titlistsucker said:
In the Burton Spain Booklet, a small chapter was dedicated to the Buzz ring, which is a phenolic ring situated at the butt of the cue to reduce buzzing. Spain noticed that Bushka put them at the handle, hidden by the wood, and from his observations, he reckon that buzz rings are necessary unless the cue is full splice.
I seen Scruggs cues, and Searings with buzz rings and they normally put em at the base of points. Some cuemakers, however, NEVER believed in the ring.
What do u think? Is it necessary?
I don't think they are needed with the modern epoxy glues and the internal fastners the cue makers are using. I don't see a common problem with modern cues developing a "buzz" in the handle area.
On the full splice, I think Joel Hercek has the right idea too. Cut a V splice into the handle and keep the solid wood sections short. Use the strongest epoxy you can. The glue joint on modern cues like this is stronger than the solid wood. The advantage of keeping the solid wood piece short is there is less chance of warpage over tiime (a lot less).
Look at the current full splice compared to the old Titlists. The glue was weak and as the handle expanded and contracted with weather changes, a lot of the prongs and veneers separated. i have seen a lot of Titlists with this problem but very few Adam or Spain cues. Even so, the epoxies today are much stronger than when Spain and Adam were making full splice.
This is the kind of thing the cue makers were fighting, weak glues and crummy finishes.
Of all things they were working with, there are three things that have been vastly improved:
1) Adhesives
2) Paint
3) Safety - (from fumes, poisons, dust, machine guards, safety switches)
The glues and finishes today are state of the art, stonger and more durable than wood. It's hard to imagine they will improve much from here.
Chris
