Recent Purchase - Le Pro Tips
- Thread starter Cornerman
- Start date
I have been playing medium hardness layered tips and finally got tired of layers coming off during shaping. A couple of weeks ago I switched to a pressed triangle and am loving it the hit and english I am getting from it. It took a little while getting used to the hard tip but am enjoying it now.
When you guys talk about pressed tips, are you pressing them as is, or are you doing the soak them in milk thing?
I press them as is, I'm not really trying to make them harder (per-say), just eliminating the natural shooting compression break in time.
A late friend and I came up with a "double compressed" concept that I really like.
I press a BB into the center as I press the entire tip.
Once pressed (and held for a few hours), I shape the tip until the depression from the BB is removed.
The idea is to have a very hard tip center but a more English friendly tip once you get outside the center.
I've been doing my own (and many others tips for years), experiments can sometimes find something pretty cool.
Very interesting, thanks.
What I'm finding I really like about Le Pros (and maybe all solid leather tips) is that they seem to play harder the harder you stroke. Seems like it's much softer if you stroke softly, but if you hit hard it seems like the tip plays pretty hard. Best of all worlds kind of thing. I wonder if anyone's done any research into this sort of non-linear behavior of solid and layered tips? Calling Dr. Dave or Bob Jewett.
Anyhow, that's just my impression having solid and layered tips on various shafts I carry with me and doing a bit of experimentation recently. It's probably just all in my head.
Anyhow, that's just my impression having solid and layered tips on various shafts I carry with me and doing a bit of experimentation recently. It's probably just all in my head.
One other thing I'll say is that now that I'm doing tips on a lathe, it's immediately obvious which ones are good and which ones aren't as soon as you start to cut. The good ones cut beautifully. The not so good ones tear a little. The really crappy ones just come apart like an accordion. When i did them by hand, the knives I use are so sharp that they slice through everything cleanly and it's a lot harder to tell.
So far I'm 100% identifying the really good ones so no crap has left my shop yet, but I still have to glue it on first. Wish I knew how to do it reliably before gluing them on. I have to try the float/no-float in water thing.
So far I'm 100% identifying the really good ones so no crap has left my shop yet, but I still have to glue it on first. Wish I knew how to do it reliably before gluing them on. I have to try the float/no-float in water thing.
I would second that. Once I started using them I've never looked back.
I really like ultraskins too. It's the only layered tip I actually like, in fact. That's what I was using before I starting fiddling around with the Le Pros again.
The 15mm have for many years seemed to be more consistent in quality. My guess is Tweeten is now trying to make a better tip to stop the down slide the Layered tips have caused to their brand. If they would thicken up the Elk Masters again they would almost have a lock on the soft tip market. Triangles are king to me still.
I've played with Le Pros for at least 40 years. During my excessive playing years, I'd go thru one every three months. When ya cut em by hand or lathe, as someone said, ''you know right away'' if the leather is ''right''.
Once trimmed, bevel cutting the sides a must, also ''burnish'' the sides to minimize the mini muffin top and seal in the moisture of the leather. All real good le pro tips mush a little during the break in period, and need attention from time to time. Play 4 or five hours with your new tip and then do the final bevel cut, then burnish.
Finding a good le pro tip, is much better than finding the best watermelon. :groucho:
Last week I put on 2 new ones, they both turned out perfect, but different. I never miscue with ones with good leather, unless I'm doing something wrong, and that too is good info.
Once trimmed, bevel cutting the sides a must, also ''burnish'' the sides to minimize the mini muffin top and seal in the moisture of the leather. All real good le pro tips mush a little during the break in period, and need attention from time to time. Play 4 or five hours with your new tip and then do the final bevel cut, then burnish.
Finding a good le pro tip, is much better than finding the best watermelon. :groucho:
Last week I put on 2 new ones, they both turned out perfect, but different. I never miscue with ones with good leather, unless I'm doing something wrong, and that too is good info.