Sound of hit.

Kimmo H.

Kimmo H.

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
After watching (too) many hours of currently ongoing Snooker world championships I have noticed that I give quite a lot of focus for the sound the tip and the cue makes when a player strikes the ball. A good example is Ding, the sound his cue makes on contact is pure sweetness to my ears, a clear yet subtle thump sound, the sound of a pure contact. Or Murphy, that man sure knows how to hit a ball pure.

This makes me wonder, what are the factors of a cues sound, apart from the obvious tip and technique when it comes to cue sports? Is the wood used a big factor here? I have never been able to play with a good ash snooker cue so I cant tell by myself.

I would love to be able to recreate that sound to one of my cues. I know that I am no where near as skilled and technically pure as the top snooker players are and that the games of pool and snooker are totally different animals with different size of balls and all.

What would you recommend for a tip to get that sweet sound out of a hit and what do snooker pros use on their cues?

I like Kamui tips for playability and I'm not going to try to find a "better" tip, I just want to get that sound out for an extra shaft of wich I have several lying around unused. A few schons and a 314´2, tiger ultra x ld and soon a wx700 too that comes with a Mezz sneaky I ordered a while back ;)

I feel that Elkmaster sounds too muted compared to what im looking. Kamui Medium has a distinct ping when struck, soft is closer but that lacks the pureness of sound due to being rather soft (meh, a bit hard to describe, especially in a foreign language :grin:) LePro is also a bit too "thud", its something a little firmer I am looking for.
I have read a lot of good about G2 tips and Zans, maybe theres something to try in their list of tips worth trying out :rolleyes:


Feel free to discuss, does the sound matter to you, what kind of sound you like on contact, is sound just an unnecessary stimulant.
 
Kimmo H. said:
After watching (too) many hours of currently ongoing Snooker world championships I have noticed that I give quite a lot of focus for the sound the tip and the cue makes when a player strikes the ball. A good example is Ding, the sound his cue makes on contact is pure sweetness to my ears, a clear yet subtle thump sound, the sound of a pure contact. Or Murphy, that man sure knows how to hit a ball pure.

This makes me wonder, what are the factors of a cues sound, apart from the obvious tip and technique when it comes to cue sports? Is the wood used a big factor here? I have never been able to play with a good ash snooker cue so I cant tell by myself.

I would love to be able to recreate that sound to one of my cues. I know that I am no where near as skilled and technically pure as the top snooker players are and that the games of pool and snooker are totally different animals with different size of balls and all.

What would you recommend for a tip to get that sweet sound out of a hit and what do snooker pros use on their cues?

I like Kamui tips for playability and I'm not going to try to find a "better" tip, I just want to get that sound out for an extra shaft of wich I have several lying around unused. A few schons and a 314´2, tiger ultra x ld and soon a wx700 too that comes with a Mezz sneaky I ordered a while back ;)

I feel that Elkmaster sounds too muted compared to what im looking. Kamui Medium has a distinct ping when struck, soft is closer but that lacks the pureness of sound due to being rather soft (meh, a bit hard to describe, especially in a foreign language :grin:) LePro is also a bit too "thud", its something a little firmer I am looking for.
I have read a lot of good about G2 tips and Zans, maybe theres something to try in their list of tips worth trying out :rolleyes:


Feel free to discuss, does the sound matter to you, what kind of sound you like on contact, is sound just an unnecessary stimulant.
Click to expand...
Sound is important to me too. I really like the sound from a Ki-tech medium. I also prefer the minimal maintenance these tips require.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
tip & butt would make the sound of hit different, you ask me butt how, you can make a test yourself by removing only the rubber thats in the end of the cue, and hit with your cue, then you will hear a bizz sound, I call it "bizz" you can call it whatever you want, some people actually love that sound, so give it a go.

the tip also make the sound of hit different, change tips and you will hear different sound, also the way you install that tip believe it or not, if there's just a slight air in the inside of tip, between the tip and ferrule, the sound would be totally different.

technique has nothing to do with it and I can prove it, you hit with a tip on a specific speed, then give it to a friend and let him hit the same shot in the same speed, you will hear the same sound regardless of the type of stroke, all you want is speed and make him use a stop shot maybe, because type of spin also matters I think.

but if you want that unique sound, try to make a tip installation hollow from the inside (some cue man builders know how to do this) but its dangerous as it could lead to the cue coming off at anytime, but sometimes it stays and never comes off so its a trade off.

also remove the rubber from the back of the butt, and enjoy the big sound just like the Ding snooker cue sound.

by the way I am watching snooker too, Ding is playing against Judd right now and it is a great match, I don't think its fair to compare snooker cues to billiards as they are totally different in shape and also shape of tip, and Ding uses Elk Master by the way, but most snooker pro's got that sound because most of them play with Elk Master, Ronnie produce that sound too.
 
It would be nice to hear the sound but most places are very loud and then to add to it they have the speakers blasting at distortion levels.

🎱
 
What I have noticed is that the joint type is very important. A piloted or flat faced joint that retains wood to wood contact between the shaft and butt will produce a stiffer hit that resonates through the entire cue. I get a nice Ping sound from my 3/8 x 10 piloted cue when I use the shaft that was made for it that has a pilot cut straight out of the shaft.... its very obvious. I also think th etip has a lot to do with it as well. The softer the tip, the more muted that Ping sound will be. I use Ultraskin mediums

Regards,

Lesh
 
The cue I own has a phenolic joint and butt. It sings, and the sound definitely changes when you hit the sweet spot. I played a guy, he actually thought I'd miscued on a shot I had not. The ferrule and tip dramatically change the sound, as do the woods used, combinations are infinite with wood never being the same twice. Depending on what inlays or not were done, you'd have to think it would change the sound somewhat. I know an Ivory joint is way different. Where the rubber meets the road, the tip change can cause dramatic change to the sound of your cue.
 
For me it's how the hit feels, not the sound, although most players go by sound. Johnnyt
 
On receipt of my custom cue, the first thing I did was to go to a private QUIET room so I could hit balls and listen to how she played...

I also did this last week at the expo when using the new Predator shaft.

Two different sounds from two different cues :thumbup:
 
Quality of contact has a ton to do with sound....

You can actually look at a wave form of tip contacts and you can see that the thump usually corresponds with a well struck and executed stroke and it has a rich and warm waveform...

We all know what a misscue sounds like even if the ferrule doesn't strike the cueball and that is a sharp peak looking at the waveform....

There are also slips where the cue tip comes off the ball before it should have but not early enough to cause a complete misscue...

These slips have a waveform that varies somewhere between the rich waveform of the good contact and the sharp peak of the complete misscue and these correspond to those instances where you just didn't get the cueball to do what you thought it should and can be stroke related or chalk related.....

This is one of the variables as to the different sounds from the same cue...

Wood selection, Joint Selection and Bumper configuration all have the ability to change the resonance of the cue.. I think it was Bob Jewett that I have heard talking about the waveforms and how materials and construction could alter them but don't hold me to it..
 
My friend recently got a Barnhart (sp?) cue with an LD ash shaft. I tried it out and even though I play with a maple shaft, the ash shaft had the sweetest "thwack" I might have ever heard.

If you are into emulating what you hear from snooker players, you might investigate a maker who could come up with an ash shaft first.
 
Acoustics is very important for me.....it's feedback on my hit....is it being delivered to the cue ball squarely.

I found that ivory ferrules impart a different sound....very unique.....and the harder the tip, the sharper the sound.....at least on all my cues it's that way........I switched to Kamui Clear Black soft on all my cues except one.

Here's what I found.......all my playing cues have flat ivory joints with big pins (radial, 3/8x10 & 3/8x11).
Only one cue has Moori original brown tips (medium) which is on my Prewitt cue and like I wrote, all the other cues have Kamui Clear Black soft.

The Prewitt cue's acoustical hit is sharper than the other cues. All my cues are basically the same weight and the shafts are the same size and weight. The only thing that varies is the shaft taper but all of the tapers are similarly close. The Kamui Clear Black tips (soft)still generate a great ping sound but the harder Moori tips (medium) on the Prewitt cue do it more often.

I think the ivory ferrules and the type of tips are big factors and if I had to pick one as the most important factor, I'd say it was the I" ivory ferrules on my cues. I know phenolic ferrules don;t create the same sound having owned and played with such cues. GE Micarta created a lower sound pitch than ivory and that is the material used for my '85 Runde Schon.

I do not know this to be an absolute proven fact but I do believe the ivory ferrules play a big part......the tip sits right on top of the ferrule where the compression takes place......I think the ivory ferrules are a factor even though I haven;t any idea what type of ferrule was on the shafts the pros were using in the OP's thread.


Matt B.
 
After watching numerous videos, the most clear and distinct cueball contact sound is made by Jeffrey Ignacio. His stroke is excellent. I wonder what cue and tip he uses.
 
I've just recently begun playing with an open bridge. Although still a muted ping, the open bridge seems to produce a somewhat clearer sound of the ping.

Schon OBXL+ 13.25mm.
 
Bavafongoul said:
Acoustics is very important for me.....it's feedback on my hit....is it being delivered to the cue ball squarely.

I found that ivory ferrules impart a different sound....very unique.....and the harder the tip, the sharper the sound.....at least on all my cues it's that way........I switched to Kamui Clear Black soft on all my cues except one.

Here's what I found.......all my playing cues have flat ivory joints with big pins (radial, 3/8x10 & 3/8x11).
Only one cue has Moori original brown tips (medium) which is on my Prewitt cue and like I wrote, all the other cues have Kamui Clear Black soft.

The Prewitt cue's acoustical hit is sharper than the other cues. All my cues are basically the same weight and the shafts are the same size and weight. The only thing that varies is the shaft taper but all of the tapers are similarly close. The Kamui Clear Black tips (soft)still generate a great ping sound but the harder Moori tips (medium) on the Prewitt cue do it more often.

I think the ivory ferrules and the type of tips are big factors and if I had to pick one as the most important factor, I'd say it was the I" ivory ferrules on my cues. I know phenolic ferrules don;t create the same sound having owned and played with such cues. GE Micarta created a lower sound pitch than ivory and that is the material used for my '85 Runde Schon.

I do not know this to be an absolute proven fact but I do believe the ivory ferrules play a big part......the tip sits right on top of the ferrule where the compression takes place......I think the ivory ferrules are a factor even though I haven;t any idea what type of ferrule was on the shafts the pros were using in the OP's thread.


Matt B.
Click to expand...

Since all I've ever used and still do, is Ivory I almost forgot about that sound and I think your right. The material Does add a quality of sound to the hit that's unique. The audible feedback can be good or bad, depending on who's the receiving end. :grin-square:
 
Lesh said:
What I have noticed is that the joint type is very important. A piloted or flat faced joint that retains wood to wood contact between the shaft and butt will produce a stiffer hit that resonates through the entire cue. I get a nice Ping sound from my 3/8 x 10 piloted cue when I use the shaft that was made for it that has a pilot cut straight out of the shaft.... its very obvious. I also think th etip has a lot to do with it as well. The softer the tip, the more muted that Ping sound will be. I use Ultraskin mediums

Regards,

Lesh
Click to expand...

I have 2 very different cues and different shafts that make sort of a "ping" sound, kinda like a golf driver hitting a golf ball but much, much more subtle. I like cues that hit/feel that way. 1 cue has a metal joint and 1 has Micarta I believe, whatever McDermott was using in the early 80's. I do not not believe it is the joint at all, I have seen both metal and non metallic joints sound/feel that way. When I put different shafts on the nice butts I lose that sound/feel, same with the shafts. 1 tip is a Moori soft and 1 is a Tiger Everest. I believe it is just the combination of the whole package that causes this. I asked my local cue maker if he can build cues to replicate that sound/feel and he said if he figured it out he would be rich.
 
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