Unacceptable Shafts & Cues You've Used

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drivermaker

Banned
Let's face it...some shafts and cues give us better results than others, that's why we use them. Or do we?? I think there are a number of players that use equipment because the hype is so big and they're SUPPOSED to be great hitting and playing, or like lemmings...there's a tendency to follow the crowd.

What shaft or cue have you used that you found totally unacceptable due to feel, hit, accuracy, and overall performance.

So much is made about how GREAT a Predator is for deflection...well, what shaft or cue have you found to be the absolute WORST where the CB just squirted all over hell or you had much less control and couldn't make any where near the balls that you normally do??

I don't think this is badmouthing any one particular shaft or cuemaker whether it's production or made by an independent cuemaker, it's just a personal opinion. That same shaft or cue for someone else could possibly be the BEST one they've ever used.

For all the hype and how great it is...the unacceptable shaft for me is the Predator. I can't play worth a damn with one of those. I don't think I find ANY other shaft or cue out there to be unacceptable, other than the Cue-Tec shaft but not for performance...but for the sticky coating that you need to keep spraying their product on. Anyone else and why?

Ooops...have to edit because I just remembered another. I have a 12mm red dot shaft that I can't make a damn thing with and I guess it's the 12mm because I have a whole bunch of other red and black dots that I can shoot lights out when I use them. Meucci's are a good example. A lot of guys bad mouth them for being too whippy or what not, but I have and do play some bang up pool with Meucci's. They're a damn GOOD playing cue.
 
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The Sledgehammer break cue...

I just can't break a rack worth a dern with one.

*shrug*

I can break fine with this Colt I have with a Phenolic tip on a short ferrule...but that one piece Sledgehammer tip/ferrule job I had just did not work worth a dern for me.

No clue as to why.

Shorty
 
Shorty,... I've noticed more and more Break Cues with the short ferrule. Does that help at all? I was just thinking of trying one.
 
I agree. I like to hit the racks hard and with my Sledgehammer about 60% of the time the CB would go right off the table. Since then I have converted over to Predator BK (16oz.) and now I keep the ball on the table about 90% of the time. I gave the Sledge to my G/F and she actually breaks real good with it I think cause of the weight and her break speed is really not to radical.
 
I have to say, as far as shafts go. The Cuetec SST shafts are horrible. I couldn't make a ball to save my life. But the Vortex shaft is excellent. Give it a try, if you haven't used one.
 
Put Predator on the list for me. I had absolutely no feel with ball making OR position play with the few that I've tried.

And, at the risk of being flamed, I have to say that I tried one South West and one Balabushka many years ago, and I didn't like either one. The SW was too stiff (and this was at a time when I was using a 20 oz. Josswest with a 13.2mm shaft, so that's saying something). The Bushka felt like something wasn't right with it - like the buzz ring was loose or something. Very weird.
 
Coop1701 said:
Shorty,... I've noticed more and more Break Cues with the short ferrule. Does that help at all? I was just thinking of trying one.
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Nice dog, and yeah...I think the short ferrule/phenolic tip is a better way to go. The one piece setup just does not work for me. It's really a test and see thing with each person.

Get a few break cues together from buddies and just try one after the other and see what you are comfortable with is my recommendation.

Shorty
 
Shorty said:
Nice dog, and yeah...I think the short ferrule/phenolic tip is a better way to go. The one piece setup just does not work for me. It's really a test and see thing with each person.

Get a few break cues together from buddies and just try one after the other and see what you are comfortable with is my recommendation.

Shorty
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Thanks Shorty,... My dog is a 110 pound lap dog.

I've been debating on picking up a new Break cue. So I'll try some out.
 
drivermaker said:
For all the hype and how great it is...the unacceptable shaft for me is the Predator. I can't play worth a damn with one of those. I don't think I find ANY other shaft or cue out there to be unacceptable, other than the Cue-Tec shaft but not for performance...but for the sticky coating that you need to keep spraying their product on. Anyone else and why?
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Predator gets my vote too.
What I don't get is when someone tells me that they have a custom cue that plays unreal but they're using a Predator shaft.

One cue I had that was very well made but I had an awful time with it was a Jacoby. I don't know what it was other than it just wasn't for me.
Also, a buddy of mine has a Lucasi and I just don't like it. I think it's just the total lack of feedback but he likes it and that's all that matters.

Koop
 
Meucci is POO POO

My buddy is a Shade Tree Pool Dealer, and work out of part of a room in his House. Made me a Deal on a Meucci Power Piston II, with Red Dot Shafts. Whippiest Cue I ever OWNED. Sold, it and it was sold how many more time I forget. MEUCCI is POO
 
Bruce S. de Lis said:
My buddy is a Shade Tree Pool Dealer, and work out of part of a room in his House. Made me a Deal on a Meucci Power Piston II, with Red Dot Shafts. Whippiest Cue I ever OWNED. Sold, it and it was sold how many more time I forget. MEUCCI is POO
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Ya see, I think thats just a red dot shaft problem...the red dot shafts are like their old whippy shafts. You will find some people swear by all that mojo they put on the cueball. However, I am genuinely curious how a black dot shaft hits them. I may eventually find me a cheap Meucci with a black dot laminated shaft and see how it plays.

Shorty
 
Shorty said:
Ya see, I think thats just a red dot shaft problem...the red dot shafts are like their old whippy shafts.

Shorty
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I own 4 red dot shafts and about 6 black dots as well as a Meucci original circa 1980 which is stiff as a board. I have no clue where all of you get on this bandwagon about how whippy a red dot is. It's not like a whippy golf shaft that you can wiggle in your hand and feel the movement or in the transition from backswing to forward swing. How goddamn hard do you strike the CB to feel this supposed bend? Are you really ball bangers? You all make it sound like you're hitting with a bull whip...it's wood for chrissake!
 
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2 worst ones I've ever played with were both custom cues. One of them was the only cue I've ever thought was completely unplayable. It had inconsistent deflection. I'd stroke the ball the same way...and get different amounts of deflection everytime. Of all the cues I've gone through, I'd never encountered that before. I was traumatized after playing with that thing...even a month after I got rid of it I was nervous when I had to use english.

The second worst just had a really flimsy hit...the shaft would bounce around off the cueball to the point that it was scary - even on centerball hits. Everytime I made a long straight-in shot, I'd think - wow somehow the ball found its way all the way to the pocket.

That's why I agree with dm that a custom cue isn't necessarily the best answer. This might be a good topic for another thread - if I was given say $700 to go out and buy any cue (not allowed to try it out first tho) BUT I had to play with it for the rest of my life - you better believe it'd be a freakin schon.
 
Egg McDogit said:
2 worst ones I've ever played with were both custom cues. One of them was the only cue I've ever thought was completely unplayable. It had inconsistent deflection. I'd stroke the ball the same way...and get different amounts of deflection everytime. Of all the cues I've gone through, I'd never encountered that before.
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Do you remember what kind of ferrule it had and the joint size and joint collar?
 
drivermaker said:
Do you remember what kind of ferrule it had and the joint size and joint collar?
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I'm not sure what kind of ferrule it was...normal length for sure though. It had a phenolic joint with a radial pin.
 
Can't even play the lag with a Pred, but maybe it's just my stroke. I bought a Sledgehammer and I sold it after a week. I play with a Cognoscenti that came with 2 shafts, one is perfect, great hit and very low deflection, the other is very different, it deflects much more.
 
drivermaker said:
I own 4 red dot shafts and about 6 black dots as well as a Meucci original circa 1980 which is stiff as a board. I have no clue where all of you get on this bandwagon about how whippy a red dot is. It's not like a whippy golf shaft that you can wiggle in your hand and feel the movement or in the transition from backswing to forward swing. How goddamn hard do you strike the CB to feel this supposed bend? Are you really ball bangers? You all make it sound like you're hitting with a bull whip...it's wood for chrissake!
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Look drivermaker, I am basing my opinion upon the 4 or 5 Meucci's I owned during the early 90s. That is all I can say about those cues. Whippy...so whippy that when you struck the joint with the palm of your hand having the cue screwed together, the tip would vibrate like a damn tuning fork. Do you understand that now? I had a couple of 2 pointers, couple of Meucci originals, and a sneaky or two. I always gave them the benefit of the doubt, but they all hit like a bucket of POO POO.

Shorty
 
Shorty said:
Look drivermaker, I am basing my opinion upon the 4 or 5 Meucci's I owned during the early 90s. That is all I can say about those cues. Whippy...so whippy that when you struck the joint with the palm of your hand having the cue screwed together, the tip would vibrate like a damn tuning fork. Do you understand that now? I had a couple of 2 pointers, couple of Meucci originals, and a sneaky or two. I always gave them the benefit of the doubt, but they all hit like a bucket of POO POO.

Shorty
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I used to play with Meucci cues before I started building cues back in 80's. Back then they made a long taper but they made the shafts around 13.25mm which was plenty stiff even though the straight taper went a foot or so. I played with some that played great and others that were very whippy as you described. What I found to be the main difference was the joint size. I have seen Meucci joints as small as .780". Those whipped and vibrated just like you described. But those that had .830" or larger joints seemed to play much better. I also had my shafts sanded down to 13mm. My advice to anyone shopping for a Meucci to play with is to check the joint diameter. It really does make a ton of difference.

As far as the worse playing cue I have ever played with. I don't remember the brand, but I do remember the stainless steel ferrule. It sent the cue ball literally a inch or two away from where I was aiming it if I used much english. The draw was horrible and all other spin was phony feeling also.
Chris
www.hightowercues.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
AS WE'VE ALL SAID ON HERE BEFORE IT'S AN INDIVIDUAL
THING. i'VE GOT 30 CUES & MY JACOBY HITS AS GOOD
AS ANYTHING i'VE EVER HAD.


Koop said:
Predator gets my vote too.
What I don't get is when someone tells me that they have a custom cue that plays unreal but they're using a Predator shaft.

One cue I had that was very well made but I had an awful time with it was a Jacoby. I don't know what it was other than it just wasn't for me.
Also, a buddy of mine has a Lucasi and I just don't like it. I think it's just the total lack of feedback but he likes it and that's all that matters.

Koop
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Shorty said:
Whippy...so whippy that when you struck the joint with the palm of your hand having the cue screwed together, the tip would vibrate like a damn tuning fork. Do you understand that now?

Shorty
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If you whack the joint on ANY cue while holding the grip, you're going to get a certain amount of vibration like a tuning fork. ALL OF THEM!! Show me ONE CUE where you get NOTHING and I'll show you one made out of steel rebar. What the hell does that tell you? Unless you were to have some sort of frequency machine, nobody can judge vibrations by eye. Besides, you don't hit the cueball in the JOINT OF THE CUE. In order for any "WHIP" to take place it would have to bend in the middle of the shaft from pure force of impact like a pole does in the pole vault. I have never seen that happen with a Meucci or anything else because with normally applied force on a medium hit and a level cue, the ball comes off the tip too damn quickly. It's also the direction of the grain with head on impact...not side to side with a weight on the end like a golf club that's swung in a circular motion as opposed to linear in a cue.

I had some son of a bitch that I was fool enough to let borrow and play with one of my good cues, take it with the tip on the slate and apply all of his fat ass weight to it and bend the fucker like a banana so he could see how much flex was in it. I snatched the cue out of his hand and had to use all the restraint I could muster not to beat his skull into bloody mush.

What the hell did that tell him?? NOTHING!! You couldn't even hit a shot put ball hard enough to bend a cue like that!! Stupid idiot...and I STILL see guys doing it all the time like they have some super sense of feel in their hands for flex or torque. They might as well go to a used car lot and kick all the tires...that'll tell them about the same thing.

Can someone please tell me how much a shaft flexes upon normal impact and if there IS FLEX, which way does it supposedly bend to cause all of this "WHIP".
 
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