old topic but I'll try and shed a lil' bit more light on the subject matter.
So my buddy and myself were recently talking about the new Tiger proX shaft (the one that is 11.75 gradual taper) and were wondering about some things. As a small test to see if he would like a smaller shaft size he wants to take one of his custom shafts down to 12.25mm, and thinking of doing this for about 10 inches. Now some of the questions that we were asking ourselves was what would be difference of doing 12.25 as a pro taper vs the gradual? If his shaft is a solid, dried out piece of wood, would it make it more whippy to do it as a pro taper vs the gradual? He favors the pro tapers more and is one of the reasons he would like to try it that way, however if it will effect the feel by a big amount then he's willing to try conical. We know that the Tiger shaft is a gradual/conical taper and assume that it is due to how small the size of the taper plus how it's made doesn't make it whippy.
Sorry if this comes off a little confusing, but we are just trying to understand how the different tapers work at lower levels.
P.S. For you cue makers out there, if a person says they want a shaft size of lets say 12.00mm-12.50mm do you guys suggest one type or the other? How would you address/suggest something like this?
IMOP the holy grail not that it exists, would be to have the shaft play with as little deflection as is "necessary" (it is necessary to a degree to play the game as we do, IMOP it would be much harder if there were a such thing as a NO deflection shaft making many shots much harder since the CB couldn't spin into or away from the hit, making things like clip shots more difficult IMOP)
I would start by asking the customer how he likes to play, how much does he like to spin the CB or if he uses english/side sparingly and applies said english more in what I like to call the CORE of the CB (meaning 1tip or 1.5 tip displacement range)
The "Core" method is what I use 99% of the time.......No doubt that I can and do really spin the rock when I actually need to........but IMOP THE MAGNITUDE of ENGLISH IS WAYYYYY TO OVERAPPLIED by nearly every player that ever existed.
Players GEAR up and hitting the outer limits of the miscue barrier on shots that only needed probably 1 or 1.5 tips of displacement.........99.9999999999% of the time there is RARELY EVER a shot that you must apply more than 2 tips displacement to position the CB after the hit (kicking is/can be a slightly diff story)
The conical, modified conical and "parabolic" tapers naturally have a STIFFER SPINE to the shaft. The conical/modified conical will have some LD characteristics as the mass drops exponentially as you near the end of the shaft.
IMOP (or my thought process) I would have to say that the parabolic tapers developed and used by DPK and Southwest could have been their answer to the "COMFORT" issue that magically landed upon the pool masses via the Pro Taper and super protaper and superduper pro tapers lol.
You see the Protapered shaft takes away mass where for performance reasons doesn't need to be taken away.........the only half assed reason to take that much mass off the torso of the shaft is b/c of a silly thing like player comfort b/c we can get used to anything, the only reason we like the thinner stuff today is b/c the companies pushed it out the door now they are coming back with bigger shafts.....
now you have reduced the mass basically in the general torso of the shaft("center" of the shaft lengthways) and then extending the same O.D. to the tip. This will often result in a wider "sweet spot" on the shaft (the area when struck that does not vibrate or move, just like a bat) which is also scientifically referred to as a NODAL POINT. THIS IS WHY PREDATOR HOLLOWS OUT THE SHAFT FRONT, they don't take it off the outside to keep the protaper intact so they remove mass from the inside.
When you widen the "sweet spot" /node the energy transfer Stalls out and flatlines across this so called "sweet spot" which is more of a dead zone or energy trap. After it crosses the dead zone the wave finishes its trip to the rear and back again forward to same deadzone and out the tip...........the energy is dissapated by lateral movement of the wood in the form of tip whip or vibration, at either end of the cue but much much more so on the tip end since it doesn't have the mass like the butt does to stay in place.
The closer to the ends of the butt and shaft tip the Nodal points are located, the stiffer the spine of the cue and the Deflection will decrease and accuracy will increase. The closer to the joint the nodes are the more low frequency vibration will be felt through the cue as it WHIPS when struck, flopping like a fish out water.
I would refer to a protapered shaft as having a hinging effect that robs the energy by flatlining the wave forcibly along a wider spot b/f it lets it go on about its way.
Here's the thing about Nodal Points..........the wider the area that maintains its stagnance when struck the more diluted and destabilized the energy vibration will become.........that spot is trapping the energy and downgrading it..........which is why pro tapered shafts can have a very nice soft touch, and softer spin touch/feel ability.
The narrower the "dead zone" or nodal point the LESS the energy is being held up so it does not degrade, the wave stays compact like that of a laser and goes to the end and shoots out the tip with a very small quantity of energy lost. The REVERBERATION caused by the trapping effect resulting in a low frequency wave that the cue tries to hold, this will only end up having its structure Reverberate wildly. ( when you hear someone say a cue/shaft plays like a dog this is whats usually happening or being commented on...this effect is now called the DOG EFFECT lol)
Now CONVERSLY the PARABOLIC taper that we mentioned earlier, has the spine and the ability to still be comfortable for the picky or small fingered folk. With its even gradual curve the Nodal points can be finetuned easier as the "deadzone" is very small and compact. The overall gradual mass removal on either side the arc also somewhat helps to induce more LD qualities, which have already been helped with the cues rigid structure qualities, and the energy is more evenly dissipated through the cue
Charlie Bryant and I were just having a great converstaion about this not but a little over a week ago......we were talking cues and he showed me his player that he turned the ob shaft down on to how he liked it.......I grabbed his, he grabbed mine and we were both thinking "well i'll be damed" because our tapers were very similar and the reasons why we wanted that and how it affected us were mostly identical.
If you want the stiff straight hit then go with a thin connical, or like i did with a modified conical (thats actually more reminiscient of a parabolic.....multi quality shaft)on my player which is at 12mm. I mostly play open bridge but I pullled back the taper just right so that it didn't interfere with a closed bridge.
I would advise tho that especially with solid maple shafts that are in the conical or parabolic family, if you don't want all that seemingly extra POP off the ball I suggest going with a softer ferrule material and a softer tip. (ex: Hillbilly uses a soft tip and softer ferrule to tone it down, I use a harder ferrule and triangle tip as in my onepocket I find I can stroke softer/smoother more accurate and still get the travel needed out the ball.....the cue is also light @ 18.1 which makes it hard to overhit the shot IMOP)
So in a nutshell:
Conicals are most accurate, great core english application, but worst on feel in bridge comfort, but good crisp lively feel in hit and drives the balls better IMOP
Pro Taper are less accurate sacrificing accuracy to comfort of grip, the dampening effect is also helpful playing on faster equipment or in the use of soft spin shots as the shaft will hold rotation but CB POP off the shaft and travel seem to be decreased. Definately more touch to the feel of the hit as the vibrations are easier distinguished b/c of their slower velocity.
FWIW i see more custom makers using some kind of modified conical and more and more every day using the parabolic style tapers.........i think that given time the protaper will fade into the distance, especially if we continue to compete more and more on really fast equipment and just play power games like 9 ball.
I know thats alot to understand but I tried to give you somewhat of a crash course........as always knowledge is power.
-Grey Ghost-
.
