So I've been playing with mine every day for about a month or so and I come to like it more each day though I haven't committed fully to the switch just yet,
but the fact is I just play better with it.
A couple of problems I'm having with the shaft are more me than anything else. First, I have one shaft. For years I've been carrying two shafts, the thought
of having just one is really a foreign concept to me, so I include a Z3 more as a security blanket than anything else.
Another thing is I'm really a private person and taking this thing out at a pool hall can be an experience, it's an attention grabber, everyone wants to try it out
then they get mad when I say, "I think Meghan Trainor said it best - NO".
I'm also kind of a purest, I mean pool cues have always been made from wood and when someone pulls out a graphite cue or even a Cuetec, or God forbid -
an aluminum cue, well, I always sort of rolled my eyes at these. Playing with something that's not made of wood, in front of people, it feels kind of silly.
I think if I had played football in the early days of American Football I would have had a real problem switching from the Single Wing to the Traditional Pro Set.
Playing baseball as a kid and in High School and College I always thought aluminum bats were the stupidest things ever. As an athlete, in the sports I played,
I played at a reasonably high level, in basic gear with hard work and training. Playing with this shaft almost feels like cheating, even when I lose, and if I do lose,
boy o boy, talk about feeling stupid. Losing? Me? With my new "sinister looking, black, super-duper, special technology, NASA material, carbon fiber, moon-rock"
new shaft? What? Me? Lose? Never! Oh..... it still happens.
As I described it the other day I likened it to a Point and Shoot camera vs. a traditional SLR. With a regular camera you look, you focus, adjust, set your flash,
when you're ready you take a picture, if you've done everything right, you get a clear photo. With a point and shoot you point, and shoot, if you've pointed at the
right thing you get the photo you want. This shaft is sorta like that, you point and shoot, there isn't much adjustment. I like it, but it's removed (for me) much of
the thought that goes into a shot. I noticed almost immediately (for me) that returning to a wood shaft is a much more difficult adjustment, but maybe that's just me.
Anyways, I do like it, and more and more each day, but I don't love it.... yet.
But at the present price I'm sure I'll learn to love it.
