insert on the Scruggs matter ?
Huebler had nylon inserts.