experimenting with maple (1 piece shaft )

S

smoooothstroke

JerLaw
Silver Member
Been playing with a 314 shaft for over 10 years and I am a strong advocate of low deflection shafts.Recently I decided to hit more then 1 or 2 balls with a maple shaft.The other day I played some $5.00 1 hole with a maple shaft that has a "noisy" hit.I played pretty well,mostly rolling and dinking the ball around,of course I missed when using side spin,especially with speed.Today I decided to give it a more serious try,I played some nine ball against the ghost.

What I learned was that aiming is more simple with a whippy shaft then with a low deflection.The deflection or squirt seams to cancel out the throw on most cut shots played with english (from an aiming perspective).The problem is when using side spin and hitting the shot with force seams to cause a huge amount of deflection making it necessary to compensate by changing the aim point.For me this factor trumps any benefit gained by the simplicity of aiming with a 1 piece shaft.

I will give a serious try at using a maple shaft,like 6 months to a year if I can find a 1 piece that has a solid hit to it.....Just trying to change things up a bit.
 
Good luck with your trials. I'll never be able to switch back for one reason...shaft to shaft consistency. I can interchange between just about any two LD shafts at will. When I played with traditional shafts...each new shaft took time...even shafts from the same manufacturer.
 
Low D shafts

I havent found a Low-D shaft that I like, but I hope down the road, for one simple reason and you stated it. I want to be able to use almost any cue, by interchanging the shaft and you cant do it with your normal,

non-low-d shaft. I hope I get lucky, I'm going to try the Mcdermott shafts next, didnt like the Tiger's or the Perdator.
 
King T said:
I havent found a Low-D shaft that I like, but I hope down the road, for one simple reason and you stated it. I want to be able to use almost any cue, by interchanging the shaft and you cant do it with your normal,

non-low-d shaft. I hope I get lucky, I'm going to try the Mcdermott shafts next, didnt like the Tiger's or the Perdator.
Click to expand...

If its a question of hit try the ob or jacoby edge they are closer to a 1 piece maple.
 
Its the hit

Cool, Thanks for the info..., I'll try them this weekend, just got a new cue, great time to try a few shafts with it.
 
King T you can actually adjust an LD shaft to put deflection back into it.... By changing the ferrule material you can change the end mass which will add some deflection back.... I had a shaft at one point that was as close to zero deflection as I have seen and I hated it... I had the cue maker change the ferrule and put a carbon fiber pad on it so I didn't have to relearn/retrain my aiming and pivots.......
 
Hated the hit

Hey Renfro, Thanks for the info, what type of tip did you use when you changed the ferrule?
 
Your analogy between a wippy shaft and a low deflection shaft is not quite acurate as a low deflection shaft by nature is wippy......I have done days worth of r&d on this .......stiff dense lively solid maple shafts vs. ld vs. 1 piece wippy shafts(muccie). The spin you put on a ball is all in your stroke....one will not give an advantage over the other.....but what the cue (shaft) does with the spin at point of contact with the object ball is dramatic and quite noticable. With a stiff live feeling shaft there is an amount of compresion down the cue but not so much the tip stays on the ball for too long a period......when the cue ball contacts the object ball all or most depending on your stroke of the forward energy is transfered to the object ball and that allows the spin to take over at that point....what I noticed is with a wippy shaft your cue ball tends to jump forward or backward or left or right even while the last of the energy takes over......this means the cue ball is losing spin trying to over come the forward energy of the shot......I also find on extreme english shots using side spin you can get a more solid application of spin off the rail.....its really to much to type here but I have done this with several people who belived they were better off with ld or wippy shafts....not saying they werent but they never gave solid maple shafts a chance to see what they could really do......analogy: Its like me flipping you in the nose compared to a straight right......Renfro I belive in another thread you mentioned days of thunder.....well here it is.....Shoot 100 shots your way with your ld shafts, then shoot a 100 shots my way.....give it an honest run and I will bet my way wins. Now many people love the ld shafts and can't get away from them and thats fine.....I just belive they have never had the chance to experience a high denisty lively shaft with all the right tunnings as far as joint, ferrule, and tip....even the shape of your tip comes into play.....
 
John it sounds like you may be part of a dying breed of cue maker... I had several known makers tell me if I didn't like how their stuff played to move along... They had developed their own formula and were sticking to it...

I wasn't even talking pins or joints or balances... I was simply looking for someone who was willing to mechanic on a cue after purchase by changing tapers, pinches, ferrules and tips....

I found one that will do it and I won't look back... He even developed an LD design for me out of our interactions...

The point is there are far too many tweeks that can be done to play with anything off the shelf that hasn't been adjusted for you...

Sounds like anyone in John's area might have a bigger resource at hand than they know......
 
My post was mainly directed at the op....but I belive be it a laminated ld....or one of my shafts tweaking it is a must for maximum play for the owner of the cue......and renfro..lol.....I'm in your area:smile:......I enjoy making each cue of mine and even others play as good for that person as humanly possible....its kind of an obsesion.....And nothing is set in stone as everyone needs and desires a different feel and hit....its all about getting to the magical point in which you know the cue will do everything you need and more.........:smile:
 
I used a LD shaft (Predator 314-2) that was matched up for a double spliced ebony/tulip wood butt for more than a year. I shot pretty well with it. But, I found that I would take a lot of shots for granted and often, I got too much english when I didn't mean too. I think the LD shafts are great for average shooters because it allows them to use english that they normally wouldn't be able to do with a standard 1-piece maple shaft. That's just my opinion of course. ;) I know I used it because it was easy. Unfortunately, it did nothing to improve my game and in the long run, I think it started to hurt certain aspects of my game and made me a weaker player.

So about 2 months ago, I switched back to the standard 1-piece shaft and have been using my Scruggs hustler pretty much exclusively. What I found is that I have to treat every shot the same, devote the same routine to it, and slow my game down a lot. This has translated into a tighter stroke and it makes me keep my body locked into position. Bottom line, after playing 4/5 days a week for about an hour a day, I'm playing better than I have in a few years. I know I know... anyone would play better with that much practice. But, I feel like I'm gelling with the cue better is what I'm trying to say. I feel like I can't miss any shot with the cue. I feel like the cue is an extension of my arm and that just means that it's the cue for me. My touch on the ball and position is light years better than it was with the LD shaft that I played just as much with. My stroke feels perfect and I can easily tell very quickly when it is out of whack. It's very easy to know what I need to work on when something isn't working. I feel like I've gotten rid of a crutch (LD) and retrained my body/mind to be strong on it's own.

I won't be going back to an LD shaft anytime soon.

Shoot well!

Greg
 
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ComptonCustomCues said:
My post was mainly directed at the op....but I belive be it a laminated ld....or one of my shafts tweaking it is a must for maximum play for the owner of the cue......and renfro..lol.....I'm in your area:smile:......I enjoy making each cue of mine and even others play as good for that person as humanly possible....its kind of an obsesion.....And nothing is set in stone as everyone needs and desires a different feel and hit....its all about getting to the magical point in which you know the cue will do everything you need and more.........:smile:
Click to expand...

John I am just beginning work on my home room.... when it's done I think there will be plenty of round table discussions... I Will just have to get you to head west one night... Currently in my honest opinion I own the best LD shaft and dart jump out there.... We are currently working on a break cue using the LD technology and the prototypes are smoking my Predator BK2....

If you like to tinker and mechanic your final product I think we have several kindred spirits in the inner circle....
 
smoooothstroke said:
The problem is when using side spin and hitting the shot with force seams to cause a huge amount of deflection making it necessary to compensate by changing the aim point.For me this factor trumps any benefit gained by the simplicity of aiming with a 1 piece shaft.

I will give a serious try at using a maple shaft,like 6 months to a year if I can find a 1 piece that has a solid hit to it.....Just trying to change things up a bit.
Click to expand...

You need to just aim just like on normal shot without side then pivot the shaft on you aiming bridge. Bridge does not change. Only the tip to the left or right. Shoot with confidence.

Practice with medium speed. This will be consistent. Slow speed will swerve more so it will be a slightly thicker hit on the object ball. Faster speed slightly thinner, but I doubt you missed the shot.
Bridge to cueball distance try to stay consistent.

Try stay with with shaft having 13mm~13.1mm tip size. Avoid more than 13.1mm. They tend to have higher deflection. Avoid below 12.9mm as it will be lower deflection.
Trained with a 13mm as it will be easier for you to find other spare shaft with 13mm in the future.

Hope this help. Cheers!
 
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