Harmonics and Pool Cues

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King Kong

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I heard or read somewhere that in the old days they would drop the cue on the ground and tap the butt end to feel the fibration travel throught the cues to make a cue selection. It sounds logical to me and explains the reason the old cues did not have bumpers on the bottom.

I recently got a Flat Faced Ivory joint cue for my dad last christmas and hit balls with it from time to time. The big pin and metal to wood screw allows the fibration to travel freely through the cue and to your hand gripping the butt of the cue. The travel of the fibration is greatly different then my steel joint cue and I noticed the differnce.

To me it seems like the cue with the flat faced joint gives my hand more information and data to respond to and allows me to make more accurate and delicate adjustments when contacting the ball. It tells me to keep my tip on a second more or let lose the tip from the ball earlier based on the fibration travelling throught the cue.

I think of a cue like a tuning fork. The steel deadends the signal or when the fibration travels down after the tip makes contact the steel makes that fibration information muddy. Does anybody know what woods have better harmonic properties?

I heald several cues and tapped the shaft to feel the fibration travel to the hand gripping the butt of the cue. I have one cue from the Philippines made out of Kama Gong wood. It is used for fighting sticks and is really expensive and hard. The hit is just horrible because of the wood and my need for fibration or harmonic qualities in a playing cue. The harder and more dense woods are typically heavier and less harmonic. I have a solid rosewood 2 peice cue flat faced with brass insert and it has fair harmonic qualities while the Ivory joint to wood has the best harmonics. I think people interpet harmonics or call it hit instead of harmonics when they say "a cue hits good". Cognesti is using some space aged pin that is suppose to have better harmonics then metal. But, all the cognesti's I have seen have really heavy woods with poor harmonic qualities. Who do you think makes cues with the best harmonic qualities or "hit as some wood like to call it and why?

I wrote this because I was curious if anyone else had thoughts on cue harmonics and if there was any data or existing studies?

King Kong
 
Hmmm.

I have checked cues by holding it near its balance point and laterally hit the butt.

If there is something loose, you'll hear a buzz or rattle and can track it down pretty quick.

If you are using any cue and notice a lot of vibration , I'd check the bolt, make sure the joint is tight and check that tip / ferrule.

If everything is tight and there is still vibration , something is very wrong with the cue.

Dave
 
Mr. Wilson said:
Hmmm.

I have checked cues by holding it near its balance point and laterally hit the butt.

If there is something loose, you'll hear a buzz or rattle and can track it down pretty quick.

Dave
Click to expand...
I was taught by a long-time, very well-known cue maker to do this exact thing; both to test for buzzes and also for the harmonic / vibration aspect. He was looking (feeling) for that "harmonic", tuning fork reaction that was pleasing to the ear and hand. You can definitely feel when a cue is "dead" or the vibrations are killed somewhere up/down the cue.

To me, this is one of two aspects that make up the ever-elusive, totally subjective quality of "HIT". The other being the shaft taper. Ok, maybe the ferrule/tip combo too. :p

Scott
 
You will notice in the following high speed video that the cue ball is long gone by the time the shaft starts doing any vibrating. I know a guy who spends a lot of time and energy finding the correct bridge length to dampen shaft vibration, etc. If you ask me, none of this vibration business matters to the cue ball. The second links shows a closer hit.

http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/pool/high_speed_videos/new/HSVA-25.htm

http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/pool/high_speed_videos/HSV4-5.htm
 
Billy_Bob said:
. . . . If you ask me, none of this vibration business matters to the cue ball. The second links shows a closer hit.
Click to expand...
It doesn't. But, it matters to many players. A Yugo will get you from point a to point b (for a while anyway :p ), but a Porsche "feels" better doing it. IMHO.

Scott
 
I believe that when talking about harmonics, some cue makers are citing the noise that a particular wood makes.

If you go to the local pool hall, and take a handfull of house cues off the wall, and drop each butt on a hard floor (assuming they don't have bumpers) they will each have their own sound.

Some will have a high pitched ping, and some will have a much deeper sound.
This is due to the characteristics of the wood. It vibrates at a certain frequency.

So just like wooden musical instruments, some cuemakers try to match like sounding pieces of wood together. That way, when the ball is struck, the vibration will travel throughout the entire cue, and feel more like 1 piece of wood. If you have 2 pieces of wood that vibrate differently, then the cue can feel like crap.

Just like in guitars for instance, the neck and the body will carry a note for a longer period of time if the 2 pieces of wood have the same frequency, which makes for a better playing and sounding instrument.

SUPERSTAR
 
SUPERSTAR said:
So just like wooden musical instruments, some cuemakers try to match like sounding pieces of wood together. That way, when the ball is struck, the vibration will travel throughout the entire cue, and feel more like 1 piece of wood. If you have 2 pieces of wood that vibrate differently, then the cue can feel like crap.

Just like in guitars for instance, the neck and the body will carry a note for a longer period of time if the 2 pieces of wood have the same frequency, which makes for a better playing and sounding instrument.

SUPERSTAR
Click to expand...

Then taking a good cue and replacing the shaft with a Predator shaft will make the cue feel like crap.
 
SUPERSTAR said:
I believe that when talking about harmonics, some cue makers are citing the noise that a particular wood makes.

If you go to the local pool hall, and take a handfull of house cues off the wall, and drop each butt on a hard floor (assuming they don't have bumpers) they will each have their own sound.

Some will have a high pitched ping, and some will have a much deeper sound.
This is due to the characteristics of the wood. It vibrates at a certain frequency.

So just like wooden musical instruments, some cuemakers try to match like sounding pieces of wood together. That way, when the ball is struck, the vibration will travel throughout the entire cue, and feel more like 1 piece of wood. If you have 2 pieces of wood that vibrate differently, then the cue can feel like crap.

Just like in guitars for instance, the neck and the body will carry a note for a longer period of time if the 2 pieces of wood have the same frequency, which makes for a better playing and sounding instrument.

SUPERSTAR
Click to expand...

Here's a local (to me) fellow that understands these principles (or are they principals) :

http://www.dingwallguitars.com/html/products_prima.html#body_woods

Dave
 
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