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Review XCaliber Rapid Taper Iron Shaft Review

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Nippon Shafts
On swing weighting the three sets I have done. The Hogan's needed the most weight but they have a tiny cavity in the hosel that I filled with lead powder and a tiny piece of lead in the shaft tip to get them to D2. The cavity allowed me to keep the weight nice an low.
The Maltby PTM needed no weight at all on a set built +1/2" to be D2-3. A standard length set needed just a few ounces in the tip to get an all D2.

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I was having so much fun with these shafts it kills me to be back out to sea.

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My customer who I built the Rapid Taper 95s into the PTMs wrote me a note. BTW, he as a golfer... Young, tall and strong. Long loopy swing that hits these massive sweeping hooks. Previous set i200-Dynamic Gold s300.
After I begged you to let me keep the demo 6 iron when you went on the boat, I instantly knew I needed a full set.
You know how bad for a few months I obsessed over the feel and control i had with the 6 iron. How it softened up my hook with out even trying. I'm sure I drove you nuts asking you when they would be ready. So I knew the long irons would be good but I had no idea how good my PW and GW would be.
The instant level of confidence i have with being able to hit my number took me by surprise. The look of the initial launch and how they fly. Just addictive. They way they just seem to land so soft and stay where they are. Plus I love how easy I can swing yet still get exactly what I was thinking about done.
I can't thank you enough. Btw, Jimbo and Kev both want a set now and are fighting over the demo 6 iron.
He just updated his email..
I also chipped in twice today. Once for birdie and one for par. You told me how good that shaft would feel alongside the green but damn.

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Popeye,

Finally ordered me some rapid taper shafts for my demo (testing) iron and hybrid heads. They should be here on Wednesday. After talking with Robin, I am going to try the mystic 55 in my driver. I am so excited to try these shafts out!!!
 
BigWave said:
Popeye,

Finally ordered me some rapid taper shafts for my demo (testing) iron and hybrid heads. They should be here on Wednesday. After talking with Robin, I am going to try the mystic 55 in my driver. I am so excited to try these shafts out!!!
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Pretty solid reviews on the Mystic and Avalon on the homepage and forum too fwiw ;)


 
Love the graphics! Beats blank

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golfinnut said:
Love the graphics! Beats blank

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Big disagree, but that’s ok. The red rings make them look busy and cheap imo.

I say that as someone with a full set of clean finished 95’s in the bag. If they’d gone with the ion, and a clean and simple crest, they’d have been perfect, the rings just aren’t going to appeal to most, particularly at the price they’re going to sell for.
 
I can't argue on Jmans point about the rings.
My set is all black and its exactly as I want them. The black makes the Taper jump right out at you. It's a perfect combo to my Black heads, Finished off with a dark grey grip.. I may aquire a set of decals and 'adjust' them so I can apply a crest and sword logo down. No rings.
So far the two people I built them for absolutely love the look. Neither of them have mentioned the rings at all, just that they love the entire look.
I have the soft stepped S flex with the retail finish that I used for testing last week. After the first swing I have never looked at the rings again and only notice them if my Im speaking about them.
If I have any say a Matte Black would be an option for purchase.

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Popeye,

How much did you soft step the S flex? I am not going to do it to these ones but I was thinking about doing that to my set when I build it later. I feel that I am in between flexes right now but got both some R and S flexes to see if one is better for me that the other.
 
BigWave said:
Popeye,

How much did you soft step the S flex? I am not going to do it to these ones but I was thinking about doing that to my set when I build it later. I feel that I am in between flexes right now but got both some R and S flexes to see if one is better for me that the other.
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I soft stepped both the 95 and the 75 one time.
I have 95 S softstepped in the PW, 9, 8.. PTM head
I have 75 S softstepped in the 7 and 6.. PTM head.
The feel wise,, greatly increased. Load and released is more pronounced. Hardly lost any control and could certainly game a whole set softstepped but I prefer the full flex of S. My SS is 105-108 depending on the size of the hotdog I ate at the turn.
I did let a big hitter smash that 8 iron on a par three that was 190. He made the front of the green. Didn't tell him the flex and he loved it just as it was.
I am starting a demo program similar to what Hogan has. I'll have a variety of Maltby heads and shaft flexes for people to try. Ideally the clubs would be shipped to the next person in line once time has expired.


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Did you go 3/4" or 1/2" less trim when you built them?
 
BigWave said:
Did you go 3/4" or 1/2" less trim when you built them?
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If putting the 7 iron together i would tip trim the shaft as if it was for a 6 iron. Then would butt trim to final length for the 7 iron.
While experimenting a few months ago and hard stepped a 5 iron twice by mistake and it was like a piece of rebar.

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Thanks for the info.
 
Popeye said:
I can't argue on Jmans point about the rings.
My set is all black and its exactly as I want them. The black makes the Taper jump right out at you. It's a perfect combo to my Black heads, Finished off with a dark grey grip.. I may aquire a set of decals and 'adjust' them so I can apply a crest and sword logo down. No rings.
So far the two people I built them for absolutely love the look. Neither of them have mentioned the rings at all, just that they love the entire look.
I have the soft stepped S flex with the retail finish that I used for testing last week. After the first swing I have never looked at the rings again and only notice them if my Im speaking about them.
If I have any say a Matte Black would be an option for purchase.

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Now imagine them just ion plated :love:
 
Jman said:
Now imagine them just ion plated :love:
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An order of no stickers would be very easy to pull off during the next order from the factory. I would love to be running things.

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I’ve been following this thread and am interested in picking up a shaft or two for trying out.

Currently playing Mitsubishi OTI 105 X in Wishon Sterlings and am pretty good results in the irons. I guess I’m just a tinkerer and always like interesting new tech, so the rapid taper creates that itch for me.

With 95mph iron swing speed, would the 95-S with standard tipping or an extra 1/2” be the place to start?
 
laxwax said:
I’ve been following this thread and am interested in picking up a shaft or two for trying out.

Currently playing Mitsubishi OTI 105 X in Wishon Sterlings and am pretty good results in the irons. I guess I’m just a tinkerer and always like interesting new tech, so the rapid taper creates that itch for me.

With 95mph iron swing speed, would the 95-S with standard tipping or an extra 1/2” be the place to start?
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The 95 S has worked for every big player so far. You could certainly tip it a little extra but the first one you did I would start with an S standard trim.

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Popeye said:
An order of no stickers would be very easy to pull off during the next order from the factory. I would love to be running things.

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How about having the shafts just ion-plated at the factory with no branding but comes with transparent stickers with the logo and writings on them. And if the user wants to install the stickers, they can orient them on top of the shaft, under the shaft or whatever way they wish.

Best of both, IMO. And the shafts will still be distinguishable by the rapid taper.
 
EBAL said:
How about having the shafts just ion-plated at the factory with no branding but comes with transparent stickers with the logo and writings on them. And if the user wants to install the stickers, they can orient them on top of the shaft, under the shaft or whatever way they wish.

Best of both, IMO. And the shafts will still be distinguishable by the rapid taper.
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We will see if I can persuade someone to do so. Maybe the next production run it will be an option.
Some of the steel shafts sold today come with stickers not installed. So hopefully thats a route for the future on a certain percentage of shafts.
I don't think the rings are necessary to bring attention to the shafts. Anyone playing them will certainly be answering a lot of questions so the identity of the company and the shaft... won't be a mystery to anyone.

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Finally got a chance to hit one of the new shafts today at the range. Built up an M6 19* head with the 95-S shaft. Compared against a SIM 19* Hybrid with the Hzrdus Smoke 6.5-flex (95 gram) so about as good of an apples-to-apples test as I'm going to get for woods right now.

Initial Thoughts: Pleasantly surprised with the performance. I didn't see the dramatic night-and-day difference compared to the Hzrdus Smoke that I was expecting based on some of the other feedback so far. The first few swings I was losing the ball a little to the right which I chalked up to the flex of the shaft. After a few swing though I started putting better swings on the ball with better tempo, leading to high and straight ball flights. Slightly higher flight than the Hzrdus Smoke, but not ballooning on me at all. I probably hit about ~25 balls with each club to make sure I got a good feel of both. One of the things that stood out to me were the misses - with the Hzrdus I had some BIG misses left, although usually right after hitting the RT so may have been a feel issue. With the RT, I felt like the dispersion was definitely better.

The last 10 balls or so I was switching off between each club, taking time to go through my full pre-shot routine. I found the RT was slightly more accurate, with a higher ball flight overall. The Hzrdus had a lower, more penetrating ball flight that was easier to work both directions for me.

In hindsight, I feel like I was striking the ball better with the RT. I think I had one miss out of all the balls I hit. With the Hzrdus I wasn't in the center of the face as often as I was with the RT.

Overall, I'm happy with the performance of both, and could easily game either club. I'm excited to get some more time with the RT shaft and take it out on the course later this week. I also have a 6-iron head I'm building with another RT shaft, but put on the grip today without butt-cutting the shaft (only tipped), so now have the worlds longest 6-iron :dohanim: I'll be fixing that tomorrow and hope to be able to hit that as well later this week.

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Evolvingwildes said:
Finally got a chance to hit one of the new shafts today at the range. Built up an M6 19* head with the 95-S shaft. Compared against a SIM 19* Hybrid with the Hzrdus Smoke 6.5-flex (95 gram) so about as good of an apples-to-apples test as I'm going to get for woods right now.

Initial Thoughts: Pleasantly surprised with the performance. I didn't see the dramatic night-and-day difference compared to the Hzrdus Smoke that I was expecting based on some of the other feedback so far. The first few swings I was losing the ball a little to the right which I chalked up to the flex of the shaft. After a few swing though I started putting better swings on the ball with better tempo, leading to high and straight ball flights. Slightly higher flight than the Hzrdus Smoke, but not ballooning on me at all. I probably hit about ~25 balls with each club to make sure I got a good feel of both. One of the things that stood out to me were the misses - with the Hzrdus I had some BIG misses left, although usually right after hitting the RT so may have been a feel issue. With the RT, I felt like the dispersion was definitely better.

The last 10 balls or so I was switching off between each club, taking time to go through my full pre-shot routine. I found the RT was slightly more accurate, with a higher ball flight overall. The Hzrdus had a lower, more penetrating ball flight that was easier to work both directions for me.

In hindsight, I feel like I was striking the ball better with the RT. I think I had one miss out of all the balls I hit. With the Hzrdus I wasn't in the center of the face as often as I was with the RT.

Overall, I'm happy with the performance of both, and could easily game either club. I'm excited to get some more time with the RT shaft and take it out on the course later this week. I also have a 6-iron head I'm building with another RT shaft, but put on the grip today without butt-cutting the shaft (only tipped), so now have the worlds longest 6-iron :dohanim: I'll be fixing that tomorrow and hope to be able to hit that as well later this week.

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Very cool results. You actually might be the first ever to have a 95g in a hybrid head. Everyone else used the 75g.

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Popeye said:
Very cool results. You actually might be the first ever to have a 95g in a hybrid head. Everyone else used the 75g.

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Oh cool! My gamer Ping G25 17* has a ~70 gram shaft in it right now (I think), but I really enjoyed the feel of the 90 gram Hzrdus when getting fit for the SIM hybrid. The 95 gram RT shaft felt like a perfect matchup for an unused M6 head I had as well.

Now that I think about it, the RT shaft was surprisingly stout considering the design philosophy, at least based on what I've been reading. It really didn't feel all that much less stiff than the 6.5 Hzrdus. The bigger feel difference was the swing-weight since I built the M6 (standard length) slightly longer than the SIM (-0.5" standard). I have a scale at home that I'll measure them both to confirm though.
 
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Oh and I forgot to comment on the appearance of the shaft (Everything IMO): ion plating is fantastic and looks really cool. The red stripes along the taper section, not so much. It's not horrible, but I'd rather it be pure ion plated with maybe a sticker for the graphics as @EBAL mentioned.

As for the taper itself - it didn't feel overly noticeable at address. I was never distracted by the taper, and almost completely forgot about it while hitting.
 
From some of the feedback suggests from hear and other spots 95S shafts are stout. Soft stepping or dropping down to an R flex should be in peoples mind who fall in between shaft flexs.
Some good news on the driver ahaft front. A 62 g version has been produced and will be in for testing in about 14 days or so. Previous version were mid to high 70g. So we will see but excited to see if things can work out for the driver. As that's what can drive a whole line of products.

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Played today. Love it when I bomb the 4-iron off the tee on a short par 4 ... a lot further than I usually do ... ended up about 215 off the tee. Guy standing behind me says "You're using an iron off the tee? (duh!) What kind of shaft is that? Very unique. And wow, I could really see it bend in your swing at the bottom." Started a whole conversation about the shaft and he was very interested to say the least. (y) Hit it a number of times really well. I thought he was going to ask me to hit it but he never did. (I don't offer up my clubs :sneaky:) it's really been a great club. I'm glad I decided to put it in that clubhead.

Now it's time to get some more shafts to make a complete set. ;)
 
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