This is something I've always been curious about especially in this era of Carbon Fiber cues. Do folks know what set-ups the top players have for their cues? Shaft diameter? Shaft weight? Carbon fiber or wood? Weight? Length? Tip? Laminated or solid? Soft or hard? Granted a lot of players could play like gods with broom handles and a lot are being sponsored but how do they have those cues set up? The Predator and CueTech players especially......how are their cues set up?
Top 10 or 20 pros' cues set ups?
- Thread starter Vince_Former_BB
- Start date
Without asking them directly that's real hard to know. Some tell on their FB pages what they use. Pretty much a mixed bag of everything you mentioned. I think SVB uses a Ghost Cynergy with a HOW tip.
Is your SVB the same length and weight of his cue? If so what are those specs? Personally I think every interview of a player should start with "What are you playing with?"
I don't use it Shane does. I don't care what others use to be honest. What they like has nothing to do with me.
Why? It would be of no importance because the answer would be meaningless. It would be like asking what their favorite food is. It will have no bearing on whether you will like that food or not because food, like pool equipment, is totally based off personal preferences, and you have different tastes and personal preferences than they do.
That aside, for the top 20, the answer to the "what X, Y, or Z thing do you play with" is......."whatever I'm currently being paid to play with". It was already completely meaningless to you, but in the cases where they are being paid it largely is not even about their personal preferences anymore and so it is even more meaningless than the completely meaningless it already was.
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I would like to know, just to know hehe.
There are actually quite a few players, although mostly lower lvl ones trying to learn or league players not much into the whole sport, that do base what they buy on what people they like buy. Heck, I've been lucky enough to have several players buy shafts or even have cues built because it's what I use. Apparently they wanted to be stuck in mediocrity LOL
In regards to that you basically should exclude any high paid sponsorships. Look at true best spend on their own dime. Since the worlds best would still be that with any well constructed cue they decide to get used to. Earl with old cuetec is a good example. Best thing is trying others players finding something that feels good in the hand and has a good hit to the individual.
Doesn’t matter how well it’s made if it doesn’t feel comfortable for someone.
Players good or bad know when they dislike a cue pretty darn fast even to the degree of only trying it for one shot.
All the best,
Greyghost
xX-Wizard-Xx
Well-known member
Perfect answer ... end the thread before it gets to 15 pages of meaningless rambling....
SlateMan
Registered
I guess NASCAR should remove the car labels. I mean who cares the brand of the car. Fans are rooting for the driver. Obviously the sponsors don't care in NASCAR, they are just throwing money behind a person behind the wheel....
Obviously some fans care. They like to know, they like to shoot with the same equipment. They grow attachments to the brand and the "team" the long to be part of something and for a few bucks they can. That in turn drives up sales to the sponsors who can then PAY the players more money.
Just my .02.
I think Shane's and Fedors are right out of the box with whatever tip they like. I think they like the skinnier shaft. No magic bean. You've got to play, practice, and compete all of the time to achieve YOUR best game.
The NASCAR metaphor doesn't work. And to the folks who ask "why?" Why not! Why WOULDN'T you want to know? When you go into a town for the first time do you ask the locals where the best restaurants are or do you simply try every single one of them until you find the perfect dinner? Same thing with pool cues. With the sheer number of deviations in the world of pool cues these days why is having a bit of advanced knowledge a bad thing? I assume you prefer to have zero knowledge and instead opt to throw 40 bucks a piece at 30 different tips to the tune of $1200 before you find the one that suits your likes. Stupid stupid argument there folks. The sponsors of NASCAR are paying to have their advertisement driven around the track but that does NOT mean the drivers are using those products. Again, let's use the tip analogy. If I know a player is using a particular hardness of tip or diameter of shaft that at the very least starts me down a road of SOME knowledge from which I can start my own research. When you go to a car repair shop would you prefer the mechanic have some advanced knowledge about the car problems or would you prefer he simply use your method and start investing YOUR money by throwing random parts at it until one of them happens to be juuuuuust right. At what point did knowledge of a product become a bad thing? Let's assume they ask the players what tips they're using and you discover that among the 100+ possibilities out there only 10 are what the great players use. You're saying you wouldn't want that information or would you throw 40 bucks at 100 different options to narrow down the possibilities? Dumb arguments......dumb dumb dumb. Give me knowledge from which to make a decision. Oh....and for the record.....there's absolutely nothing wrong with simply WANTING TO KNOW! To all the naysayers if you wish to remain ignorant......that's your choice. There are some of us who actually enjoy making informed choices. Good luck with wasting YOUR money. I choose to spend mine a bit more wisely.
bring back "what's in the case"!!
A lot of their set ups are a Pizza delivery shirt and hat.
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
Rafael Martinez got me into Elkmaster tips and 314 shaft. It lets you know want the equipment is capable of in good hands. I didn't go out and buy them because of them but when I needed a tip and they guy suggested it, I felt more confident in his recommendation. Same with the shaft. Realistically, knowing what tip a pro is using is probably the most useful equipment knowledge as far as learning someone else's setup.
This.
There might be other reasons, apart from performance or feel, that make you want to copy your favourite pro. Maybe you like the way the cue looks or something of that nature. It's perfectly fine to copy a pro as long as your expectations are realistic.
The one thing, though, about sponsored "production" type gear, used by most current pros, is that it is usually not a big problem to get your hands on. If you were to try to copy someone like Mizerak or Mosconi, then boy oh boy, you'd need some real hard cash and still may not be able to get very close.
Top 5 a least...Find out what your favorite pro uses. Duplicate it exactly. You'll have a top 10 Fargo rating in a week or so.
"What's in the bag" has been a constant in golf for a long time.