Pro players still using wood shafts

phreaticus said:
There are increasing options to get fully customized CF shafts. Also, there is a wide enough selection of CF shaft designs, where one can pretty get whatever one wants. To me, its actually the opposite issue, the dependability & consistency of CF is the best part for me. Once I found a CF that I really liked, its just $400 and a few mouse clicks to get another exact mirror copy to my door in one week. In my experience, falling in love with a custom wood shaft is a painful journey, because if/once it gets dinged, damaged, etc - it can be super hard & maybe impossible to get another one with same exact feel.

I think similar to politics & religion, some folks seem think of shafts in terms binary camps; wood and CF… the reality is there are all types of deflection, energy transfer, balance & feel variables among all of the different makes, models, and materials. Also, some people seem able to adapt quickly to new shafts, for others changing shafts is a painful 6+ month experience.

Generally speaking, I think its always been quite hard to get a traditional maple shaft with 12.5mm diameter (or smaller) with a long pro taper to play stiff & solid. Possible, but very hard & takes really special maple & talented cue builder. CF materials & newer wood shaft building techniques (eg Keilwood, laminates, radial splices, CF cores) makes these tradeoffs much easier, and has opened up a much broader range of features & performance variables that can be designed into a cue.

Its curious to me why such pro & anti CF passion exists in the pool world; do people feel this passionate about joint materials or cue length? Are there peole out there who care & ask how many pros use steel joints vs ivory, vs phenolic? Or big pins vs small pins? Or 58, vs 59 vs 60, vs 64” extra long cues? We see huge diversity of equipment prefs among the pros, clearly there is no magical material, feature or style that rises above the rest…

I play in all sorts of locations and am a bit rough on my cues, so the biggest draw to CF for me was the fact that CF is essentially immune to dings. After trying all the major ones over a 6 mo period or so, I settled on the Cynergy 12.5. To me it feels & sounds not much different than wood and plays pretty similar to a 314v2. I had essentially zero adjustment time, liked it immediately. i now have 3 of them; one playing cue that lives in my truck, one at the house and one as a backup. All look/feel/sound/play identical, are in perfect like -new condition after 2 years of abuse, and I’m never without when getting a new tip etc. For me, CF does have some drawbacks; can’t do minor masse and jump shots with it, which I normally do with any maple player. So I grab house cues and use a jump cue more than I ever did before. Also due to the very stiff CF hit, I’ve migrated to softer tips which require more maintenance and don’t last as long. I find both of those issues annoying but still prefer the overall durability/consistency advantages of the CF. Those pros/cons are my tradeoffs, that same calculus may not apply for someone else.

Try new stuff, or don’t try stuff. Find something you like, according to what criteria matters most to you, and enjoy it. If you like it, no need to proselytize it to others. If you hate it, no need to demonize it to others.

Go play pool.
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You say this like people on this site actually shoot. For every player, you have 14 old guys crying from their armchairs
 
thenaturalpoolplayer said:
I have a revo. Carbon fiber shafts far superior to wood. You don't see tennis players using wooden rackets anymore do you? The only thing I prefer wood for is masse's....not the trick shot ones...actual in the game shots.
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I think they are superior too. They happen to be an adjustment. Some dogs are too old to bother relearning how to accommodate for a different degree of deflection.

And by that I don’t mean amateurs. We should all be going out and buying the latest shiny thing to support the industry.

But if you’ve achieved a pro level game on maple and you’re over 30, you might as well finish your career out on wood. Unless a sponsor is willing to compensate you for putting that work in to retrain your brain.
 
Island Drive said:
I always think of it as such.
Draw shot straight in and 2' away from object ball, I'll get 4' of draw with a 4mph swing/carbon shaft/all carbons are different/somewhat I think. With maple shaft I'd probably need a 6 mph swing speed.
It's because of this thinking, I make my decision to try em.
One of em I, liked the sounds the cue made when struck properly. I see it like this. What you said about the swing speed, I probably won't even realise it was that big of a change, if your playing/practicing enough.
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I can see it like this, the arm speed, swing you mentioned. I don't think I would even realise this,or notice practicing/playing enough.
This thread seems to be about the advantage of using the new stuff. Rather than the question of,how meny pros using wood shafts.
If it's wood or CF does it really matter?
I also get, thay are being liked more for the consistency as well.
But You guys keep saying they are superior to maple! But how meny of you guys can say, it's actually improved your game?
 
garczar said:
From what i've seen the benefits of CF are: dent free surface, SUPER slick finish, straight and long lasting. I've hit about four CF shafts and didn't find playability to be much different than my Mezz wood shaft. Pros get these things free so i wouldn't read to much into who uses what. Quite a few top-class players still use lumber.
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So now that some more time has passed, what pros are out there still using high deflection maple shafts? Curious for a friend...:cool:
 
bbb said:
just saw tony chohan and billy thorpe play for $1000,000 in the middle onepocket
wood shafts both of them
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Right on. I wonder if they were old school normal shafts or low deflection? I've never even hit a ball with even a wood low deflection shaft in all these years. Also, a one million dollar onepocket match is pretty high up there 🤑 🤑 🤑
 
jalapus logan said:
Right on. I wonder if they were old school normal shafts or low deflection? I've never even hit a ball with even a wood low deflection shaft in all these years. Also, a one million dollar onepocket match is pretty high up there 🤑 🤑 🤑
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😂😂🤑🤑
i corrected it....thanks
they were only playing for one hundred thousand dollars in the middle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$100,000
 
One pocket is a different animal. Alex Pag plays 1 hole with a maple shaft. That's an edgy game and sometimes you need that deflection and quick bend that the no deflection stuff can't offer.
 
SpotOn said:
Has anyone done the legwork to figure out how many players that are 750 Fargo and better are still using wood shafts compared to say carbon fiber shafts. Post a link if you have found the research posted somewhere.
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Most of the Philippine pros still use wood, Biado, Lee Van, Raga, Aranas, Efren, Busry, I saw a list of the worlds 800 Fargo rated players. I couldn’t believe how many Pinoy players were listed, I watch a lot of the games they play and they could field 3 or 4 Reyes Cup teams with 800 Fargo rated players. The KO brothers, Capito, Yapp, there are probably a lot more Asian players that haven’t moved to CF.
 
Podunker said:
One pocket is a different animal. Alex Pag plays 1 hole with a maple shaft. That's an edgy game and sometimes you need that deflection and quick bend that the no deflection stuff can't offer.
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Karl Boyes did a what's in the case video with Alex and he uses an Ex Pro shaft on his one pocket cue, which is a low deflection shaft.

 
Podunker said:
One pocket is a different animal. Alex Pag plays 1 hole with a maple shaft. That's an edgy game and sometimes you need that deflection and quick bend that the no deflection stuff can't offer.
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I don’t play 1p but because of what you mentioned is why I still use wood.
 
justnum said:
Heyball is woodshafts
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You have no idea what you are talking about... Like, zero idea.

There are many players playing with Ash cues (either fancy JP, Stamford or other branded snooker cues cut down at the tip end, and extended at butt end to make tip larger 10+mm) or they buy specific cues made for Chinese-8 - Chinese o'min, fury or again, handmade etc etc
Often these cues are covered in all kinds of weird inlays, and there is a tendency for them to usually be one piece.

I also see a lot of people using expensive American style cue butts (both handmade and production), but they usually pair this up with thinner carbon shafts (cuetec, HOW, Mezz seem to be the most popular flavours).

Zen are very popular as a brand right now, and I see a lot of people using ridiculously expensive butts partnered up with their carbon cored shaft (often with shaped ferrules).

I have seen many that use a more traditional thickness American style shaft, but have a narrow pointed ferrule installed to make the tip size/contact point smaller.
 
Texas3cushion said:
Seems like almost all snooker players today still play with wooden shafts.
I find that quite interesting being that ball pocketing is considered superior to pool.
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Can't beat a fine piece of ash for the hit (except for the fact it rips my beard hairs out, and is why I also had a maple cue made haha)
 
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