Do you feel you are more accurate with a smaller tip?

SamLambert

SamLambert

Daydreaming about pool
Silver Member
I've been wondering about this for a while and gave it a good try yesterday.

I picked up my old cue, which has a 12.5mm tip and played with it for a while. I usually play with a Z3 shaft turned down to 10.75mm. It seemed to be much harder to do exactly what I wanted to do with the cueball with the 12.5mm tip, as in it's harder to put no spin at all and harder to put the amount of spin that I want.

I think it's quite logical, since it's easier to visualize the contact point with a smaller tip. Let's say hypothetically that I had a 0.1mm tip, it would be exceptionally easy to aim precisely. To the other extreme, aiming precisely with a 25mm tip would be next to impossible.

With that in mind, I ended up asking myself why do bigger tips exist? Why aren't all cues with tips like the ones on a snooker cue?

So why are tips not as small as possible without compromising the shaft properties? I figured that one of my hypothesis might be wrong or that I forgot to consider something in all of this, because for sure cuemakers thought about this long before me and there has to be a reason why bigger tips are very much prevalent.

Thanks!
 
Personally I prefer the 11,75 diameter tips.

A small tip obscures less of the view of the object ball and cueball. However, in my club, as far as I know only 3 people including me are playing with small tips like that (all of us play snooker/carom in addition to pool). Almost everyone of the pure pool players have 12.5mm or larger tips and they have all tried smaller ones. Why that is, I don't know.
 
Well, the common thought held has been that a larger tip increases your accuracy in striking the CB but you sacrifice some spin and please your deflection. As the tip gets smaller your accuracy must become greater and greater but you also gain the ability to spin the ball more and you have less deflection.

As it is, I play with an 11.75mm and sometimes it still feels too big. I can't pick up a 12.5 and play accurately anymore. In the future I'll probably have it turned down to 11.5 or 11.25

Anyhow, I prefer a smaller tip radius because it takes up less visual space on the CB and it feels so much nicer running through my bridge.

-Richard
 
Icon of Sin said:
True, I think that was one of the first 5 questions I asked when buying my first cue.
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LOL

anyway, I prefer a smallish tip, it feels more accurate to me.
Others prefer a larger tip, some people probably don't like the way a thin shaft feels in their bridge hand
 
Patrick Johnson is right in that it squirts less. You'd think being thinner the opposite would be true.but it isn't.

I think you have to really have a straight stroke to properly take advantage of the benefits of a smaller diameter. Larger diameters are more forgiving of an errant stroke IMO.
 
Isn't a cue ball something like 57 mm in diameter?

Is a shaft 1.5 mm smaller really going to generate a significant more amount of spin?

I can see the logic in theory but have a hard time believing the real world end result.

I guess if you believe you are generating more spin with a smaller shaft, you are.
 
haystj said:
Isn't a cue ball something like 57 mm in diameter?

Is a shaft 1.5 mm smaller really going to generate a significant more amount of spin?

I can see the logic in theory but have a hard time believing the real world end result.

I guess if you believe you are generating more spin with a smaller shaft, you are.
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I don't think it helps put more spin on the cueball, but I do feel more accurate with how much english I want to put on the ball / hitting where I want to.
 
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Zphix said:
As the tip gets smaller your accuracy must become greater and greater
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Colonel said:
Larger diameters are more forgiving of an errant stroke
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This is a popular misconception. The size of your tip doesn't make any difference in "forgivability" - but the shape might (a little). A rounder tip will hit (a tiny amount) farther from center than a flatter one for the same center-of-tip position.

Zphix:
...you also gain the ability to spin the ball more
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Not really. If your tip is rounder it might seem like that (for the reason described above), but you can hit all the same places on the CB with either tip - and that's what determines the amount of spin.
Zphix:
I prefer a smaller tip radius because it takes up less visual space on the CB
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This (plus lower squirt) is the whole ball of wax IMO.

pj
chgo
 
Colonel said:
Patrick Johnson is right in that it squirts less. You'd think being thinner the opposite would be true.but it isn't.
Click to expand...
Yes, many players believe a more flexible shaft will squirt less, but flexibility has little or nothing to do with squirt - it's all about the "end mass".

And anyway, a thin shaft doesn't have to be more flexible - my shaft with a 10mm tip is stiffer than most wider shafts because of its conical taper, yet it's ultra-low squirt (~20" pivot length) because it has less end mass.

pj
chgo
 
Sam, just concentrate on improving your game and leave this pointless stuff outside.
 
I like a little bit smaller tip. I don't have any idea whether I'm more accurate, all I know is that when I play with one of those 13mm tips I feel like I'm playing with a flippin broom stick. Just way too big - and I use an open bridge.
 
Shaft OD

I have several shafts for my main player some of these shafts have been turned down smaller.
Personally I prefer the 12.5 mm shaft.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Info is only pointless to those who don't know how to use it. Sam's brain seems able to handle the load.

pj
chgo
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Every hour Sam's spending on painting ferrules, switching shafts, replacing tips, installing cams etc., it's at least 120 practice shots on the table wasted for nothing.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Yes, many players believe a more flexible shaft will squirt less, but flexibility has little or nothing to do with squirt - it's all about the "end mass".

And anyway, a thin shaft doesn't have to be more flexible - my shaft with a 10mm tip is stiffer than most wider shafts because of its conical taper, yet it's ultra-low squirt (~20" pivot length) because it has less end mass.

pj
chgo
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I agree, I have an old Scruggs that have 30" shafts with very severe tapers and 11.5 & 11..75mm and these are the stiffest shafts I've ever seen.
 
snucar said:
Every hour Sam's spending on painting ferrules, switching shafts, replacing tips, installing cams etc., it's at least 120 practice shots on the table wasted for nothing.
Click to expand...

probably cant get to a table as much as he can get to a phone, or tablet or laptop or desktop
 
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