hardness of break cue tip controversey

berlowmj

berlowmj

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
jove3n, of Singapore, in the Ask a Cuemakers section of this forum says,

"i can't tell you how well is it but in asia g11 is up and coming i sold almost 150 tip in the past 3 months"

jove3n is obviously biased because he is selling these tips so, as always, I look to you A-Zer masters for the definitive word.

I am intrigued, because all of the sections on break cue selection in books I read emphasize tip hardness. Assuming CB control can be maintained, does increasing tip hardness on a break cue ever reach a point of diminishing returns?

Personal Experience

With Charley Bond's The Great Break Shot book as my guide, I have achieved CB control with my Sledgehammer (phenolic) & with perseverance my potting %age on the 2nd ball 8 ball break is steadily increasing. I also think that the lack of forgiveness of the phenolic is responsible for accelerating the improvement of my fundamentals which has also contributed to increasing my average number of consecutive balls run. Obviously, drills & emphasis on rhythm & stroke have contributed. When I can get away from my 2 bar tables town, I have been expanding to 14:1.

I enjoyed experimenting with a Water Buffalo tip, but once CB control was no longer an issue, the phenolic appeared to provide an edge.

I suppose the ultimate break fantasy would be to explode the rack with such violence that all the balls would continue to move until they found refuge in a pocket.
 
Is there a controversy over this? I figured people just used what yielded the best results for them. If there is someone pushing a particular tip, well, they have an obvious agenda. Most players today prefer hard tips, if not phenolic, for breaking as well as playing (not phenolic for playing, of course). I remember some of the older players, when I was first starting out, telling me that soft tips were the way to go.
 
Have their been any reputable studies done which would confirm the reports of damage to the equipment from using G10 or G11 tips?
 
not that i'm aware of, would be nice to see one. i have always wondered why people need such obscenely hard tips. maybe if you want to jump the ball 3 feet in the air? phenolic seems plenty hard to me.
 
breaks

I have been using a talisman bk-h for breaking. The monk was here for some instructional stuff. He brakes things down. but the break expert he brought with just loved using my Martinez with this tip. When I got them I was told they were used widely in the phillipines for playing and breaking. I also had a phenolic tip on another shaft for ernie. The other thing he commented about was the extended shaft lenght. He had different ways to break for run outs, just making balls, the chip shot in the side etc. He was a hard breaker I will add. While practicing the break with Jon kucharo he used center ball for eight ball break and kept the ball so cose to the felt and the cue ball was always. 10 yrs ago I had to priviledge to use a 25 oz richard black for breaking that was Steve Miz. He said he had used heavier cues on 5-10 ft just a thought The stuff with jon was ipt stuff and he made 1 or more 98 out of the first 100 I racked and my ears were ringing.
 
You use a phenolic for 2nd ball break? I would never use a phenolic for any break that I'm not hitting dead center.
 
Phenolic can be used successfully for second ball hit. These is no reason not to use a ph. tip.
 
Is harder better?

Dawgie said:
Phenolic can be used successfully for second ball hit. These is no reason not to use a ph. tip.
Click to expand...

Assuming CB control is maintained, is hardness beyond phenolic better? Is there any point in pursuing the G-10 or G-11?
 
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