General Questions about my equipment

2/21/2010 11:30:08 AM

General Questions about my equipment

I'm starting to get into pool seriously. I'm 19 and have played the last 5 years every once in a while at my friends house. I also have a table at my house, but we rarely used it because I didn't have very nice cues. Moved to college this year and they had a pool table in the lobby. The cues were house cues and were terrible quality. They were all warped.

I set out to get my own cue. I know a guy who is an excellent player and said he would sell me a cue. He kept forgetting to bring it so he let me borrow his "Joss" cue that he carried around. Awesome cue, shot some of my best games with that stick. Finally he brought it and I bought his "Players" cue for $40-50. After about 6 months I got frustrated and broke it. Was pissed and went out and bought another cue. I went to the local shop and picked up a "GW Collection" something or another. Nice stick, it has a quick release thing and I got them to throw in an extra tip end. I planned on getting them re-tipped and having a 'breaking tip' and a 'playing tip'. Got the whole setup for like 175, which I thought was a decent deal. I've been really happy with this stick so far, but here comes my questions.

Tips: The Joss stick had some layered tip on it. I really liked it and planned on switching to at some point. I played with the stock tips and played well and didn't mind the feel of it. I think it is considered a "hard tip" is there advantages of switching to a different tip. Which ones are recommended. (Both break tip and playing tip) My playing style is not soft, but it's not hard. I put spin on all shots in attempts to shot make. I find I have good control on short shots, but anything across the table I can't manage to get much spin.

Tip Scuffers: Per recommendation of the buddy who sold me the players cue I got a "Willards" shaping/scuffing tool. I think it works pretty well, but don't know exactly what I'm looking for. I saw the cuetec "bowtie" tool, is that any good. Any other good recommendations.

Chalk: The pool shop sells Masters chalk for 30 cents a block. This is how I originally found this forum. Is this good chalk? Does color matter? I was playing with this red/orange chalk and it seems as if the other colors stick better, but it could just be the color. I'm open to switching to any brand color there is.

Jump Cues: The league I joined allows jump cues. Problem is I know nothing about them. I'm pretty tall with long arms and can use my stick and get the cue ball to jump a little bit and spin around different balls. I'm thinking a good jump stick would be fun and good to have. Any recommendations, links, etc. I'd like to keep it easily under 100 because I'm not a professional by an means and this will only see limited use.

Anything I'm missing or should have? Are there any good discount online stores that I don't know about. I am skeptical of ordering from some spots I see because they look like they could be a little shady and sell cheap Chinese crap.

rootbeer506

General Questions about my equipment

Title: General Questions about my equipment
Author: rootbeer506
Published: 2/21/2010 11:30:08 AM