Your thoughts and opinions please…

[boogieman]

I am considering trying a Bulletproof hard tip for my break cue.
It's just a cheap cue I won at a league end of year drawing 30+ years ago.. cost about 100.00 at the time....
About the same time I bought my Meucci HOF 1 for 320.00

If you mean the recoil I would do something different. It's a great hard tip for a playing cue but it's a bit lacking for breaking, unless you break and play with the same cue. Their regular tips are supposed to be good (I've never used them though so I can't give an opinion).

My favorite break tip is a Hammerhead 2 from Outsville. It's really similar to a White Diamond but it has a bit more oomph to it. The WD is a bit more muted, not magnitudes more or anything but the HH2 is a similar style tip that hits a bit more crisp.

 

[Straightpool_99]

I believe phenolic has been banned as of about 10 years ago. It was putting half moon craters into cueballs.

The break cues these days have a slightly softer material, but still harder than regular playing tips.

I think that was G10. Some g10 tips were harder than the phenolic in the balls. Breaking with these tips made a "breaking glass" sound. Very high pitched and unpleasant to listen to.

As for the OP's question; Yes, you can add a phenolic tip to a cue and break with it. I would, however, not recommend certain ld cues, like predator Z, 314's and the like, as over time you can end up destroying the cue. Hollow front ends and lightweight ferrules do not mix with power breaks. Small cracks can appear around the ferrule and the shaft can break. I saw a 314 shaft explode into hundreds of matchsized pieces once, after the owner ignored the small cracks. The ferrule ended up on top of the pool lights. It was a tournament and the match had to be paused in order to clean the table of splinters. The guy had a monster break, but it was still shocking and surprising to see that result.

 

[The Old Jaybird]

I am considering trying a Bulletproof hard tip for my break cue.
It's just a cheap cue I won at a league end of year drawing 30+ years ago.. cost about 100.00 at the time....
About the same time I bought my Meucci HOF 1 for 320.00

Sounds like a good candidate to me. In addition to a phenolic tip, there are some hard leather break tips too. One of my "breakers" is a 18 ounce fiberglass wrapped cheap cue about 30 years old. Just had it retipped with a Triangle, sort of a medium-hard option. But I am old and don't bang em like I used too.

 

[Brother Ron]

For many years I broke with the same cue I played with and it had a very soft tip on it.
I used a second ball break and always had good breaks and pocketed lots of balls and sometime the 8 ball in the side.
I don't need a rock hard tip for breaking as I like to have good control of the cue ball.

 

[gregcantrall]

And I put "hitting the balls squarely" before "speed" because it's far more important.

Ding Ding Ding
Cole broke with his Joss with ivory ferrule and waterbuffalo tip. He explained it along that line. Surely he could be accurate with a break cue but he was so tuned to the weight balance and flex of his shooter. The slightest change could lower the quality of the results.
He proofed his theories in play.