Try balancing your back hand out better so there is just a hair of forward balance, and really concentrate on finding the sweet spot or stroke for that cue. A harder hitting cue can be kind of bouncy, but getting the pendilum balance set right, and spin stroke can smooth them out usually. also try to concentrate on loosening the stroke up a hair, and limit the impact on contact from the tip hitting the cue. you may try kind of push stroking it till you start getting the feel of it.
The softer hit IMO is easier to develop a good stroke with, but the harder will do things I can't do with the softer hitting cue. The downfall to the harder is it's possible that it may be harder to control. A bigger dia ferrule & tip helps me.
the opposite I have found for the softer hit. I work on several cues for friends, such as meucci, and the ones that I know of that have success with them, have had them for years, and they have small dia shafts which help loosen the english up some. I use pretty extreme english, alot more then I would like, and went through My phase with them years ago before switching, and I actually used snooker shafts on mine that were made By meucci as a snooker shaft from what I was told back then. they were longer then the standard shafts also. even the joint was a smaller diameter.
You could try a softer tip if worse comes to worse. there are softer ferrule materials also, but would try to exaust every effort before changing the ferrule on a new viking. They are supposed to be good from what I've heard, probably just a drastic change from your meucci, and you need to develop the correct stroke for it. good luck
