More of my sucky fuzzy pictures, I’ve tried every different focus with this camera, I don’t know… You can kinda see where the steps start on the woods, the driver is tipped an inch further than standard for a bore through and the 3 is stock because of the taper tip. I lost the original wood plug when we removed the shaft, shame really that wood plug gave it a nice feel. The feel is still excellent with this PT, as solid as any persimmon, just a little more of a click than the thud of wood. And it’s super super stiff and heavy at D4, that taper is what an X should be, way way stiffer than the tipped X3 in the driver. Such a shame that those .320 taper wood shafts have gone extinct. I’d love to play them in all the woods, so far it feels like the best wood shaft I’ve ever hit.
LCD
I just bought some S400 (18 total) for $5 a shaft and have asked if he could add 10 of S400 or X1/2 would shafts. The guy has tons of DG shafts even for lot sale.
My question LCD is that the s400 should be pretty close to the X1 in swing weight category. What if tip trim them by one or two inches. Is there any parallel section in the tapered tip?
LCDeV, what did you do with the pin holes? Tape em up and have the epoxy fill in? Nice set…
Hey CD
Is your driveway clear of the snow now. I remeber you got some pinned shafts out some time ago. Can you ever hope to save the shaft. I have a set of Macgregor M75s. A while ago I fiddled with the pins but gave up as there was no way I could punch them out without major damage to the hosel. I guess the easiest will be to cut the shaft short enough and then drill through the hole.
Oh man, this would be so much more fun if it wasn’t 45 degrees. The skinnys are bringing me to tears. I’m getting quite a workout just carrying the bag from the truck to to hitting stall, it’s like carrying concrete…
LCD
I just bought some S400 (18 total) for $5 a shaft and have asked if he could add 10 of S400 or X1/2 would shafts. The guy has tons of DG shafts even for lot sale.
My question LCD is that the s400 should be pretty close to the X1 in swing weight category. What if tip trim them by one or two inches. Is there any parallel section in the tapered tip?
What are they, wood or iron and what’s the tip diameter? The only thing I would want right now would be any X wood shaft with a .320 tip. For that shaft I’d redrill a persimmon head and retro-fit the taper shaft. It’s that good. As for those S4s you’re talking about they’re fine, really good in fact as they are. They’re heavier than the X1 and are a better shaft. Be careful messing around with tipping taper shafts. That’s how fingers get broken on tiny mishits. I doubt I’m gonna ever want to hardstep the iron shafts, they will be really nice the way they are for many years to come. Besides when you trim the tip on a taper you are actually removing the stiffest part. They’re made they way they are for a reason and the tapers are the best shafts ever made. If you had one of these clubs in your hands you’d feel it immediately. The only way to swing them is with the big muscles, they’re absolute anvils, especially the 3 wood and the wedges.
CD, thx. I filled the pinholes with epoxy, yes. If I want I can epoxy ball bearings in the holes later if I want to cover them up but whatever.
LCDV, or anyone else for that matter that feels confident enough to give an educated answer, I own a set of irons that i like very much. However, they have .370 hosels (to make things worse, they are also cast - but from soft carbon steel. They were good enough for IBF to win The Open with though). Now I see Golfsmith and various other component shops sell brass shims, that allow you to put a .355 shaft in a .370 hosel. Throw some shafting beads (or sand or sugar) in the epoxy and the .355 shafts should fit nicely. But (!), would that give me the better performance of a .355 shaft over a .370 shaft, or would it only allow me to put in a .355 shaft that works less well as it sits in a hosel not designed for a taper tipped shaft?
I don’t see why not. I’d just be careful not to fill the tip of the shaft with epoxy and sand. Tape it a little and it should be fine. You’re talking about the old Daiwa’s, right?
I can tell already that these .335 wood shafts are junk, like ladies shafts. That’s just great… Now I gotta find taper wood shafts that are really extinct. I should have known better, I’m never hitting a parallel tip anything again. At least I have that PT ready for now. I can play that off the tee while the new hunt is on…
Correct. Daiwa Advisor DG-273.
Another question that involves installing shafts: (wooden) dowels. Yes or no.
I read a lot of possitive stories on the use of dowels in the irons. Shots would feel more solid. And less vibration.
I installed a new shafts in my 6 iron and shots indeed feel more solid. And even with thin hit shots at -2 Celsius my fingers still feel great, so they were right on the vibration part as well. However, I think that I’m getting less feedback as well. Can’t tell exactly anymore where on the face I hit the ball, whereas I think I used to be able to tell exactly. Has the dampening of the vibration caused for less feedback, or do I just need to get used to the dowels and will I get the feedback back over time?
Nice sticks, I would want to hang on to those too. I like some cast stuff too, partic. the TM T-Ds and the Cobra Phil Rodgers, now those are tanks. The only thing I would want a plug in is a bore-thru wood shaft because there is so much vibration from the huge contact area between head & shaft. Anywhere else a plug will dull the feel. I don’t even like the sensicore stuff. No pain no gain my man…
I finished that little Tuesday money game a couple hrs ago, tough tough conditions. Raining most of the time signifacantly and in the low 40s. Plus there was hardly any grass anywhere on the course so almost all the shots were off of crazy tight muddy lies with mud on the ball a lot. Really stressful and difficult to get clean contact with the wedges. 3 birdies, 5 bogeys, I’m very happy with the way I played considering everything. I’ve got a set of clubs that except for the driver are ready for big time battle anywhere anytime in any conditions. The grips are incredible. The wetter they got the stickier they got, at the worst of the rain they were like fly paper, I had to peel my hands off to adjust my grip, everyone else had clubs slipping on almost every shot. I still need to get a lot stronger to up the speed to where I can rotate my forearms a lot better and really crack it and compress it, the clubs are terribly heavy and I found myself faking it a lot and coming up about a club short, but the trajectory was for almost every shot right on the money. The guys I played with noticed the trajectory big time and even though I was kinda sloppy I know I’m gonna have a hard time getting action straight up from them even though they beat me on total by a couple of shots today. Not really a big deal anyway I guess, they’re kids in their early 20s and don’t have any money anyway, they think 5’s all day is a big game… Gotta start somewhere though.
Oh yeah, I found all the money wood shafts. USA made DG S4 S5 X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 all .294 taper tip old stock in all lengths for less than 9 bucks a piece… Got 2 dozen asst. on the way. They won’t tell me how much total inventory they have but it’s more than I ordered. Do I dare put a bored-thru X500 in that Cleveland Driver? Hmmm…
I would be curious as to your comments on that Nike ball…
thanks
What was your source for the uber-stiffies?
Good band name… “The Uber Stiffies”
That Nike Ball is a giant flaming P.O.S… It does exactly what I don’t want it to, take off high and fluttering. And the only shots I’ve figured out with it are either a dying quail hook or a hanging slider fade that won’t come down. It should be the other around last time I checked… No wonder the long drive guys are all hitting slices. It sounds like it compresses, like a pretty hard hit but the flight sucks and I don’t feel it sticking at all. A lot of this is me because I’ve working through massive tension everywhere and I now have much heavier clubs than I’ve ever had before. I’m having a lot of difficulty fanning it anywhere when I’m on the course and it’ll take time to break through the stigma and allow myself to do the things that Augille so elequently described. Patience, patience, patience…
And for the shafts, when the parallel tip X3’s are too weak for you gimme a holler and I’ll hook you up. Sanctity and preservation prevails here.
I understand your reticence. 
Scarcity v. insatiability makes the world go round! I’m just looking to make up one demo club, so I figured going deluxe-stiff would be worth a butcher’s-hook! I get why I might not qualify as I am not “all-in” at this point. My thinking is begin at the end range, and work my way down. Worst case scenario is that I will have a training club incapable of lying to me! 
I am convinced that a heavy…flat…pole will encourage good physics. I know it does (intellectually) so I will not quit until it does in practice…then I will make up an entire set of them 
It is a sad state of affairs that helpful commodities are so rare. I had a passing question. What do the Peter Seniors of the world do these days. Someone posted what Greg Norman’s driver shaft was when he won The Open in '86 (X400, tipped 2 inches?) What the heck does Greg do these days? Surely there is a provision for those within the professional ranks that are not duped be light flim-flam sticks?
The guy that made that driver for Greg posted this on another driver he had made, that generated a couple of questions (Andy Bean’s Cleveland Classic persimmon driver X300 2"tipped):
“One should remember that the heaviest area in the Dynamic Gold Taper Tip shaft is its Tip Section. When this is removed, it becomes lighter and the bend point moves a little higher up towards the grip. This in concert with a D7 and higher swing balance, gives the shaft a little more life than one might think. Bean wanted a club that helped his takeaway, back swing and transition remain at a smooth pace when the heat was turned up on the weekend… In the heat of battle (Holes 63-72) even the best in the world, get quick, stop turning and don’t finish their back swings. This build out, is the type of “Game Improvement” that had more to do with swing improvement and solid contact with a lot of feel and mass behind it.”
I’ve posted the text from the original ebay listing below for the whole story.
84425
So why did they tip trim it; to make it stiffer or otherwise? I am asking this question cos I have a couple of S400s on the way (same weight as X200). No labels though. Is there a way to make them stiffer ALA tip trimming.
Bobscotjr
This is the link to the S400; they are sensicore but I will see. If I dont like it I will just push the foam out??? $5.00 a shaft.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360232909588&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
No offense but these are not for making demo clubs that will end up being tweaked in all the wrong places. Nobody will ever make these again. They are extinct and for play at the highest level possible only as far as I’m concerned and besides I don’t think anyone else was on the phone day after day to the tour depts at TT, Titleist, Cleveland, Wilson, Callaway, Spalding etc etc ad nauseum to find these shafts. Just like I said a ways back this is not about just doing hitting modules, if you want to be a player you have to do the hard work. Hell even Lag and TM haven’t done the leg work I have. I don’t take no for an answer and my doggedness paid off again. That Cleveland driver will be good to go by the middle of next week at about 48 degree lie with an X4 to start. Sorry to be an asshole again but when they’re gone they’re gone forever and I WILL NOT post the source on an open forum.
Macs, the way I read it is that tipping the shaft does indeed make it stiffer, but when swinging the club (at full speed) it doesn’t feel as stiff as you would expect. By taking away weight from the tip and from the shaft as a whole the weight of the head in relation to the shaft makes that the shaft will still bend. So on the downswing you will still feel the shaft load. But when you are not accelerating too much (upswing) you will feel the clubhead. At least that’s how I read it.
As for your if you can make an S400 stiffer by tipping it. I thik the answer is yes. Provided youre talking about parallel shafts. With taper tipped shafts youll have to put the seven iron shaft in the six or five iron (which leaves you with a ‘problem’ in the short irons). The shafts talked about above are woodshafts, not iron shafts, so no restrictions as to the tip diameter when installing the shaft. In the irons you can only install them in a .355 head whereas in the persimmon woods they could just drill a slightly bigger hole. Dunno where the weight in the parallel shafts is centered, Im guessing it is slightly higher than in the taper shafts so tipping wont have as much effect on the total weight.