Difference between wood to wood and wood to steel joints, and so on?

I am pretty good friends with a family that has an extremely large collection of cues. One of the largest in the world I believe. In the last 20+ years, I have played with a good portion of their cues. A lot of those cues, most on here would probably give up their own mother for. I am very lucky in this, I know.

I was just talking with one of the family about how cues play the other day. Now, the hit of any cue is completely subjective. What is great to me, might suck to you. My question to him was, "Why do some cues of makers in the highest order play good, and others play like s***?"

I know people will be curious as to what makers I was referring to, so I will tell you. They were Gina and Tad mostly.
The other cue makers I referred to were Bill Stroud and Gus.

In the latter 2, I could play with one of their plain jane cues or a solid gold monster and it would hit lights out. In the former 2, there seemed to be no correlation between the price of the cue and how it hit. Some of the plain ones hit great and some didn't. Same with the spendy ones. Some hit great and some didn't.

I am sure to get threatening e-mails on this! :angry:
Don't forget, hit is subjective.

Well, my friend was pretty good friends with Gus. He relayed to me what Gus told him a long time ago. Gus believed that the majority of the "feeling" in how a cue played was in the shaft. He didn't point out anything particular in the shaft just that is was the determining factor. The not so good feeling in the cues I played with was that the shafts were not done correctly for that cue.

This could mean taper, diameter, ferrule, joint material, etc.

I was reading this and thought I would put my 2 cents in. I have been in a very unique position to play with cues that almost never see the light of day much less played and thought I should share it.

Hope you enjoyed... :thumbup:

Or not! :frown:
 
deanoc said:
i can't tell the difference
Click to expand...

You're not alone.

For those who don't have a Google account, here is the text of the link that Bob Calahan provided above:

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

http://www.texasexpress.com
 
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