Can a cue be TOO solid?

[tedkaufman]

Over the past month I've had the opportunity to hit several recent cues made by well respected cuemakers. The common characteristic I found among these cues is, while they were very solid, they had almost zero resonance. Each was a flat faced design, either ivory or wood to wood. I'm curious if others have noticed this trend?

 

[MVPCues]

Over the past month I've had the opportunity to hit several recent cues made by well respected cuemakers. The common characteristic I found among these cues is, while they were very solid, they had almost zero resonance. Each was a flat faced design, either ivory or wood to wood. I'm curious if others have noticed this trend?

I understand what you are asking, but I don't eqate solid hit with necessarily lacking feedback, and that is almost what the question implies.

For the way I look at it IMO:

Can a cue be too solid? No.
Can a cue be too dead and lacking feedback through resonance? Yes.

Kelly

 

[Craig Fales]

I've made four total cues so far...one complete and three almost done....all flat faced 3/8 x 10 wood to wood and they all speak to me when test hit and they sound tight....
________

 

[scottycoyote]

i actually think a cue could be too solid. What leads me to this is, if you wanted the most solid hitting cue available, you could goto another material, i dont know what, maybe carbon fiber or some type of light steel.......it would be the most solid cue imagineable but the problem would be when the tip of the cue comes in contact with the ball, it needs to give a little to allow it to grip for that microsecond they are in contact. Without this the cue would just mishit all the time. So maybe its possible if the cue was too dense or unforgiving you would get something similar, a slight mishit upon contact..........then again i might not know crap lol.

 

[Gerry]

i think I know waht your saying. i like to play with softer hitting cues. The only hits i havn't liked is from cues with flat faced joints. I also said the hit felt too "hard"....I think it's mostly a tip/ferrule/joint combo.

piloted ss joint/ivory ferrule/triangle tip...my favorite combo.

Gerry

 

[bruin70]

The common characteristic I found among these cues is, while they were very solid, they had almost zero resonance.?

what do you mean by this? especially,,,,what do you mean by "solid"?....stiff?

 

[Snapshot9]

A cue

must feel solid, but 'responsive'. Some cues, to me, have a 'club' feel, which is one that lacks a responsive feel to it. This club feel is okay for
things like breaking or jumping, but not for regular play. Sometimes, it
could be joint (wood-to-wood, ivory somewhat), along with shaft thickness, taper, ferrule, tip combo.

I will probably get blasted on this one, but, to me, the cheap Joss's nowdays feel just like a steel rod to shoot with, unresponsive. They are not the Joss's of 30 years ago. I had a friend that broke his stick one night, bought a $400 Joss after trying it out. Shot one game with it, put it away, and shot with my brother's Meucci from then on. He also never
gave it back, and my brother ended up buying a Lucasi for $220 that he liked and still has. I suspect that the 13.25mm shafts on the Joss's are part of the reason for a lack of feel on them.

Some cuemakers cut corners, and put 'outdated' tips on new cues, ones that are not really popular with players anymore. For what, saving them
$5,and ending up with a customer that something doesn't feel just quite
right .... There goes return business. The days of 'Le Pro' tips works for any cue are gone.

A cue must have balance, feel, and a good solid hit, and if it doesn't, I will not buy it. I do have some requirements to get those, like a piloted SS joint, but I would consider a phenolic joint, a good hard ferrule that won't
split or shatter on me, a forward balance, a butt that doesn't feel big in my hand, and a medium-hard/hard layered tip on it. Those requirements
have to be filled first, then I look at how pleasing the aesthestics of the cue are.

 

[tedkaufman]

Just to try to clarify what I said in my initial post--by too solid, what I meant was there was almost no feedback, no reasonance, no vibration; the cues felt almost dead; very quiet, very solid, but also very dull. Keep in mind, too, these were cues from very respected cuemakers with quality tips, etc.

To try to explain this further, when I grip my South West cues lightly and release them as I stroke, the cues make a reasonant sound and I can feel the cue almost hum in my fingers, like an instrument. With the cues I mentioned, same technique, it's as if those reasonances are dampened to the point where they have no music, neither to my ears or fingers. They are very solid, but feel dull, almost inert.

 

[pete lafond]

Just to try to clarify what I said in my initial post--by too solid, what I meant was there was almost no feedback, no reasonance, no vibration; the cues felt almost dead; very quiet, very solid, but also very dull. Keep in mind, too, these were cues from very respected cuemakers with quality tips, etc.

To try to explain this further, when I grip my South West cues lightly and release them as I stroke, the cues make a reasonant sound and I can feel the cue almost hum in my fingers, like an instrument. With the cues I mentioned, same technique, it's as if those reasonances are dampened to the point where they have no music, neither to my ears or fingers. They are very solid, but feel dull, almost inert.

Interesting comment. I do like a very solid (stiff) feel. I do not like shafts that over-vibrate. Maybe a good cue specialist can help here but I find shafts that wip more also reduce my accuracy when especially using BHE.

Then again, my golf clubs are 22 year old Wilson Staffs (tour blade, extra stiff) and I can control these better than the newer clubs, I also maintain much better distance - so the distance stuff does not hold true in new clubs. I will not give them up. I place very stiff cues in this category of better performance.