What to buy in Vegas?

K

kleinm3351f

New member
Hi all,

Heading to Vegas to play in the APA 9-Ball Worlds for my first time ever, woohoo! I know there are going to be a ton of vendors there and, even though I'm not exactly flush with expendable income at the moment, I know it's my chance to get the best pricing on whatever I may want.

Shaft Replacement: Do people buy just new shafts to go on their existing cues? I have a Viking Vikore High Performance cue that was around $280. It was a 20 or 21 weight, if I remember correctly (remember thinking it might have been too heavy after I had it for a few weeks, but now I love it). I don't need a whole new cue, but I'm wondering if I can benefit from a shaft upgrade. Is that even a thing, or am I stuck to a similar level shaft as the entire cue was? When I see all the high-deflection, low-deflection, carbon fiber, etc... can I save money by just getting the new shaft rather than the whole new cue or do they have to go together?

Thanks!
 
kleinm3351f said:
Hi all,

Heading to Vegas to play in the APA 9-Ball Worlds for my first time ever, woohoo! I know there are going to be a ton of vendors there and, even though I'm not exactly flush with expendable income at the moment, I know it's my chance to get the best pricing on whatever I may want.

Shaft Replacement: Do people buy just new shafts to go on their existing cues? I have a Viking Vikore High Performance cue that was around $280. It was a 20 or 21 weight, if I remember correctly (remember thinking it might have been too heavy after I had it for a few weeks, but now I love it). I don't need a whole new cue, but I'm wondering if I can benefit from a shaft upgrade. Is that even a thing, or am I stuck to a similar level shaft as the entire cue was? When I see all the high-deflection, low-deflection, carbon fiber, etc... can I save money by just getting the new shaft rather than the whole new cue or do they have to go together?

Thanks!
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I have to point out, if did not know that you can swap your shaft out on your existing cue, you may not be ready to do so LOL If you are on a team that reached Vegas, you did not have anyone on your team that can help you out with this to explain how the shafts work? That is not a good sign LOL

You have to know WHY you want to swap out the shaft, and try out like 10 different ones to really get a feel for one that you would want to use. From seeing a lot of players play around with different shafts and cues, it seems about a year of solid play is when someone gets enough experience and skill to really dial into a shaft and cue that they know will work with how they shoot.

Spend some time playing with friends in your local pool hall, try out what they use, get a closer feel for what you like and then pick out something for yourself instead of just thinking "I want a new thingie". Just a change won't do anything past cost you money, you should know why you want to do the change. Having an instructor or a high level player watch you shoot is also a good idea since they can tell you if you are missing due to just not being able to compensate for deflection or some other factors. That really goes into the year of playing experience also, to know how to fix something or get better you have to know what the issues are. If you are missing due to deflection, then an LD shaft can help you. If you are missing because you don't line up wrong or move your arms/hands on the shot, etc.. then a new shaft won't do anything for you.
 
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With all due respect the jokes and one attempt at a helpful reply are the reason I don't ask much from the players in the pool hall. There are a lot of a-holes around and they all think they know what they're talking about. I thought perhaps a considered and thoughtful answer from someone with more experience was something I could find here, and did on another post regarding when to buy a new cue.

Another thing about my team is that they're all so damned excited to spend upwards of $500 on new cues and breaking cues that they actually think are going to improve their game when they are not playing anywhere near a skill level that it would actually make a difference leads me to steer way clear of them.

Of course I'm aware that it's physically possible to switch shafts. I've seen pros on youtube who carry half a dozen with them at any given time, but a wooden half and a carbon fiber half for some reason in my mind just wouldn't make sense together, but who knows, maybe someone here might be able to answer something like that. Is the butt not important at all and you can interchange any shaft you want?
 
kleinm3351f said:
With all due respect the jokes and one attempt at a helpful reply are the reason I don't ask much from the players in the pool hall. There are a lot of a-holes around and they all think they know what they're talking about. I thought perhaps a considered and thoughtful answer from someone with more experience was something I could find here, and did on another post regarding when to buy a new cue.

Another thing about my team is that they're all so damned excited to spend upwards of $500 on new cues and breaking cues that they actually think are going to improve their game when they are not playing anywhere near a skill level that it would actually make a difference leads me to steer way clear of them.

Of course I'm aware that it's physically possible to switch shafts. I've seen pros on youtube who carry half a dozen with them at any given time, but a wooden half and a carbon fiber half for some reason in my mind just wouldn't make sense together, but who knows, maybe someone here might be able to answer something like that. Is the butt not important at all and you can interchange any shaft you want?
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This is a family site,please be careful,think of the children when you post.
 
Just hangout in the tournament room. Vendors are everywhere with tables set up to try their equipment. Hit with as many as you need to until you find what you like. For me the shaft and tip are the most important any butt will do with the right shaft.
 
easy-e said:
Vegas hookers usually aren't independent, which makes them more expensive. Check out you local area on listcrawler.com for the best deals. :)
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A player in my room was dying from a terminal lung problem a few years ago and went to Vegas and got a call girl.
He said she was smoking hot and cost him $1500.
A couple years later he got a lung transplant and is as close to brand new today.
True story.
 
kleinm3351f said:
With all due respect the jokes and one attempt at a helpful reply are the reason I don't ask much from the players in the pool hall. There are a lot of a-holes around and they all think they know what they're talking about. I thought perhaps a considered and thoughtful answer from someone with more experience was something I could find here, and did on another post regarding when to buy a new cue.
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Right back at ya with the respect thing. However you did entitle the thread "what to buy in vegas", and I was serious about the discount Toam chalk. I fully intent on doing so when I visit in August.

Shaft stuff is so subjective it's hard to get up the desire to suggest anything. Frankly, the only real way to take on the experiment is to demo other players cues to gain some wisdom, or be prepared to chase your shaft buying tail for a few years.
 
kleinm3351f said:
With all due respect the jokes and one attempt at a helpful reply are the reason I don't ask much from the players in the pool hall. There are a lot of a-holes around and they all think they know what they're talking about. I thought perhaps a considered and thoughtful answer from someone with more experience was something I could find here, and did on another post regarding when to buy a new cue.

Another thing about my team is that they're all so damned excited to spend upwards of $500 on new cues and breaking cues that they actually think are going to improve their game when they are not playing anywhere near a skill level that it would actually make a difference leads me to steer way clear of them.

Of course I'm aware that it's physically possible to switch shafts. I've seen pros on youtube who carry half a dozen with them at any given time, but a wooden half and a carbon fiber half for some reason in my mind just wouldn't make sense together, but who knows, maybe someone here might be able to answer something like that. Is the butt not important at all and you can interchange any shaft you want?
Click to expand...

The people using carbon fiber shafts in most cases are just on normal ole cue butts made of wood. They do make all carbon cues but those are rare to run across. It's all personal preference as to how you like the deflection and hit feel in a cue. Think of the butt as a handle to the shaft, shaft is the aiming part and has a large portion of the hit feel. The back end of the cue is for balance, grip, the other part of the hit feel but nothing to do with the performance of actually making a ball. Like I said before, it's not a great idea to just look to swap shafts, unless you are OK with spending a few hundred on an experiment, without first knowing if it will do you any good. To even to start to get an idea of what shaft is better than another for you, I think it takes at least 5 different shafts to narrow things down, and 10 to really get a good idea of what you want to stick with. That is not even going into the tip changes you can do on the shafts, which makes that number go up by 4,5,6 or more times since any shaft you get you can stick 3/4 different hardness tips on and each of those can have different construction options.

I'm sure there are players around you with several shafts that would let you try things out first before you go looking, most players I know are more than happy to show off their equipment and talk about why they picked it. Just need to not be afraid to approach them. I actually just talked to someone a bit new to playing that was looking to swap out a cue or shaft for another one, I played with what he had and it shot as good as anything I owned, he really had no need to swap out the equipment. Was using a cue that was $250 total that had a great shaft on it, I did a few test shots and had no issues with using the shaft swapping from my $500 Revo hehe
 
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hang-the-9 said:
The people using carbon fiber shafts in most cases are just on normal ole cue butts made of wood. They do make all carbon cues but those are rare to run across. It's all personal preference as to how you like the deflection and hit feel in a cue. Think of the butt as a handle to the shaft, shaft is the aiming part and has a large portion of the hit feel. The back end of the cue is for balance, grip, the other part of the hit feel but nothing to do with the performance of actually making a ball. Like I said before, it's not a great idea to just look to swap shafts, unless you are OK with spending a few hundred on an experiment, without first knowing if it will do you any good. To even to start to get an idea of what shaft is better than another for you, I think it takes at least 5 different shafts to narrow things down, and 10 to really get a good idea of what you want to stick with. That is not even going into the tip changes you can do on the shafts, which makes that number go up by 4,5,6 or more times since any shaft you get you can stick 3/4 different hardness tips on and each of those can have different construction options.

I'm sure there are players around you with several shafts that would let you try things out first before you go looking, most players I know are more than happy to show off their equipment and talk about why they picked it. Just need to not be afraid to approach them.
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Very helpful. Thank you. I had no concept of the importance of a whole cue as it relates to just one half, but have been sensing that the shaft is where it's at (jokes already made or thought of...). I've been trying the other guys' cues on my team, but I'll need to start asking them (and they'll need to know) about all the specs as I do. I'm sure I'll have tons of time in Vegas after we lose the first or second match to try the vendors out. :)
 
kleinm3351f said:
Very helpful. Thank you. I had no concept of the importance of a whole cue as it relates to just one half, but have been sensing that the shaft is the where it's at (jokes already made or thought of...). I've been trying the other guys' cues on my team, but I'll need to start asking them (and they'll need to know) about all the specs as I do. I'm sure I'll have tons of time in Vegas after we lose the first or second match to try the vendors out. :)
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For a CF, the OB Carbon is excellent and is cheaper than many of them. I like it at least as much as the Revo or Mezz Ignite and they cost $100+ more. If you can find one of those I recommend trying it out.

Out of curiosity, what area are you in? I have done quite a bit of travel for work and have yet to run into a pool room where players would not share what they know. Last week I was in Ohio and had a few people I met 10 minutes before hand me stuff to try out hehe
 
kleinm3351f said:
Very helpful. Thank you. I had no concept of the importance of a whole cue as it relates to just one half, but have been sensing that the shaft is where it's at (jokes already made or thought of...). I've been trying the other guys' cues on my team, but I'll need to start asking them (and they'll need to know) about all the specs as I do.
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You may think I'm joking again, but my advice is to not worry about "all the specs" and instead focus on just hitting balls with available options until you find something you feel warrants a purchase. During my last trip to vegas I was dead set on buying a cue. I hit countless configurations and I even found a predator I was willing to own. Fortunately the seller wouldn't budge on price so I passed. No need to force anything, and the deals arent that great in Vegas, even if you manage to find some tiny discount.

You can literally chase a "right set up" for eternity without ever finding it. Humans are adaptive, and as long as you stick with something that "feels good" the rest will sort itself out.
 
The_JV said:
You may think I'm joking again, but my advice is to not worry about "all the specs" and instead focus on just hitting balls with available options until you find something you feel warrants a purchase. During my last trip to vegas I was dead set on buying a cue. I hit countless configurations and I even found a predator I was willing to own. Fortunately the seller wouldn't budge on price so I passed. No need to force anything, and the deals arent that great in Vegas, even if you manage to find some tiny discount.

You can literally chase a "right set up" for eternity without ever finding it. Humans are adaptive, and as long as you stick with something that "feels good" the rest will sort itself out.
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Agreed. If you don't know what you're looking for then just start picking up every cue you can and hit a few balls. Once you find something you really like figure out the specs, then, if wanted, you could start trying things slightly different to fine tune your preferences.
 
kleinm3351f said:
Of course I'm aware that it's physically possible to switch shafts. I've seen pros on youtube who carry half a dozen with them at any given time, but a wooden half and a carbon fiber half for some reason in my mind just wouldn't make sense together, but who knows, maybe someone here might be able to answer something like that. Is the butt not important at all and you can interchange any shaft you want?
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No need to have a cf butt to shoot a cf shaft. You see it all the time:
C831E59C-8C30-445D-9869-E1058024D48F.heic

As long as there is some grey or black in the butt it looks great and plays awesome. Try some from various sources. These are two Meucci Carbon Pros and a McDermott with a Defy shaft.
 
I was very annoyed with myself that I didn't get an APA World Tourney shirt while I was out there the one time I got to go. A couple of my teammates did, and I wince everytime I see one of them wearing one. (I waited to buy one, and they had closed up shop the last day that I was there...)

There were a lot of cue vendors, certainly. Sensory overload for me...
 
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