Recently I bought an OB-1, with the 5/16 X 18 joint, for my cues. All my current playing cues have this joint, and having heard so many good reports about the OB-1, and seeking the ultimate, in hit and performance, I took my chances and plopped down the cash.
The shaft comes with a Talisman Pro medium tip. I decided to play with it for a while with the Talisman tip to see if the way it comes would work for me. This is the first area where I disliked the setup, note I said setup, not the shaft.
Although Talisman is a fine tip, and I've used all the Talisman Pros, as well as their break tip, and their Waterbuffalo tip, I don't think this shaft really performs very well with the tip that comes on it. Oh, it pots balls just fine, and you can draw the rock with it, but it really doesn't put enough juice on the cue ball for me. Taking the shaft from 12.75 down would certainly help it, but I wanted to find out if I could make it work for me more or less as is. If your game doesn't require some power force follows or draw with english on certain shots from time to time, it'll work just fine. Can't fault it there. Perhaps when the tip gets really thin, close to the time when it needs to be replaced it'll play better. I expect that. It's just that as it comes on the shaft it's a disappointment, to me at least.
So, yesterday morning I took a genuine Milk Dud tip, and installed it on my favorite-playing butt, a full-splice Excalibur sneaky pete.
Golly gee whiz, this is the nuts!!
I have fallen in love with the combination. I played a total of 11 hours yesterday with it. One table, a rather slow, tough double shimmed table; the other: a Diamond Pro with Championship Tour Edition cloth.
I think I played some of the best pool in my life last yesterday with this cue-shaft-tip combination.
Why do I say that? Because I managed to pull off some extremely difficult shots requiring maximum force follow with english that I've never been able to execute well before. Execute in this case means I potted the ball, and got three rail shape, all while putting my biggest stroke ( mind you, I don't have a big stroke, not by a long shot!) into the shot. I'm still ecstatic this morning, after a good night's rest.
Will another shaft do the same, or will other players be able to do what I did last night, equally well, or maybe better, with another setup? Of course they will. No doubt about it.
Here's a simple version of the shot, of Earl Strickland teaching how to shoot the shot:
(Originally Posted by gregory)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml4y67cFpi8
My shot was a tougher version of the shot, as the object ball was farther from the corner pocket, and the cue ball was at least a diamond farther away from the object ball.
To make things even tougher, the shot was on the 8 ball in a hill-hill match, and the 9 ball was back down table.
Suffice it to say, I potted the 8, and came around three rails with high inside english, to get perfect shape for an almost straight in shot on the 9, that was about two feet away from the 9.
I freakin' don't believe it all happened.
Folks, if you're happy with your current setup, great. If there's anything about it that you're the least bit unhappy with, get an OB-1, and put a Milk Dud on it....
Dangggggggggggg.......
Flex
The shaft comes with a Talisman Pro medium tip. I decided to play with it for a while with the Talisman tip to see if the way it comes would work for me. This is the first area where I disliked the setup, note I said setup, not the shaft.
Although Talisman is a fine tip, and I've used all the Talisman Pros, as well as their break tip, and their Waterbuffalo tip, I don't think this shaft really performs very well with the tip that comes on it. Oh, it pots balls just fine, and you can draw the rock with it, but it really doesn't put enough juice on the cue ball for me. Taking the shaft from 12.75 down would certainly help it, but I wanted to find out if I could make it work for me more or less as is. If your game doesn't require some power force follows or draw with english on certain shots from time to time, it'll work just fine. Can't fault it there. Perhaps when the tip gets really thin, close to the time when it needs to be replaced it'll play better. I expect that. It's just that as it comes on the shaft it's a disappointment, to me at least.
So, yesterday morning I took a genuine Milk Dud tip, and installed it on my favorite-playing butt, a full-splice Excalibur sneaky pete.
Golly gee whiz, this is the nuts!!
I have fallen in love with the combination. I played a total of 11 hours yesterday with it. One table, a rather slow, tough double shimmed table; the other: a Diamond Pro with Championship Tour Edition cloth.
I think I played some of the best pool in my life last yesterday with this cue-shaft-tip combination.
Why do I say that? Because I managed to pull off some extremely difficult shots requiring maximum force follow with english that I've never been able to execute well before. Execute in this case means I potted the ball, and got three rail shape, all while putting my biggest stroke ( mind you, I don't have a big stroke, not by a long shot!) into the shot. I'm still ecstatic this morning, after a good night's rest.
Will another shaft do the same, or will other players be able to do what I did last night, equally well, or maybe better, with another setup? Of course they will. No doubt about it.
Here's a simple version of the shot, of Earl Strickland teaching how to shoot the shot:
(Originally Posted by gregory)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml4y67cFpi8
My shot was a tougher version of the shot, as the object ball was farther from the corner pocket, and the cue ball was at least a diamond farther away from the object ball.
To make things even tougher, the shot was on the 8 ball in a hill-hill match, and the 9 ball was back down table.
Suffice it to say, I potted the 8, and came around three rails with high inside english, to get perfect shape for an almost straight in shot on the 9, that was about two feet away from the 9.
I freakin' don't believe it all happened.
Folks, if you're happy with your current setup, great. If there's anything about it that you're the least bit unhappy with, get an OB-1, and put a Milk Dud on it....
Dangggggggggggg.......
Flex
