Tips? what advantage

pete lafond

pete lafond

pete.l@slipstic.com
Silver Member
I have always played with Lepro tips. I have good feel and do not have any problem with control. English works very well and I have a very good cue ball. The only down side is when I forget to chalk, I'll on rare occasions miss-cue. When I have the tip replaced, sometimes the new tip is a little softer than the earlier one - but playing adjustments are easy.

My Question: What advantages do other tips have over the standard LePro? In other words what do I have to gain?
 
pete lafond said:
I have always played with Lepro tips. I have good feel and do not have any problem with control. English works very well and I have a very good cue ball. The only down side is when I forget to chalk, I'll on rare occasions miss-cue. When I have the tip replaced, sometimes the new tip is a little softer than the earlier one - but playing adjustments are easy.

My Question: What advantages do other tips have over the standard LePro? In other words what do I have to gain?
Click to expand...


I think the biggest thing you have to gain is consistancy from tip to tip. Sometimes the difference seems like night and day. I use mostly layered tips(hercules or moori), but if i were to use a non-layered tip, i would use triangle. They seem to be more consistant.

After lepro's compress, and wear down, the tend to glaze over like most tips. That is probably the reason for the miss-cue.

If you like, i can send you a couple of triangles to try out.
 
Rodney said:
I think the biggest thing you have to gain is consistancy from tip to tip. Sometimes the difference seems like night and day. I use mostly layered tips(hercules or moori), but if i were to use a non-layered tip, i would use triangle. They seem to be more consistant.

After lepro's compress, and wear down, the tend to glaze over like most tips. That is probably the reason for the miss-cue.

If you like, i can send you a couple of triangles to try out.
Click to expand...

I definitely agree with everything you say Rodney. If I may add to this, I've been using Le Pro's most of the time from day 1 and I've noticed within the past year or so the quality isn't as consistent as years past.

I read an article in Pool & Billiard or Billiards Digest and it stated that Le Pro tips (as with most tip makers) switched from using steer hide to buffalo or water buffalo. All I know is these tips now mushroom like he** with some of them being dried up or softer than normal. The "earlier" Le Pro's had to be broken in and a little mushrooming was expected, but the current ones are ridiculous!!!! :mad:

Triangles are my next choice but I noticed after awhile the layers of the tip would start separating like a croissant even though it's 1 stamped out piece of leather! :confused:

I'm going to try out the med. Moori's next. A lot of people give these tips high praise so I might give them another try (the first runs of these when they came on the market were prone to miscues!) at them. Sarah Rousey uses them and that's a good enough recommendation for me!!! ;) She also used to use Le Pro's but switched over to the talisman's and now med Moori's.

NEI know where I can get a couple @ a gr8 price?
 
F8it said:
I definitely agree with everything you say Rodney. If I may add to this, I've been using Le Pro's most of the time from day 1 and I've noticed within the past year or so the quality isn't as consistent as years past.

I read an article in Pool & Billiard or Billiards Digest and it stated that Le Pro tips (as with most tip makers) switched from using steer hide to buffalo or water buffalo. All I know is these tips now mushroom like he** with some of them being dried up or softer than normal. The "earlier" Le Pro's had to be broken in and a little mushrooming was expected, but the current ones are ridiculous!!!! :mad:

Triangles are my next choice but I noticed after awhile the layers of the tip would start separating like a croissant even though it's 1 stamped out piece of leather! :confused:

I'm going to try out the med. Moori's next. A lot of people give these tips high praise so I might give them another try (the first runs of these when they came on the market were prone to miscues!) at them. Sarah Rousey uses them and that's a good enough recommendation for me!!! ;) She also used to use Le Pro's but switched over to the talisman's and now med Moori's.

NEI know where I can get a couple @ a gr8 price?
Click to expand...

So is my advantage fewer miss-cues?
 
Pete

pete lafond said:
I have always played with Lepro tips. I have good feel and do not have any problem with control. English works very well and I have a very good cue ball. The only down side is when I forget to chalk, I'll on rare occasions miss-cue. When I have the tip replaced, sometimes the new tip is a little softer than the earlier one - but playing adjustments are easy.

My Question: What advantages do other tips have over the standard LePro? In other words what do I have to gain?
Click to expand...

I Played with LePro tips over 30 years, never really questioned their playing
ability until I got my own custom made cue which came with a
medium hard Hercules layered tip. I immediately noticed the difference, the
Hercules tip felt 'firmer' and more 'solid' when I shot. I did practice drills on
shots that gave me problems sometimes, like long straight in shots with cue
ball on the end rail, and just a 1/2" off the rail. I noticed that I started feeling different about them than before, more confidence in shooting
them, a more secure feeling when shooting them that nothing was going
to go wrong. I started having much fewer miscues, hardly ever happens now.
They also wear real well, keep their shape, hardly ever need any touch up.
A lot of players don't like new tips, but I do. I like my tip to be pretty tall.

The cue ball control factor is a consideration though because it does cue a
little different than LePro tips. Once you get use to it though, which doesn't take a lot of time, just a little, it is fine. The shot I would recommend to actually see and feel the difference would be a medium shot with a 2" follow
of the cue ball.

I, also, have improved my consistency and won more tournaments since going
to the Hercules tip.
 
pete lafond said:
So is my advantage fewer miss-cues?
Click to expand...

Uh not really... The Moori tips - when they first came out - had serious miscue problems, and Moori changed the glue they were using and alleviated the problem.

To quote Sarah Rousey: "I have never tried the Triangle tips. I have only used Le Pro, Talisman and Moori. There are problems when you get in between layers. There are miscues when that happens, but it is easy to fix."

So.. judging by what she said (and a WPBA Touring Pro I might ad!!!) you can still miscue but it doesn't seem to be as bad as in the beginning. Hope that helps!!!
 
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pete lafond said:
So is my advantage fewer miss-cues?
Click to expand...

Do you miss-cue alot when the tip is new, or when it wears down a bit?

I think you will miss-cue less with the triangle. I miss-cue the least with the hercules, then the triangle, and the most with the moori medium.
 
Rodney said:
Do you miss-cue alot when the tip is new, or when it wears down a bit?

I think you will miss-cue less with the triangle. I miss-cue the least with the hercules, then the triangle, and the most with the moori medium.
Click to expand...

I rarely miss-cue but when I do it seems to be when the humidity is higher.
 
Personally like Tiger Hard Tips, they Wear Well, Play Well, and Cost is not that much MORE than a LePro, or Most Good Non Layered Tips.... Have less MisCue with Layered Tips Personally..............
 
I personally have had good experiences with Stratos extra hard and Tsunami hard tips. I have one of each on my playing cue shafts and have had no problems with them. I haven't noticed any mushrooming nor have I had to do any maintenance to them. Also, I have only had perhaps two or three miscues total with a Stratos tip and one miscue with the Tsunami tip since installation.

The Stratos tip has a similiar feel to the French champion tips of old in my opinion. The Tsunami tip is exactly as it's advertised in the Mueller's catalog, being good for extreme english. The cost of either of them is very similar with a difference of about fifty cents if memory serves.

Another thing I have noticed & like about the Tsunami & Stratos tips is that they haven't torn apart like the Talisman tip does. When I used Talisman tips, they always came apart within a month to a month and a half and it was always in the same manner with the centers popping out.
 
Why don't tip makers

Why don't tip makers set something up at a booth at say the expo or something. At the booth they could have lets say, 12 one piece Duffrin sticks all of the same weight. Each stick would have the 12 different tips they make. Then you could try out each tip on a demo pool table to make the decision on the tip you like.

To add to this what if all tip makers had the same booths? Man they would sell. Why? Because you are setting everything up like a wine tasting festival. By the time you found a tip you liked, you would be so stoked to by it. Of course the tip sellers would only sell there value packs of a dozen or so. It becomes a win-win situation. More sales for the manufacturer because they expose more of a variety. Customer satisfaction because they finally can compare without limitations.

Pool players never get a chance to compare the soft, medium, of hard of a certain brand. Let alone compare manufactures in the same setting. Of course you could play devils advocate and tell me the reasons why it hasn't happened (or is already being done.) I just know I get new tips that for one minor reason or another I don't like. I would like to find that perfect tip for me sooner than later. (I buy one tip annually on average.)
 
The poolhall where I grew up always had Elk Master tips, so that was always my tip by default. Then I started re-tipping my own cues, and I tried some LePro tips. But I'm just used to the soft tip and the hit Elk Masters give me. And if you're concerned about miscues, Elk Masters are great. They hold chalk as well as any other tip I've tried. It would be great to have the opportunity to test several tips side by side though. Some tips are a bit too expensive to buy a box and then find out you don't like them.
 
pete lafond said:
No, I have the pool hall put the tips on for me.
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My offer still stands to send you a few triangle tips, but i dont think it will save you much money if you have someone else put them on. Actually, i have an extra hercules tip if you want that also. Earlier i said the hercules was medium, but they are med/hard.

Send me a P.M. with your address if you would like to try them.
 
JLW said:
It would be great to have the opportunity to test several tips side by side though. Some tips are a bit too expensive to buy a box and then find out you don't like them.
Click to expand...

Buying a box is too expensive. Don't these manufacturers realize it does thier product no good to have dissatisfied customers? If you had the opportunity to test lets say at the minimum 25 different tips. Do you think you could find one you would be happy with? Happy enough to buy say 5,10, or abox of them? I would!
 
renard said:
Buying a box is too expensive. Don't these manufacturers realize it does thier product no good to have dissatisfied customers? If you had the opportunity to test lets say at the minimum 25 different tips. Do you think you could find one you would be happy with? Happy enough to buy say 5,10, or abox of them? I would!
Click to expand...
I was just looking through my Mueller catalog and realized that you can mix and match tips (in packs of 3) when you order. Some though, require that you order a box of 50 at minimum. A box of Triumph tips, for example, is $29. Not a huge amount of money, but still a waste if you don't like the tips and can't find someone else who wants them. Some, like Everest, are $24 just for 3 tips. Who knows? Maybe we could arrange something on here where AZBers could exchange tips with one another to try out.
 
Definitely consistency of the tip will improve going to a layered tip. I used LePro for about 7 years before switching to a layered tip. I'll never go back. Occassionally you'll get a good LePro tip, but you just never know.

As far as Elk Master, I tried my first one a week or two ago because I was having some trouble miscueing. I'm sorry, but you just can't "feel" the hit with a tip that soft. I cut the thing off after a day.
 
Cue Tips

One thing I have done for my customers is to let them try three different tips. I have three shafts for my cue, one with a LePro, one with a Triangle, and one with a Talisman medium on it. For the customers who don't know what they like in tips, this has been somewhat of a solution. It is not perfect, but gives them a starting point to choose from.
 
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