Assuming one were two identical pieces of wood, joint, ferrule, tip, tip diameter, etc...
Regular maple shaft.
If we only changed the taper on these two shafts...
Shaft 1 would have a 10 to 12 inch pro taper.
Shaft 2 would have a 16 to 19 inch pro taper.
I assume the longer taper shaft would have a slightly less feel but should also flex more and thus creating less CB squirt.
Does anyone agree with me?
Shaft 1 would have a hit that most would describe as "harder" than shaft 2.
Shaft 2 would have more flex.
Shaft 2 most would say will make it easier to impart english and move the cue ball around.
As for squirt...it has been proven that the mass/weight in the last 5-6 inches or so (tip end) of the cue is what most influences the amount of squirt. The more mass/weight, the more squirt. This is why low deflection shafts have hollowed cores, lighter ferrules, etc. I personally feel that the stiffness of a cue is a very small factor as well, with stiffer cues squirting more, but to my knowledge this has not been proven or disproved by science. What has been proven is that the mass/weight in the tip end of the cue causes (at the very least) almost all of the squirt, so stiffness shouldn't even really be taken into consideration or given thought to when it comes to squirt because its impact is somewhere between minimal and non-existent.
As for feel...
feel is so absolutely subjective that any other person's opinion about the quality of feel in a particular shaft/cue should be absolutely, totally and utterly meaningless to you. But between the two shafts above, the majority of people would feel that the stiffer/harder hitting cue (shaft 1) would have the better "feel" because most people tend to equate feel to the strength/amount/amplitude of vibration or jolt they feel in their hand/arm when the tip hits the cue ball. The bigger the jolt to your arm, the more the "feel".
I am in the minority by not seeing ("feeling") it that way. To me feel is the ability to discern even the most minute and subtle differences and nuances in the way the cue ball was struck (and some flex is likely a significant contributor to feel, maybe more so for me than the majority), and you rarely get good feel with very stiff/hard hitting cues IMO.
You can take a 58" piece of rebar and hit a cue ball with it and it will give a really stiff and hard hit, the most hand shock, but that just isn't feel to me, yet that is essentially what most people consider feel to be with pool cues. The hardest hitting cues of all would be those cheap aluminum cues from places like Walmart (not sure if they are still being made), but again, that just isn't feel in my book. All hand shock, no feel (ability to discern small differences in the way the cue ball was struck).
Jam a piece of rebar into a concrete wall, and then a tree, and you will be able to feel the difference in the hit, because there is a huge difference. But jam that piece of rebar into an oak tree, and then a pine tree, and then a cedar tree, and they are all going to feel the same (they will all feel like just a big jolt in the hand), even though they really are different due to the different densities of the trees. There would be just too much and too sharp of hand shock to be able to discern them. Same with cues IMO. Too stiff/hard hitting, and you can't feel subtle differences. On the flip side, a shaft that is too whippy loses feel for exactly the same reasons. You can't feel the very subtle differences when there is excessive flex and minimal hand shock feedback because everything just starts to feel like lots of flex.
And before anybody tries to argue feel with me, please refer back to the bolded line above.
