Pool Cue Shock Absorber

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lstevedus

One of the 47%
Silver Member
A friend of mine added some kind of vibration reducer to the end of his cue and really likes it. Does any one know what this is? I think I heard something about this but can't remember exactly the name or who sells them.
 
I think a company called Simms makes them too.They put them in guns,golf clubs, fishing rods,about anything really.John B.
 
I feed off the vibration. It's what I'm after.

Kind of like in golf, you get the feeling up the shaft of the hit, wether it's right or not, you get the feedback and it helps you feel the shot.

I thought your hand is supposed to be the shock absorber.
I can tell if I haven't hit a golf ball well, similar in pool.

This is one of the reasons I'm gravitating back to wrapless cues. Feel.
 
lstevedus said:
dr_dave said:
Why would you want to kill the vibration? Isn't that where much of the "hit," "feel," and "feedback" comes from?
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He tried it and liked it.
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I can believe that. "Feel," "hit," and "feedback" are very subjective things. Different people prefer different sounds, impact characters, and vibration characteristics. And many people can get used to and play effectively with any type of cue "feel" or "hit" or "feedback" (assuming the tip holds chalk).

Regards,
Dave
 
JoeyInCali said:
It sure doesn't make sense in pool .
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I agree, I first saw them many years ago in archery where the intent was to absorb shock and vibration in the limbs following the shot that was capable of actually destroying the limbs. By product was noise reduction which was a benefit to hunters and the like. Had little to do feel.
 
I have hit balls with cues that had the Limbsaver on them. IMO, it's just another gimmick, and a waste of money. One thing for sure, you don't see ANY pros playing with one on their cue.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
Limb Saver

I also tried them on 2 different cues to experiment..All I got was they protect the butt bottom better than the original bumpers and makes it harder to close the top on a short cue case because of the extra length.
 
Whisker bisquit bridge!

RRfireblade said:
I agree, I first saw them many years ago in archery where the intent was to absorb shock and vibration in the limbs following the shot that was capable of actually destroying the limbs. By product was noise reduction which was a benefit to hunters and the like. Had little to do feel.
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Interesting stuff. I would think the limbsavers would have to be on the shaft as this is where the vibration is. Put them on and watch people inquire about them. Tell them your the local distributor and sell them for $20 each, and they only work in pairs. If they bite, show them the new Whisker Bisquit bridge that's held comfortably in your bridge hand. The ultimate closed bridge!
 
Scott Lee said:
I have hit balls with cues that had the Limbsaver on them. IMO, it's just another gimmick, and a waste of money. One thing for sure, you don't see ANY pros playing with one on their cue.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
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For the most part, true. The change is so subtle, that most people won't notice. You really have to hit HARD to feel the difference it makes -- probably why you'll most often see LimbSavers on break cues (e.g. Ralf Souquet used one at one time).

However, I do have a playing cue that used to ring like a tuning fork after each hit. Changing tips, ferrules, making sure the joint's clean, etc. made no difference. It was a really annoying sound, and the hit was extremely lively. Putting a LimbSaver on it fixed the problem once and for all -- softened the hit just that little bit to put it in that ideal range for me, and got rid of that annoying resonant sound. The cue is a cueball-striking implement, yes; musical instrument, no! :D

So that was probably one of the rare instances where the LimbSaver really made a significant difference on a playing cue.

-Sean
 
I tried a limbsaver when the store I worked at got some samples to determine if the store would stock them. I put one of them on my ivory jointed Coker cue, and I shot with it for a few days. I came to the conclusion it was a gimick that was not working for me, and not worth giving it much consideration. Consequently I could not get behind it, and the store chose not to stock them. And whenver anyone asked my opinion on them, I gave them my honest opinion of my own experience. It became something that never got really adopted by the vast majority of pool players in southern oregon.

I suppose there could some cues, maybe poorly made, that could MAYBE be helped by a limbsaver. But then why would you want to play with a poorly made cue to begin with, one that would require the help of a limbsaver.

And then the idea that it would help to eliminated vibration in a cue was also an idea that never did sit right with me as a player.
 
This is just a stabilizer (dampener). It’s pretty much what is typically used in archery. They work very well when mounted to a bow which has a very low and strong frequency resonance/oscillation when "fired".

In a standard design the dampener basically is the combination of a dampening material and a dampening weight. On a cue stick the dampener would be mounted to the end of the cue, and the dampening weight would “effectively” be on the other side of the dampening material (in reality the weight could be mounted in a few different ways actually, that’s why I say effectively).

Mounting the dampener will have two effects on a cue stick, the most noticeable but least important being that it will add weight to the back of the stick. The other more important effect (and the purpose of the dampener) being that it will reduce some vibration that travels to the back of the cue and then subsequently reducing any secondary vibration “reflected” back up the shaft and reducing secondary vibration transmitted into the shooters hand and/or back to the tip.

In reality, a proper stabilizer would need a few design considerations specific to a cue application (just a few points):

-The weight must be weighted for the weight of the cue

-The axis of movement for the weight must orientated to the directionality the properties of both the cue sticks vibration and the dampening material vibration.

-The dampening material needs to have the correct properties (elasticity, density, etc…) to affect the desired frequency range needed to dampen the desired vibration. If the wrong material is chosen it could only provide minimal dampening, or possibly even make things worse.

The point of the above is to highlight that if a dampener for say an archery bow is just pulled off the shelf and redesigned to mount on the end of a cue stick… I’m not confident that will be so effective and useful, and it could actually make things worse even if it feels like the cue plays better. If on the other hand a dampener was designed to operation for the same dynamics as a pool cue… Well that might work, for those seek the small improvement it would add and don’t care about the change in weight balance.

In the end, I say if you feel like it makes a difference, or if you just plain like it and damned the science, then just go for it… Even if it might be just a gimmick. Just don’t ever convince yourself that it will fix your game or that you need it to win… And heaven help you when you have to play with just a house cue on beer night with your buddies.

Earl plays with wraps, weights, heck I wouldn’t be surprised if he whipped out fuzzy ear-muffs someday… If that helps him achieve his goal, more power to him.

That’s all just my unscientific opinion, and as always your mileage may vary. Sorry for the long post.
 
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