I have been away from a computer the past three days at my daughter's volleyball tournament. They took 21st out of 144 teams at the 15 year old age group so they did well....
Okay, so it sounds like there is more interest in what Executive Billiards has done to date and where we are going relative to the "bell-like" sound when the balls roll against the aluminum..... I apologize in advance for the wordiness, but I want to make sure we provide a thorough response.
Over 18 months ago, we began to test different materials to make the rack more quiet. Even though the number of complaints would be considered small, we still felt a necessity to solve an issue that some people had. Those of you that have read all the threads regarding the sound, have heard more positive than negative comments. Our goal to develop the perfect tight rack that would appeal to 100% of the players had a sound blemish that a small percentage of people wanted us to take care of.
We spoke with players and brainstormed ideas for 6 months. We even looked at redesigning the rack, but quickly learned that we would then have to sacrifice features that are more important to the break, than the sound. We spoke with sound engineers who gave us ideas on how to change the sound. We tried tapes, insulation, and leather with five goals in mind. 1. To not sacrifice the integrity of the tight rack. 2. Reduce the sound to a level that would be acceptable by the few people that saw it as a problem. 3. Keep the weight addition as minimal as possible. 4. Come up with a solution that would last for many years. 5. Keep the cost down so the majority of people could afford the option.
We tried many variations and found that the thickness of the leather made a big difference. Thanks to a pool hall by the name of Gate City Billiards, we found a solution for both the Regular and Elite racks. We had several leather choices and selected the current grade to ensure longevity. At first, we sold some leather inserts without tape and found that in humid and dry conditions, the leather could change enough to pop out. Since we added a high grade two-way tape, we have heard of no issues with the leather coming out.
If there is a demand for it, we could sell the Delta-13 racks with the leather glued in, but we have not had demand for this product. Only about 3% of our sales have asked for inserts, and that includes all the racks we have sold over 3 years. Simply put, we did not want to increase the price on our racks and force everyone to pay for it.
We have an outside die cutter make the leather inserts for us. Unfortunately, cutting leather is not as accurate a process as cutting aluminum and there may be situations where a person may need to trim the leather. That's just the nature of using leather but we feel it is the best solution.
Inserts for both the Delta-13 Regular and Elite can be purchased on our web site....
www.delta-13.com. There is a different size for each rack as the ergonomic grip on the Regular is wider. The best prices can be found from our distributors in the $12 to $20 range. Soon, you will be able to purchase these inserts with custom laser engraving. As far as being a "money-maker:" this product was developed to make our customers happy and its probably one of the lowest margin products in the industry. It does work quite well and gets us pretty darn close to the perfect rack, but most of our customers feel the rack is perfect without the leather.
We'll do our best not to "rest on our laurels," and we'll continue to listen to our customer's needs and seek solutions and products that are focused on quality, improving the game of pool, and having more fun.:thumbup:
