Which Shaft I2,I3, or G-Core
- Thread starter gbs52
- Start date
I play with the McDermott I-3. Great shaft. I also have an I-2 but prefer the I-3 with a 11.75mm tip.
100% agree with this.The i3 plays like a beast providing you like that diameter.Great Shaft!!
Great Thread...
Not trying to derail, just trying to give/get some perspective...
How do the I-Shafts compare to the Predator series shafts (G-Core/Fat, I2/314, I3/Z) ?
Not trying to derail, just trying to give/get some perspective...
How do the I-Shafts compare to the Predator series shafts (G-Core/Fat, I2/314, I3/Z) ?
I tried an I2 and I3. Nice feel but I would not call them LD. Maybe Semi-LD. They don't compare to Pred or OB for low squirt.
Nick
Nick
i agree...i have several of the i-shafts and they are not low deflection. in fact, in my testing it has slightly more deflection than most standard shafts. this is due to the design having a lot of weight up front. the ferrule may look small, but it actually extends into the shaft a bit and is a solid rod. the composite core they have also extends all the way to the tip and the composite materials are pretty heavy (relative to maple). hits nice though, but it's not an LD shaft.
I bought a McDermott cue about a year ago, and it came with a g-core shaft, and so far I have been very pleased with it. Before this cue I have only owned lucasi cues, they play great, but I was looking for something a little more. It is a 13mm dia and came with an everest tip, I had it replace recently with a kamui soft tip. My cue now plays better than any cue that I have ever owned or had the pleasure of test hitting. I love my g core, but have been thing of getting an i2 to try out. I have herd great things about them..
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Here is the data that originally was published by platinum cues and included in Dr. Dave's website. The I-series cues rate rather well but not as good as Predator for deflection. But if you do a search on this forum, you see many threads about quality issues with Predator shafts. McDermott has an iron-clad guarantee about warpage, etc for the I-series shafts. They have the best maintenance plan in the pool cue industry. These are some of the reasons I chose an I-3 shaft.
http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/squirt.html#data
^^I agree,, as far as ld and price your best off choosing the g-core ,more expensive dont mean its better..
For the record I owned and tried many ld shafts ,from pred 314,314-2 ,
pred z-1,my current player and fave pred z-2, i-1, i-2, ob 1, another current player of mine ob classic, lucasi hybrid, it all boils down to personal preference .........
actually those test results are no longer valid for the i-shaft. the i-shaft has been through a number of revisions and the newer ones perform much differently than the old ones. the initial i-shafts had a standard 1" ferrule. i don't know much about the design of those. then they had a 2nd gen, with the short ferrule with a reverse tenon. this is the one tested by platinum. it had less deflection than the current design since the composite core was a hollow tube and left unfilled. however it hit funny and so later mcdermott began filling the hollow composite tube with maple dowels at the tip end. they call it 'isolator' technology to reduce vibration. i'm sure it helped with the weird composite sound. it also made the shaft slightly heavier overall, though the i shafts remain on the light side, but earlier gens were super light. however it also added mass back to the front end, so they actually kind of took a step backwards in terms of deflection. so if you look at the tip end of the current i-shafts, it's solid maple, plus a composite tube, plus a not so small ferrule if you add in the tenon you can't see. add that up, and you've got more mass than a standard shaft. i do think they hit nice (haven't tried the earlier i-shafts), but LD they are not.