Why bumperless?

[iba7467]

Excuse me? You've never missed a six ball with the opponent on the hill, in an eight ahead for $500 and slammed it so hard it shattered and shot part of the buttcap into the bar adjacent to the poolroom? I mean, it could happen.

I was using a girl's cue one time while gambling. I missed a ball and slam, chip went the ivory butt cap. I paid to send it back to the cue maker to be fixed. It ended up costing me double what I won off the guy. I should not have treated her cue that way, but lesson learned. Since this incident, I could probably have a bumperless cue.

 

[StrokeofLuck]

Maybe someone with more historical knowledge than me can chime in but I had an old player tell me once that in the pool halls way back they would tap the butt of the cue on the floor to get a racker to come over and rack the balls, hence no bumper wanted. True or not true I don't know but thought I would pass it along.

 

[rackem]

Maybe someone with more historical knowledge than me can chime in but I had an old player tell me once that in the pool halls way back they would tap the butt of the cue on the floor to get a racker to come over and rack the balls, hence no bumper wanted. True or not true I don't know but thought I would pass it along.

Tap Tap Tap was for a good shot.:thumbup:
"Rackem Keeter" was to get the rack guy over.:grin:
Lots of old Palmers had no bumpers. That's why it is so cool to find one with the original butt tailpiece.:wink:

 

[sfleinen]

Vibration-dampening effect of rubber bumper

The right cue vibrates from end to end and that bit of dampening on the end of the cue can indeed change harmonics a little. Depends on what you like and how sensitive you are as to if it is a good thing or bad. I'm thinking about putting delrin bumpers on my cues, for no good reason at all.

Hu

Folks:

Hu hits on a point here. There's actually a product out on the market called "LimbSaver X-1" that is a concentrically-ringed special rubber bumper that one can install in place of the original bumper:

http://poolndarts.com/p-5470-Limbsaver-X-Cue-Stick-Stabilizer/

I was originally skeptical of these things ("how can a rubber bumper at the one end of the cue affect the hit that's happening on the opposite end??"), but after understanding a bit of vibration harmonics, I happened upon an opportunity to get one of these cheap to try it out. I installed one of these on a very, very old Players cue (circa late 1980s -- probably when they were still very well-made) I had that'd lost its original rubber bumper. (It'd worked its way out and fell out on its own one day -- never could find it.)

I gotta tell ya, folks, this thing does make a difference. The difference ranges from very subtle to noticeable -- depending on how hard you hit the cue ball. Originally, this particular cue had a very noticeable vibrating "ponk" sound when the cue ball was hit hard. (The sound was nice -- very woody, but the vibration is what I'm emphasizing here.) There wasn't anything loose inside the cue, it just resonated pretty noticeably, especially if I had to hit a shot hard to stun the cue ball for position. I could actually feel the vibration way back in my grip hand. I was pleasantly surprised at the difference the LimbSaver made -- the cue still had its nice woody "ponk" sound, but the vibration was gone, even with a very hard stun shot. For this particular cue, the LimbSaver was a match made in heaven.

Anyway, that's a take on the rubber bumper from a different end of the spectrum -- shock absorption from shots, vs. tapping the cue's butt on the floor.

Hope this is helpful!
-Sean