Other carbon shafts might not be low deflection
Other carbon shafts might not be low deflection
I started with the 12.9 revo (the day it came out)
I've always been a big fan of any new tech Predator comes up with.
They are and have been the industry leaders in low deflection shafts from the day the original 314 was invented. Now the Revo is truly a "revolution", every company copying Predator and releasing their own version.
With that being said, my game went down hill very fast. I know because I was in an 8ball league that provides stats. However, I took on too many new things at one time and was coming back from 2-3 year hiatus. I went from a 11.72mm Z2 shaft to a 12.9mm revo, I also just took on the CTE system and decided to be cool and play with an extension on my cue at all times.
At first the glare on a black shaft was throwing me off, then not having a ferrule. I lost most of my confidence playing with it. After about 6 months I gave up! I then went back to the Z shaft, with all the experience playing with the 12.9mm--I knew now that the Z was probably not for me. I then started playing with a Vantage shaft. My game and confidence started coming back. More and more players started switching to the Revo, then the 12.4mm was released. One day I picked up the 12.9 revo and it was like magic! All of the sudden the glare was not an issue, the not ferrule was not an issue.
I continued to play with the 12.9 and eventually evolved to the 12.4.
I have looked at the 12.5 cuetecs. The different taper and .1mm does have me very interested and I feel that with the resolution of my stroke that extra .10 may be the perfect balance.
However, a buddy has the shaft and we set up a very difficult draw shot that requires you to jack up on the rail. Out of 3 players (that are all better then me) they could not make this shot accurately with the Cuetec, sometimes contacting 1/2 the object ball on a full ball shot. I was able to make it and get a little bit of draw(multiple times). When one of the players grabbed my cue, he made it twice!!!
I didn't think about it much, now after writing this thread. I'm contemplating that Predator owns patents on Low end mass technology on maple shafts. Meaning that no other cue manufacture was allowed to hollow out the first 6-8" of the top of the shaft. What patents do they own on carbon shafts...
Long story short, all these Revo wanna be's might not actually be anywhere near the low deflection that Predator's are. They might just be carbon versions of maple shafts. Meaning, you are not gaining much accuracy on these other brands. You are only getting the benefit of a smooth, un-warpable shaft. We would need a robot arm to really test this.