Is it because a majority of the cue's resonance is in the quality of the shaft, taper, and tip?
There's a reason I ask, but I would like your feedback first!
There's a reason I ask, but I would like your feedback first!
How does any cue maker's cue hit 'so consistently', when the woods in the butt vary?
- Thread starter Impact Blue
- Start date
That's a lot of it. To further press on it, even the balancing & weighting makes for higher consistency. I balance the butt of the cue alone before I ever choose the shafts that will be on it. Once I find the appropriate weight & balance of the butt, I then choose shafts according to weight in order to give the overall balance I want. Shafts are also chosen by tone to match up with the butt's harmonics. There's a certain tone I find to be the pinnacle for playability, and I match things up in the cue to achieve that tone. That's one of the things i'm talking about when I refer to "tuning" a cue. I don't have any tools for testing aside from my ears to hear it & hands to feel it, so i'm screwed if I ever go deaf. It's more important to me than the construction techniques and materials, which both attribute to it but don't really matter so long as the end result is that certain tone. Sounds crazy enough I know, but it's undeniable in my mind that it gives consistency in how a cue feels & flexes, which translate into how they play.
Tone matching of pieces.
IF they are of different materials, they can't resonant the same.
I guess it's more a blanketed statement I'm acknowledging for the sake of discussion--it's seemingly shared by highly sought after cue makers and high(er) end production cue lines. I suppose I better understand this in a production model cue, as hundreds are turned out on machines with the same source material and construction techniques and tolerances, but with custom orders or different wood combos from a sole maker, I don't quite get how this could be said.?
Are the cues' woods treated with a hardening material, or some sort of stabilizing fluid, that can be adjusted in concentration to achieve this effect?
All of this stuff fascinates me. I'd really like to take a try at making a cue one day.
I take it you're a fan of coring. That's OK, what ever floats your boat.
Coring all of your cues will go a long way to achieving the same hit in all of them regardless of the woods used to construct the cue. But then that's the other side of the coin. I call it the Frankenstein hit. Not to be condescending but for lack of a better term.
You see, instead of having the pure hit of an exotic Rosewood, you now have a compromised hit consisting of 3 different elements. The outside or cored wood, the core itself and last but certainly not least, the glue that generously coats both woods running the entire length of the forearm.
Just curious but what do you suppose the resonance value of glue is?
Would it be similar to either of the chosen woods?
My guess would be that it would have a dampening effect, depending on the type of glue and no where near the resonance values of either wood, so you now have 3 elements involved.
So....which one is providing the 'hit' or are all 3 elements contributing?
Hence the term Frankenstein hit.
I'm not making claims as to whether it's right or wrong. It's a builders choice. I don't build their cues, I only build KJ cues and each and every builder is free to build as he chooses. Freedom of expression.
BEM is a nice wood. I've built a lot of cues using it as the primary wood.
They pretty much all hit the same unless you alter something elsewhere in the cue, even something as simple as changing ferrule mtrl.
But IMO, I see far too much of it being used. There are other woods.
I'm in my Rosewood phase right now. Each and every one of the different varieties (170+ & counting) offers new possibilities. Not all of them hit the same and some of them do. New territory, new possibilities.
My purpose in selecting Rosewoods is their purity of resonance. Many guitar makers (Luthiers) feel this way also. I don't seek the highest figured pcs but rather the ones with the straightest grain. I feel this offers purer transmission.
Would I core a Rosewood?
Let me answer this way. If I felt that I had to core a particular pc of Rose to make it suitable for a cue, I wouldn't use that pc.
To each his own & viva la difference.
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I liked the above coring, coring, coring answer. That would be the most likely answer. But I like to build ebony cues that hit like ebony sometimes instead of trying to make ebony play like maple. I like to build purple heart cues that play like purple heart instead of like maple and the same for bocote, bubinga and a few others. So the hit of my cues will vary some and therefore fit more peoples tastes. But if someone wants one of my ebony cues to hit more like maple then cored it will get.
That what i think let wood talk to the shooter.
the hit changes when useing diffent pins Shooter is what it comes down to
I like a true wood to wood cue (wood pin ) But i cant make them yet try try and try maybe couple more years
There's no singular answer to building consistent hitting & playing cues. It can be done no matter how you choose to construct the cue. You just have to pay close attention to the details and know how to manipulate components to achieve the hit you desire. Basically, set a goal in terms of how you want your cues to hit and work at learning how to achieve that goal via varying methods so you aren't restricted to only one construction design.
The funny thing for me is I can take 6 ebony sticks, bounce them on the floor and have 6 different tones. I can take those same 6 sticks and core them with the same core material and after they are dry bounce them and still have 6 different tones.
So my question is...How does coring make all the wood consistent?
So my question is...How does coring make all the wood consistent?
What it does it make it hit closer to the hit of the inside core which is usually maple. They will still vary some, but will not vary as much as plain ebony and maple vary. It does not make all wood or cues consisitent. What it does is makes them all closer and a little harder to tell the differences.