Purpleheart Hit
- Thread starter 14.1'er
- Start date
It totally depends on the construction and shaft taper. I've had PH cues that hit hard and some that hit soft. Cored cues will also have a different feel. Unfortunately, you really need to just try one. What may be a firm hit for one person, could be a muted hit for another.
Years ago Bert Schrager told me purpleheart is one of the best cue woods. He made many for 3 cushion players.
That's great but there is zero evidence that one wood plays better than another. I've had full-splice cues made from cocobolo,rosewood(various sub-species), ebony, bacote, PH. They all played great. Never entered my mind that one wood played better. Too many other factors that really do influence hit/feel.
"hit" is generic and subjective. I have a wrapless Paul Dayton purpleheart sneaky and also an ebony based cue with a similar Paul Dayton shaft. both ultra medium tips same 3/8-10 joint. The hit of the ebony is what I would describe as solid, or hard little feedback in my right hand. the purpleheart cue is very different. Lots of feedback on the hit very different tone/resonance in the feel. (soft to me) I really like the feel of the purpleheart for those reasons. I was curios so I bought a Dale Perry purpleheart cue for a c-note on ebay to compare and I like the feel of that cue as well. Not sure if that helps but that is my experience with purpleheart. So many variables as stated so you really have to try the cue to know if that is the hit you seek.
IMO probably the best hit of all. Purpleheart shafts on the other hand have very little feeling what so ever. Unfortunately, most cuemakers core their woods these days, which makes everything more or less the same, but a purpleheart and old, straight grain maple sneaky pete is a dynamite combination. IMO there is none better.
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
I have a purple heart break cue with purple heart shaft. I don't really like how the shaft feels. It hits great but there is just no feedback, even with a break tip. I seriously doubt you can tell the difference in a butt, except for the weight of the wood. Most cue makers core their butts anyway so it might be a moot point.
This is what I'm looking for.
I am sure you could beat me using a broomstick. I have seen that hustle before. Not everyone has unlimited talent. I put a pin in a 1.375 dowel and screwed a shaft onto it. Didn't miss a ball for two weeks.
"hit" comes up frequently on this forum and elicits strong, often sarcastic opinions without a working definition of what hit means. Yes, like most folks bothering to read this you probably can pull a warped house cue with a slip-on tip and play lights out. So why do we spend so much time and effort seeking the holy grail of cues? I think because we love the sport and all the things associated with it. For a right-handed player I would say hit is experienced in the nerves of the fingers of the right hand, travels to the sensory-motor strip in the brain where we sense the "hit". If I like that feel the effect may have no functional relationship in successfully executing other than a positive vs negative experience of what just happened. That +/- appraisal is important in optimal performance however and certainly contributes to our enjoyment of the game. If you took 12 blanks of different non-cored woods or other materials, held them in your hand and tapped them on your granite countertop before long you could tell the difference and distinguish the various properties and feel of those materials and may prefer some over others.
Purplehart is often used for coring as well.
johnnyjumpjump
New member
Using my inductive method brain (which I usually refrain from doing) I think that the resonant frequency ranges of various hardwoods relates directly to those hardwoods' hardness ratings (see the Janka hardwood hardness chart attached) and that the feel of the hit relates directly to the hardwoods' resonant frequencies (I recognize that nearly all shafts are made from hard maple).
I would prefer using my deductive method brain (but it is not up to it given the work necessary) where I take similarly shaped dowels of various harwoods and test their resonant frequencies in my frequency analyzer (which I have been using to accurately test golf shaft stiffness for years). I have the strong suspicion that gathering such data would confirm my inductively reasoned conclusion, but I have been wrong when testing other hypotheses in earlier attempts.
I would prefer using my deductive method brain (but it is not up to it given the work necessary) where I take similarly shaped dowels of various harwoods and test their resonant frequencies in my frequency analyzer (which I have been using to accurately test golf shaft stiffness for years). I have the strong suspicion that gathering such data would confirm my inductively reasoned conclusion, but I have been wrong when testing other hypotheses in earlier attempts.
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phreaticus
Well-known member
That’s my intuition also, as crispnesses of hit in the cues I’ve had seems to loosely correlate to that harness scale, with PH being my all around favorite also. Certainly would be interesting to see results of such a frequency/resonance test…
Plus a nicely figured PH is really the most gorgeous IMO.
skiergd011013
Well-known member
I just recently got a custom pechauer cue made with purpleheart. Im loving it so far. It plays very good.
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