Pleasure was all mine brother.....
Thanks greyghost for taking the time for such a detailed response. I just felt like it was time for a new cue. My old cue was great, I still have it. But it had thin shafts and weight slightly under 18oz. I feel like I needed 19oz and larger shafts. I felt like a heavier cue would allow you to stroke straighter, and a fatter shaft diameter, would make me miss-hit the cueball less. I felt on long shots, any miss-hit on a smaller diameter will cause you to miss the ball. I work on my game a lot actually, so I wasn't just getting a new cue and telling myself I'm going to play better, I work pretty hard on my game. It sounds like you like the smaller tip size. However when I went to Philippines and got beat on everyday, I was so sick I thought about selling the Southwest to some Taiwanese players I saw there, they liked the cue, but no one would buy it because they all play with 13mm. They said I could probably just sell the butt (WTF?). They all like the fat shafts, I guess they like a more center ball style of play. I think they're the best players.
Anyway, I don't really mind playing with the 13mm, the aiming with this cue is almost the same, but the taper still feels stiff. I'm trying to get used to it before I make any changes to the cue. I just started playing with it for 2 weeks. I was just trying to get some insight from some cuemakers to see what they would suggest. Thanks again Greyghost for your response. I learned a bit.
First off I got to say that your reply was the kind many of us hope to get when we post answers or help. You know how it is sometimes people put their own inflection to the words they read and get upset over advice and corrective criticisim. Because when you read about the issue at hand you don't have or know every detail, like how I when into mentioning about equipment purchases and how better fundamentals and execution can't be attained by an equipment upgrade, i have no idea if thats how you think but its relevant to the conversation and for anyone reading it so POW I include the little tid bit....its just info and sometimes they take it personal? So its very nice when the question/answer/response goes down like it just did. If I had a job on this forum thats what it would be, to answer or help the ones that don't know or lack a little info to become privy to it. Hell everyone started at zero they pass it to you, you pass it to the next.
Thats why I like passing the time here....alot of us are kind of like a big family, we'll look out for one another like one....because hell were a bunch of pool players if we don't look after one another no ones gonna look out lol!
:wink:
I could understand wanting more weight in the cue b/c its a personal preference and it doesn't even matter what it weighs so long as its comfortable to you! I like a lighter cue personally as I can shoot with greater finesse with it, especially since I play alot of one pocket. With a heavy cue if you let your stroke get aways from you and deliver too hard the extra momentum will send the CB even longer, with a lighter cue its pretty difficult to overpower the stroke since you have to generate more acceleration to compensate for the loss of mass.
I played my best with a 17.1 oz cue and both my current players are under 19oz (my everyday break cue is 19 tho its perfect for MY break) But especially if your playing more rotation style games like 9 ball and 10 ball the heavier cue will usually be used as b/c of the added weight you can develop more momentum with less speed, and the softer the stroke the more accurate it can become. Those games are all about ACCURACY and CB movement and travel all over the place. Where as accuracy is not nearly as important in One Pocket the focus is more on the moves and keeping a tight hold of the rock and rearranging the furniture.
As far as a heavier cue allowing you to stroke straighter (tho that I've never heard) I'm not going to say flat out NO that that is not true b/c even tho I've never heard that I could see how someone would stand to come about that reasoning that the extra weight would keep the grip hand and arm plumb. Thats got to be the supposed reason b/h that madness. But don't you think that if a cue just one or two ounces heavier could keep your arm plumb that it could start making you drop your elbow too?
If a heavier cue makes your stroke straighter then I should have seen at least a few folks tying some lead fishing weights on their meucci's lol.
Now a little more on why the larger tip isn't going to reduce your mis-hits. The radius that we put on the leather tip is not there just to look good, the radius developed because if the tip were flat then as you hit the CB in differing areas you would be making contact with the tip in all sorts of differing spots along its surface. If you were trying to use a draw stroke the top of the tip would make the contact....if you were stroking the CB with high follow the bottom of the tip would be making contact.
This even ties into the miscue limit on the ball. Its all there for a reason and a light is about to go off in your head.
Like i was saying you'd be hitting the center, the edges etc. of the tip all the time it would make you miscue and would keep the hit from ever having any consistency.
If you take a a stripe say the 9 ball and set it on the table with the stripe HORIZONTAL the limit to where you can hit the ball with follow or draw at its highest and lowest point without the likely hood of a miscue occuring is where the top and bottom of the stripe is at, if you turn the stripe VERTICAL the left and right sides of it are your limits when applying side/english.
If you stay within the horizontal and vertical confines of that area then generally you will always be making contact with the center of the tip!
NO MATTER WHAT THE SIZE OF THE TIP!!!!! WHY?
Remember how the center of the pocket never moves no matter how big or small it is? (Of course you do:wink
Well the center of the tip on your stick never changes no matter how big or little it is, thanks to that radius.
Since we know now that no matter the tip size, the same area of the tip (THE CENTER) will be making contact under normal working conditions (your going to miscue outside normal)with the CB. The Footprint of the tip on the CB is only about an 1/8" wide (about the size of the red cricle on the red circle CB) when it makes contact for whatever size tip you got.
We can now truthfully understand and debunk the idea that a bigger tip will reduce MISS-HITS.
Your thinking isn't completey offbase tho, right idea about the effect but not the reason b/h the effect. That is the harderst thing to learn brother, its not that difficult to see and understand the effect that happenes upon the CB. But its what you deduce as to what causes it that is incorrect, which will have you running in a circle "FIXING" things that were not broken or breaking things that were fixed.
Now a smaller tip will apply more of its energy to the cue ball as its more concentrated at the end which is why you can stay closer to the center of the CB and still attain the desired english. With a larger tip the magnitude of the spin is muffled which creates less margin of error by way of reducing the spin imparted on the CB.
But the kicker is its a fake fix, the bigger tip will allow you to cue to the improper place and still make the shot....but that isn't going to teach you or help to fix your stroking errors, the tip is not making contact where it is supposed to.
So you have to ask yourself do you really want to just sweep a problem like that under the rug?
Thats why I recommend the smaller size, as it will force you to place the tip exactly where it is supposed to go. You will gain more precision to your shot making skills. Even tho its not a drastic change its still enough to sharpen your delivery up.
You can use whatever shaft size you fancy and any taper you like too. But the straightest shooting cue would be that smaller tip with the parabolic tapered shaft. Thats why you got sick in the Philippines, the cue shoots straighter than you can deliver the shot. IT MAGNIFIED YOUR STROKING ISSUE!
IMOP that is a not a bad thing, its a GREAT thing. Because now you know what the problem is, now you know how to address it, and you can fix it.
When a cue shoots true and straight it will talk to you and tell you everything you need to know about what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.
That cue helped you discover an error that would/is impeding your growth in the game and reaching your fullest potential. Ultimately it doesn't matter what type of cue you use, the only thing that matters is that you start praticing and train yourself to make contact in the exact desired location...work on it so that it becomes second nature. Its one of the largest obatacles progressing players stumble upon, once you overcome it you can grab any old spaghetti stick off the wall and run out.
best wishes,
Keebie
