And this harder leather tip will make you miscue if you ever tried playing with it.
If there is a leather tip that’s “too hard” so it can’t be played with without miscue than logic serves that the hardness of the tip does affect playability.
Bring the hardness of the samsara down 1%…is it playable now?
How about 1 percent lower than that?
Keep on going down in 1 percent increments until you have what you feel is the maximum hardness level that is playable…now don’t you think that tip is going to miscue more than a soft tip?? The answer is obviously yes. Just like if a tip is too soft it will have its own set of all kinds of performance issues.
Would you rather take a corner at 90mph in a car with tuned/harder suspension or in a car with floaty suspension? To me it feels the same. A soft tip feels deader to me. The hard tip feels better. One can play with either type but I like the immediate feedback in my grip hand. I don't want deadened feel, it's the same reason I don't like whippy shafts.
The main feedback (other than visual) you get on a pool cue is the sound and vibrations in your grip hand. Would anyone smear their glasses or eyeballs with vaseline for a softer look? Why soften/deaden the feedback?
I bet SVB could beat anyone on this forum with his break cue.
Different strokes for different folks. We could all give edge case scenarios like using a phenolic tip or taping a mini marshmallow onto a cue as a tip but the truth is if you're using a tip, hard, medium, or soft, it's within the skill level of even an APA 3 to use. If anything I'd rather give them a hard tip so they can get past the miscues by improving their fundamentals.
There are preferences no doubt, but they are just that. If you think a soft tip will save you on the money shot if you were to accidentally miscue, it's not the tip and you probably won't win much if using a soft tip to cover an error as glaring as miscuing. I get it can give confidence, I used to think the same thing when using the original Kamui chalk, but at the end of the day it was all in my head and I'm ok with knowing that.