Wood vs carbon fiber shafts for top pros - I went through the Fargo top 100 to see who uses what

PS.

Here's the shaft that has the most power, imo.
Screenshot_20260522-100350.jpg

Using pool to test a shaft's power is akin to driving the speed limit to test a car's power
 
kingwang said:
You can see the entire list in this spreadsheet here.

Some takeaways
  • Of the top 100, 46 players use wood, 53 use carbon fiber, and 1 uses fiberglass (Skylar Woodward)
  • Wood is way more popular than CF in Asia. For example, 8/10 Taiwanese pros and 20/30 Filipino pros on the list use wood
  • Carbon fiber is way more popular than wood in Europe. For example, the 5/6 of the Polish pros on the list use carbon fiber
Click to expand...
Have you updated your list for this year? I am curious if more players began playing with CF or Kielwood? I'd be curious to learn what you find out.....
 
I put a CF shaft on one of my beautiful traditional cues and sometimes when I saw the black fishing pole shaft on my beautiful tan maple cue, I burped up a little vomit. This threw off my timing so I switched back to wood.

I occasionally have dreams of swimming in the ocean being chased by a Nazi submarine which is half black and half tan.
 
RAMIII said:
Have you updated your list for this year? I am curious if more players began playing with CF or Kielwood? I'd be curious to learn what you find out.....
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I'm also curious, but it took me about an hour to compile these results and I'm not motivated enough to do it again. Unfortunately, it's not a task that's automatable with AI yet, based on my testing a few months ago.
 
kingwang said:
I'm also curious, but it took me about an hour to compile these results and I'm not motivated enough to do it again. Unfortunately, it's not a task that's automatable with AI yet, based on my testing a few months ago.
Click to expand...
I understand and look forward to updated results when motivation kicks in! Thanks for sharing your prior findings!
 
kingwang said:
You can see the entire list in this spreadsheet here.

Some takeaways
  • Of the top 100, 46 players use wood, 53 use carbon fiber, and 1 uses fiberglass (Skylar Woodward)
  • Wood is way more popular than CF in Asia. For example, 8/10 Taiwanese pros and 20/30 Filipino pros on the list use wood
  • Carbon fiber is way more popular than wood in Europe. For example, the 5/6 of the Polish pros on the list use carbon fiber
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, what if you remove the sponsored players? Who uses wood, and who uses CF, that is not playing for a sponsor, and their cue? I guess all the top 100 players are sponsored though.

I bet a lot of players from Taiwan use a South West, or something similar, like a Zen, for example.
 
billiards_watch said:
Carbon is a power and spin monster. It does raise a person's game and I can't deny this. Wood plays with more precision and input from the shooter. I can play very similar with both but you have to put more effort with wood in my opinion.

I put both to the test with a local player and when he plays with wood the shape and setups look a bit more natural and pretty to the eyes. Gave him the carbon and he has a tendency to stun shots, lay up on shots and just spinning the rock. It almost goes against physics. That's how I describe how both play.

When you know you can do certain things with a CF shaft then you do it. With wood you know its limitations and you play to it. A bit more input. I think its a lot more fun with wood and each cue shoots differently versus the same CF shafts from various manufacturers.
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CF shafts seem (to me) to hit very different from each other. Some suck, and some really suck. The Whyte Carbon, has been by far, the best that I ever tried out. Has an amazing feel, and really amazing power, and feedback. Kind of hard for me to explain. It was a huge game changer for me though, the 1st night I tried one out. I still have not tried out a lot of them though, like the REVO, and the Cynergy.
 
For years I never liked CF shafts other than breaking. I had tried all the different brands, and potted balls fine, the just felt bad with a bad sound. Also, glove was needed you CF for me. Wood shafts i never needed a glove. Cf shafts i did.

Fast forward to dec 2025. I received my new lambros and his exact words were “do yourself a favor, get one wood and one cf shaft “. So i did, who am i to argue? And i love the cf shaft. No weird sound. Solid hit. Was easy to move the ball. Too easy, i have to dial it back. But i have to use a glove.

I still dislike the production shafts. But Mike’s cf shaft is something else. I even ordered a second for back up.
 
vintagecollectibles831 said:
Just out of curiosity, what if you remove the sponsored players? Who uses wood, and who uses CF, that is not playing for a sponsor, and their cue? I guess all the top 100 players are sponsored though.

I bet a lot of players from Taiwan use a South West, or something similar, like a Zen, for example.
Click to expand...
Most of the sponsored players are sponsored by companies that offer wood or CF and in some occasions KW.
As many pros are sponsored by a cue company, removing them from the list will leave you with nothing interesting
 
skor said:
Most of the sponsored players are sponsored by companies that offer wood or CF and in some occasions KW.
As many pros are sponsored by a cue company, removing them from the list will leave you with nothing interesting
Click to expand...

Cuetec doesn't make a high level wood shaft anymore, and doesn't Predator encourage their sponsored players to use Revos?

So I do think it plays somewhat of a role.
 
skor said:
Most of the sponsored players are sponsored by companies that offer wood or CF and in some occasions KW.
As many pros are sponsored by a cue company, removing them from the list will leave you with nothing interesting
Click to expand...

Okay, yeah, good point. Josh Filler, for example was switching between his REVO and a 314-3 shaft, iirc. He liked the 314-3 better there for awhile.
 
Lowell said:
Cuetec doesn't make a high level wood shaft anymore, and doesn't Predator encourage their sponsored players to use Revos?

So I do think it plays somewhat of a role.
Click to expand...
They have the Avid line which is wood covered with fiberglass, Skyler Woodward is a CueTec sponsored player that is using it.

Carlo Biado is a Predator player that uses wood shafts and so is Kaci.

Corey Deuel, Tyler Styer and Billy Thorpe are all Meucci players that use KW shafts while the company does offer CF shafs.

Jayson Shaw plays with a JFlower SMO wood (hybrid shaft)

Savannah Easton plays with a Lucasi Hybrid KW shaft

All sponsored players
I’m sure there are more for example

But the majority use CF and I believe that it is player’s choice and not a sponsorship thing
 
MmmSharp said:
For years I never liked CF shafts other than breaking. I had tried all the different brands, and potted balls fine, the just felt bad with a bad sound. Also, glove was needed you CF for me. Wood shafts i never needed a glove. Cf shafts i did.

Fast forward to dec 2025. I received my new lambros and his exact words were “do yourself a favor, get one wood and one cf shaft “. So i did, who am i to argue? And i love the cf shaft. No weird sound. Solid hit. Was easy to move the ball. Too easy, i have to dial it back. But i have to use a glove.

I still dislike the production shafts. But Mike’s cf shaft is something else. I even ordered a second for back up.
Click to expand...
Mike doesn’t have just a shaft on his website
 
I swore I would never use CF, I've been using a Becue cue for 5 yrs now, best hitting cue I've ever owned, if you've never tried a CF cue try the Becue, The Butt is CF too, one thing Becue does differently than other manufacturers is design different shafts for different types of hit, most manufacturers build the best shaft ever until a couple years and then the new shaft is the best ever, Becue has the original Prime shaft, reminds me of a Muecci shaft, the Engage shaft which feels like a true CF shaft, not a lot of feedback, and my favorite shaft, the Prime II shaft, to me it has the perfect blend of feedback and CF shaft feel to me, one thing I've found is shaft diameter doesn't make as much difference like in a wood shaft, so if you are used to playing with a 13 mm shaft you can use their 12.9 mm Engage shaft and still get the advantage of low deflection in a size shaft that feels comfortable to you, best way to know is hit one for yourself, Becue has many options for a cue that works for you 😉
 
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