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Nippon Shafts
obedt

obedt

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Just about every major shaft manufacturer has some sort of online fitting tool, where you provide certain information (SS, ball flight, etc) and they output an estimate with which shaft best fits.

http://www.ustmamiya.com/shaft-fitting/swing-fit/
http://www.shaftfit.com/ (TT/Project X)
http://kbsgolfshafts.com/fit-system
http://www.matrixshafts.com/shaft-fitting.html
http://www.fujikuragolf.com/fitting-tool/

I have a few questions on these-
  • Is there any value to them?
  • Do they seem to work better for a particular club type (woods/hybrids/irons/wedges)
  • For those that have been professionally fit, do the online results line up with your physical fitting?
  • Any recommendations on how to improve them?

I'll admit to giving them a little bit of importance, particularly when selecting my iron shafts. C-Taper Lite Regular Flex, Recoil 95 F3, XP 105 R300 were among the optimal results and tried to select irons that offered those. Maybe I was wasting my time, but without good access to a proper fitting with various club-shaft combos I figured it was better than nothing.
 
I've probably used them all at some point, I think they are valuable to a point of pointing you in the right direction, but there have been a couple times where I went and tried the shaft it recommended and it didn't seem to fit very well. All in all, testing is key, but I think these do a good job of narrowing down your choices.
 
I have a few questions on these-
  • Is there any value to them? Some
  • Do they seem to work better for a particular club type (woods/hybrids/irons/wedges) Irons
  • For those that have been professionally fit, do the online results line up with your physical fitting? Nope
  • Any recommendations on how to improve them? I don't think so

there are a few reasons i don't look to these anymore, although i definitely did before attending the hand crafted experience with project x in 2016.

the biggest reason for me is feel. you can hand me a club with a shaft that by the numbers should fit me perfectly, but there are no numbers that can account for the feel element. if the taper profile doesn't feel right to me, or the butt end is a little too thick and the grip feels weird, or something about the bend profile is throwing off my timing, it may just not work. and i may hit something that by the numbers shouldn't work well for me but feels better and i swing it better.

another smaller reason is that i am under the impression that there are different methods to measure what would seemingly be an objective or empirical number, and those different methods may be used to yield a desired result. it makes me 1) question a lot of the information out there, and 2) not worry as much about any of that information and only focus on fitting results.
 
Is there any value to them?
- Sure. I have tried most of the shafts I've been "fit" to from their online fitting tools, and it's never been way off. Whether or not they are the most optimized shafts for me, needs an actually fitting, but they have all been solid.

Do they seem to work better for a particular club type (woods/hybrids/irons/wedges)
- I've only really done it for drivers and irons, but both seem to work about the same. Gets you a general idea, but doesn't necessarily dial you in. more so just gives me an idea what properties to look for.

Any recommendations on how to improve them?
-Not much more they can do without seeing you swing IMO.
 
I think there is value. They have been close in some cases but I prefer an actual fitting to get a feel for,the shaft and to see how it actually performs.
 
Thanks everyone. I think if I'm in the ballpark it's better than buying completely blind. You guys gave me a little bit of relief.

c.a.eleric said:
I have a few questions on these-
  • Is there any value to them? Some
  • Do they seem to work better for a particular club type (woods/hybrids/irons/wedges) Irons
  • For those that have been professionally fit, do the online results line up with your physical fitting? Nope
  • Any recommendations on how to improve them? I don't think so

there are a few reasons i don't look to these anymore, although i definitely did before attending the hand crafted experience with project x in 2016.

the biggest reason for me is feel. you can hand me a club with a shaft that by the numbers should fit me perfectly, but there are no numbers that can account for the feel element. if the taper profile doesn't feel right to me, or the butt end is a little too thick and the grip feels weird, or something about the bend profile is throwing off my timing, it may just not work. and i may hit something that by the numbers shouldn't work well for me but feels better and i swing it better.

another smaller reason is that i am under the impression that there are different methods to measure what would seemingly be an objective or empirical number, and those different methods may be used to yield a desired result. it makes me 1) question a lot of the information out there, and 2) not worry as much about any of that information and only focus on fitting results.
Click to expand...

Very detailed response. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I thought irons would be a little bit easier for these to predict, but can't really explain why. I see you mentioned them as well. Any particular reason?

I like the education you provided here on the feel. There's a lot I don't know about shafts. The HandCraftedExperience cemented a lot of concepts for you. Great job explaining.
 
obedt said:
Thanks everyone. I think if I'm in the ballpark it's better than buying completely blind. You guys gave me a little bit of relief.



Very detailed response. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I thought irons would be a little bit easier for these to predict, but can't really explain why. I see you mentioned them as well. Any particular reason?

I like the education you provided here on the feel. There's a lot I don't know about shafts. The HandCraftedExperience cemented a lot of concepts for you. Great job explaining.
Click to expand...

my pleasure! i guess my thought with irons was that there's only so much you can do with steel. i certainly think there are differences among steel shafts, but not to the extent available for graphite. i'm sure i'm way off, though!

i actually thought i knew a decent bit about shafts going into thce last year, but i realized i knew absolutely nothing i still know very little. it's fascinating stuff!
 
c.a.eleric said:
my pleasure! i guess my thought with irons was that there's only so much you can do with steel. i certainly think there are differences among steel shafts, but not to the extent available for graphite. i'm sure i'm way off, though!

i actually thought i knew a decent bit about shafts going into thce last year, but i realized i knew absolutely nothing i still know very little. it's fascinating stuff!
Click to expand...

I'll agree that graphite has a lot more options available to manufacturers to tweak things compared to steel but there are some differences IMO between steel brands. With AMT technology in dynamic gold it changes weight, flight and a little feel in the irons as they get longer compared to the non AMT shafts from them. Then you have DG pro, Nippon, KBS, Project X all doing different weights and launches with different feels that what might work or feel good in one brand at a certain weight may not feel the same from a different brand.
 
The iron shaft fitting systems have been pretty close with what I've been suggested by my instructor, as well as what I was fit into in a live fitting. TT suggests DG AMT, which is what I'm playing now, KBS suggests Tour S, which is what the Mizuno shaft optimizer spits out for me, and UST suggests Recoil 110, which is what I was fit into at the CPC.
 
Every time Ive used one it gives me shafts that are nothing near what I play. So now I don't pay much attention to them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
greggdrews said:
Every time Ive used one it gives me shafts that are nothing near what I play. So now I don't pay much attention to them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Theeeere's the downer. Here I am trying to justify my purchase history. j/k man - thanks for the honest response.

emart, you're bringing a lot of knowledge. thanks for joining in - I read through the entire C-Taper Lite thread and there were some good thoughts there; a lot of the things you summarized here. Thanks dude
 
obedt said:
Theeeere's the downer. Here I am trying to justify my purchase history. j/k man - thanks for the honest response.

emart, you're bringing a lot of knowledge. thanks for joining in - I read through the entire C-Taper Lite thread and there were some good thoughts there; a lot of the things you summarized here. Thanks dude
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Anytime. Iirc you haven't been thrums fitting before correct? What shafts have you played recently? What issue do you have with them and what are you looking to achieve? What shafts did you get in your recent purchase?
 
emart2173 said:
Anytime. Iirc you haven't been thrums fitting before correct? What shafts have you played recently? What issue do you have with them and what are you looking to achieve? What shafts did you get in your recent purchase?
Click to expand...

Never been fit. Just not a fan of the fitting options available around me. My next trip to the States I want to get that done but not sure when that will be (we have family in Atlanta, Orlando and VA so those are the highest possibility locations).

I played stock Burner 2.0s Reg Flex for a while and then moved to the 712 AP1s with Dynalite SL Stiff shafts. Want something that feels smoother than what I currently game without having to take some aggressiveness off like I felt with the Burners. Maybe I want to work a little less. Truth be told, I was a little bit longer when I got the AP1s but now I just want to change out the irons because I think w/ technology I'm leaving distance on the table due to the clubhead design; it's not as much a shaft issue. Right now I'm getting more than adequate height on iron shots. I think the SL's are tip soft and promote launch and spin.

Wound up ordering the Cobra King Forged Tecs in stock CTL Regular Flex. Read through both review threads (the shaft review was amazing btw) and I'm pretty confident with the set-up, but at least some of that is because of the fitting tool liking this for me. In the end I filtered down to these and the CF16. Got a spectacular deal on the CFT.

For woods - I sincerely have no idea. I would love to see what a live fitting would reveal for me. I create a bit of spin despite only having average SS, and the Red Tie S that came in my old XTD was probably the best match I've had (limited tests though). I've been thinking about trying a Chrome shaft in my F7 but that will have to wait for a while.
 
obedt said:
Never been fit. Just not a fan of the fitting options available around me. My next trip to the States I want to get that done but not sure when that will be (we have family in Atlanta, Orlando and VA so those are the highest possibility locations).

I played stock Burner 2.0s Reg Flex for a while and then moved to the 712 AP1s with Dynalite SL Stiff shafts. Want something that feels smoother than what I currently game without having to take some aggressiveness off like I felt with the Burners. Maybe I want to work a little less. Truth be told, I was a little bit longer when I got the AP1s but now I just want to change out the irons because I think w/ technology I'm leaving distance on the table due to the clubhead design; it's not as much a shaft issue. Right now I'm getting more than adequate height on iron shots. I think the SL's are tip soft and promote launch and spin.

Wound up ordering the Cobra King Forged Tecs in stock CTL Regular Flex. Read through both review threads (the shaft review was amazing btw) and I'm pretty confident with the set-up, but at least some of that is because of the fitting tool liking this for me. In the end I filtered down to these and the CF16. Got a spectacular deal on the CFT.

For woods - I sincerely have no idea. I would love to see what a live fitting would reveal for me. I create a bit of spin despite only having average SS, and the Red Tie S that came in my old XTD was probably the best match I've had (limited tests though). I've been thinking about trying a Chrome shaft in my F7 but that will have to wait for a while.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. The irons you chose are solid irons. A little more demanding IMO than the AP1. As you know from the review the CTL are going to be a high launching shaft and lightweight. I don't have any real experience with the Dynalite SL but from what I recall when looking into shafts they have a soft tip that promotes a high launch and are similar weight to the CTL so you may find them to be similar. I think you could have gone with stiff vice reg in the CTL but KBS seems to do a decent job at getting the shaft right in their fitting tool from my experience when we had to do the fitting for a THP contest. But I've played a set of irons for 10 rounds that had reg flex and I'm a stiff flex guy and had some of my lower rounds with them. It's all about tempo.

For driver red tie is a good shaft and if you liked that shaft I would stay with it or find one that has a similar profile.
 
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