I have a purple heart shaft that was made to play with.
I go back and forth between loving and hating it. It's stiffer than all my other shafts. The wood is harder and denser, but beware that this means it will significantly alter the balance of the cue. I can tell a rather large difference in the weight and balance when I play with it.
Pros (for me):
1. I like a stiff shaft. I'm no longer a fan of the pro taper. I like a euro taper; one that gives a spine in the shaft. Purple heart definitely gives a stiff hit.
2. It's unique. I know it's silly to take any satisfaction in being "different" but it's nice to have people looking and asking questions about the shaft. They all want to hit with it and know all about it.
Cons:
1. On power shots, it may be too stiff. Sometimes it feels like it pushes the ball instead of spins the ball. Last week was a good example: Wei (of the CueTable and Wei Table) and I were playing around and decided to try our shafts out for stroke shots. Despite having a 12.3 mm tip (which one would assume would be good for spin), the purple heart underperformed to the other shafts we tried out.
2. Definitely has more squirt. Usually I find stiff shafts squirt less, but this one squirts more. It's not the taper or the ferrule, either. Perhaps it's the increase in "tip end mass"? When I had it made, I gave it to a cuemaker friend. I gave him a hard rock maple dowel that I had with 30 growth rings per inch (!) and told him I wanted a shaft from it. In addition, I also had him make a purpleheart shaft to the same specs. Iv'e always like playing with his purple heart shaft, so I wanted one of my own. I gave him measurements at every inch, for my desired diameter on the shafts. The ferrules were also the same material, size, length. Tips were also the same. The specs were controlled, yet the purple heart shaft makes the cueball squirt more.
dukeboy1977 said:
Ok, so I've read that purpleheart shafts are good to break with...But has anyone ever PLAYED with one? Are they any good to play with? What was your experience, or whats your thoughts on this? I'm a BIG fan of purpleheart's feel, so I'd like to know if a shaft would maybe help. please let me know
