Hello everyone. I figured I would share my impressions of my new OB Classic Pro shaft mounted to my Falcon VL-8 vs my Predator Z2 mounted to my Mcdermott M64B "Summit".
First off, I purchased my Falcon cue back in 1996-7 and was my only playing cue for years. 5 years ago I moved up to the central coast and my beloved Falcon stayed at my dads. I used it to shoot with my buddy whenever I would visit. 4 years ago I got the bug to shoot again and purchased my Mcdermott from a local vendor. The cue was pretty nice, but I did not take to it right away. I purchased the Z2 about a year later and have since fallen in love with that shaft. I finally brought my Falcon home, but could not stand the thicker shaft so I have not played with it I was all set to order a Z2 for it when I stumbled upon this forum and learned about OB shafts. After much deliberation I pulled the trigger on the closest shaft to my Z2.
So here are my thoughts after spending a couple of days comparing the two side by side.
The first thing I realized is I love my Falcon. The but is slightly thicker than the Mcdermott and it feels much more natural to me. I also feel that the weight is slightly more to the rear and for me makes the stroke feel smoother.
The Mcdermott/Z2 combo feels much, much stiffer than the Falcon/OB combo. I have much easier time getting action on the cue ball with the Falcon/OB combo. In fact right now I am having trouble stopping the ball with this combo. The feel is much better IMHO with the Falcon than it is with the Mcdermott.
Unfortunately all is not roses with the Falcon/OB. The first thing I noticed is how much more grain there is in that shaft than with the Z2 (I did not do a good job of capturing this in the pics). The grain lines are heavy enough to be distracting when lining up my shots. Hopefully I can get over this, but right now longer shots are much harder with this shaft than with the Z2. The OB feels smother to me, although in fairness this probably has more to due with three years of play that anything else.
The last most damning thing with the OB is that the shaft or the hole in the shaft is not straight. The shaft on its own rolls straight. The Falcon butt rolls true. The falcon with the original shaft rolls true. But when you mount the shaft to the butt there is definitely a wobble. I am wondering if this is also a reason for missing long shots. I will be calling OB in the morning and see what they have to say. This is by far the most frustrating part of this whole deal. It is not much but I expect a shaft like this to be perfect.
Anyways I hope this is of some interest to some of you.
Juan
First off, I purchased my Falcon cue back in 1996-7 and was my only playing cue for years. 5 years ago I moved up to the central coast and my beloved Falcon stayed at my dads. I used it to shoot with my buddy whenever I would visit. 4 years ago I got the bug to shoot again and purchased my Mcdermott from a local vendor. The cue was pretty nice, but I did not take to it right away. I purchased the Z2 about a year later and have since fallen in love with that shaft. I finally brought my Falcon home, but could not stand the thicker shaft so I have not played with it I was all set to order a Z2 for it when I stumbled upon this forum and learned about OB shafts. After much deliberation I pulled the trigger on the closest shaft to my Z2.
So here are my thoughts after spending a couple of days comparing the two side by side.
The first thing I realized is I love my Falcon. The but is slightly thicker than the Mcdermott and it feels much more natural to me. I also feel that the weight is slightly more to the rear and for me makes the stroke feel smoother.
The Mcdermott/Z2 combo feels much, much stiffer than the Falcon/OB combo. I have much easier time getting action on the cue ball with the Falcon/OB combo. In fact right now I am having trouble stopping the ball with this combo. The feel is much better IMHO with the Falcon than it is with the Mcdermott.
Unfortunately all is not roses with the Falcon/OB. The first thing I noticed is how much more grain there is in that shaft than with the Z2 (I did not do a good job of capturing this in the pics). The grain lines are heavy enough to be distracting when lining up my shots. Hopefully I can get over this, but right now longer shots are much harder with this shaft than with the Z2. The OB feels smother to me, although in fairness this probably has more to due with three years of play that anything else.
The last most damning thing with the OB is that the shaft or the hole in the shaft is not straight. The shaft on its own rolls straight. The Falcon butt rolls true. The falcon with the original shaft rolls true. But when you mount the shaft to the butt there is definitely a wobble. I am wondering if this is also a reason for missing long shots. I will be calling OB in the morning and see what they have to say. This is by far the most frustrating part of this whole deal. It is not much but I expect a shaft like this to be perfect.
Anyways I hope this is of some interest to some of you.
Juan
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