"Herman Rambow is credited with inventing the pro taper. But I visited Herman’s shop many times and knew him well, and I know that he never made a shaft that wasn’t tapered along its entire length. The taper was so minor in many cases, however, that you couldn’t feel it. Consequently, when cuemakers came along who wanted to imitate Herman’s cues, they mistakenly thought his shafts were cylindrical for some distance back from the tip. Hence the ‘modern’ pro taper.