Ob-1 Shaft Review

RBC said:
I seem to get that one quite often!

We set out to build a low cue ball deflection, or squirt, cue shaft. We also happen to subscribe to the notion that squirt is affected primarily by "tip end mass" (TEM). Having said that, we set out to reduce the TEM of our shaft without violating anybody else's patents. Since the ferrule is the heaviest part of the tip end of any conventional shaft, that seemed like a good place to start.

All plastics are heavy. Maple is much lighter, but not quite strong or hard enough to do the job all by itself. So we came up with a method to make maple strong enough to handle the job.

We build the ferrules from flat laminations of maple. As we build the stack, we rotate each layer as compared to the one directly beneath it. By doing this, we have long grain maple pointed in all directions if viewed from the end of the shaft. This construction, along with a few other aspects of the shaft, make the ferrule strong. I even use one on my break cue!

Even with all the glue, our ferrule is still much lighter than any plastic and therefore gives us much less squirt.

When we started to play with the new shaft we were very surprised with how it played. Pretty much everyone who hit with it liked it. It was funny, because most of them did not talk much about squirt, they mostly talked about the way it felt and played.

Lets face it, cuemakers have been searching for years to make a cue that has a "wood to wood" hit, only to put a plastic ferrule on the end of the shaft. Well, now we have a true wood to wood hit with the ferrule itself.

So, as you see, there is a very good reason, or two, to have the wood ferrule. Besides, it looks cool too.

Royce Bunnell
obcues.com
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Would you be selling the wood ferrule?
 
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Blowfish,

Sorry, we do not sell the ferrule by itself. The OB-1 is a complete package. If you were to take any one part by itself, it would not give the same results.

Royce Bunnell
obcues.com
 
hey royce, youre building me a 30" one right now for my schon. I was just curious as to how the ferrule "shows up" when youre shooting pool. I bought a used shaft awhile back off ebay and it had this lite brown phenolic ferrule. Under bright light conditions it wasnt bad, but it seems like if the light wasnt really good it was kind of hard to see. Just curious if anyones mentioned anything to you, i always liked a really bright white ferrule, seems to bring my eye in and really help me focus. If someone didnt like the maple color of the ferrule would there be a good way to change the color? Magic marker or something? maybe not color in the whole ferrule but just a small bit of it or something. It might look fine just as it is, just wondering if it had come up.
 
Scottycoyote,

We have had many people look at it and say "I can't play with that thing, the look of that ferrule would distract me". The funny thing is, all I have to do is let them play with it. Once they shoot a couple of balls they realize that they really don't see the ferrule at all. Usually, the conversations shifts to how the shaft plays and hits anyway.

Royce Bunnell
obcues.com
 
Hi Royce,

I have basically heard nothing but good stuff about your OB-1 shaft in terms of low deflection, hit, feel etc etc.Although there has been the odd one for sale on ebay, the vast majority love your product.A lot of Predator owners like the feel of your shaft better and have made the switch.

The only thing I've heard on the negetive is the contrast of light and darker wood segements on ONE persons shaft.I never seen his particuliar shaft and maybe he was just being Anal about the whole thing.

I was wondering if you are now doing your best to match the shades of maple so each segement color wise blends in, with very little contrast.I understand that glue lines are seen, However, this is unavoidable as the segements need to be glued together.

I'm 99% ready to test drive your product, however,lighter/darker wood segement thing is something that could possibly be a concern visually.
Any comments appreciated.
Thanks, RJ
 
The very first night I shot with an OB-1 shaft I noticed the ferrule a little bit, but I quickly got used to it / tuned it out and haven't thought about it since.
 
shinobi said:
I am an OB-1 shaft dealer so take my comments as biased if you like but I stand behind them 100%.

I played with 314 shafts for years. In my opinion the OB-1 deflection is identical to that of a 314. I switched to the OB-1 shaft and treated it like a 314, and never had to adjust my aim. I also intentionally set up some test shots with english and they went as expected (same as my 314s). I just prefer the feel/hit and balance, so I play with an OB-1 shaft now.
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Very useful info. Thanks.

Flex
 
recoveryjones said:
The only thing I've heard on the negetive is the contrast of light and darker wood segements on ONE persons shaft.I never seen his particuliar shaft and maybe he was just being Anal about the whole thing.

I was wondering if you are now doing your best to match the shades of maple so each segement color wise blends in, with very little contrast.I understand that glue lines are seen, However, this is unavoidable as the segements need to be glued together.

I'm 99% ready to test drive your product, however,lighter/darker wood segement thing is something that could possibly be a concern visually.
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I think "matching" shades would be a waste. I think the slightly differing shades make the cue look unique, and since they're straight down the line, you can always use a darker strand for aiming.

Plus, if it really distracts you, rotate it away so you don't see it.

I won't answer for Royce, but I imagine his response would be that "maple is roughly the same color anyway, so you get what you get. We don't try to match things up."

P.S. You don't notice the ferrule after awhile, and if anything, it may help you to aim because it's a consistent color with the rest of the shaft.
 
pillage6 said:
What I am thinking is:
A) Why invest in a company that is going to compete directly with me
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What do you mean? Are you saying they will lower their price than that of their dealers to take away sales from their dealers?

Richard
 
nipponbilliards said:
What do you mean? Are you saying they will lower their price than that of their dealers to take away sales from their dealers?

Richard
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I have this problem with manufacturers (not billiards) all the time with my work. If manufacturers sell direct to the end user, they are competing with their dealer network, unless, of course, they don't have a dealer network.

It is not such a big deal if they don't offer any kind of discount on direct sales, because dealers seldom sell for full MSRP. When the manufacturer offer direct sales discounts, it effectively lowers the MSRP, which can substantially decrease the dealer profit margin, since dealers are forced to sell at prices as low or lower than those of the manufacturer.

If the manufacturers do not sell direct, dealers are far more likely to promote that manufacturer's product more extensively, which increases sales the same way direct sales are supposed to, without the manufacturer having to pay a retail sales team.
 
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If a person has a choice between buying from a dealer or buying direct from the manufacturer for the same price, most people are going to buy it from the manufacturer? So as a dealer the manufacturer is competing directly with you for customers, so why would you want to be a dealer for them?

I understand that they are a new company and need to sell as many shafts as they can, so I hope that at some time they plan on changing this policy so that they can pick up more dealers and become a successful company.
 
scottycoyote said:
i cant wait to get mine now......cuz i shoot that exact setup hes talking about.........schon which is ss jointed, and my stick weighs about 18.6oz. Im going to do a review when i get mine so we'll see how it works out. I will say im just the opposite, for some reason a ss piloted joint has more feel to me, ive had several wood to wood or wood and collar 3/8 10 and 3/8 11 pin sticks, and they all felt dead to me, where my schon feels like a precise perfect hit (to me). I'll postup after i get it.
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I agree with you, great feed back from an ss jointed cue.
 
pillage6 said:
If a person has a choice between buying from a dealer or buying direct from the manufacturer for the same price, most people are going to buy it from the manufacturer? So as a dealer the manufacturer is competing directly with you for customers, so why would you want to be a dealer for them?

I understand that they are a new company and need to sell as many shafts as they can, so I hope that at some time they plan on changing this policy so that they can pick up more dealers and become a successful company.
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I think most people likes to buy from the cheapest guy, so if what you said is true, the dealers will have to compete with the supplier on price, no good sales person would be interested in doing that. It will also lower the value of the product in the used market.

Is it possible may be they do not really have any professional dealer who can move enough shafts for them at this point so they feel the need to sell direct?

I know Predator has a policy of only dealing with dealers with a store front and/or a web site and I think that is a good policy. We pretty much have a similiar policy. The dealers, who are the representatives of the business, are usually more professional and knowledgable. I think what Predator does is a smart thing because it upholds a professional image of their business.

When more companies are offering more innovative products, customers are the one who will benefit. I think this is a good thing for the industry as a whole. Keep up the good work, Royce, wish you all the best.:)

Richard
 
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