Cutting down long drive shaft to standard length SW question

[LongDriveNick7]

I want to cut down one of my long drive builds to use on the course. The shaft in question is a house of forged Maximus 3X shaft. If I was to tip it an inch and take off an inch from the butt, would I need to add lead tape to the head? I don’t want it to play any softer than it is right now and am just wondering how trimming and adding weight back will affect feel/performance. I have no clue really about the swing weight of any of my long drive builds and I don’t think I’m super sensitive to swing weight changes so just wondering how much tipping would change the feel. Thanks in advance for any help - Nick

[The Mad Bomber]

So by SW, you mean "standard wood" I'm assuming? When I first read this, I was thinking sand wedge length. Two completely different answers.

 

Shortening a club will reduce swing weight, and the difference with the two inches you're talking about will be massive. 2" will most likely put your driver (in the 195g-200g head range) down to a C-something swing weight, although I've never done this with a 48" long drive shaft, only 45" down to 43".

When you shorten a driver, you have to add quite a bit of weight to the head and it can be so much tape that it's probative and you're better off using hot-melt. I will bet good money that you're far more sensitive to swing weight changes than you think. Even if you can't feel it maybe as much as others, a launch monitor will reveal the truth.

Very technically speaking, shortening a shaft will make it play stiffer, and we can detect this on a frequency machine, but generally speaking, most players won't notice a difference in playing characteristics from a 1" butt-trim other than finding the middle of the club a little more often. A 1" tip trim can have a more noticeable effect on ball flight and playability.

These are the general guidelines, every build is a little bit different and every shaft is unique.

[LongDriveNick7]

By “SW” I meant swing weight, my apologies for the confusion.

So what you advise I do in my current situation? I launch and spin the ball a ton so that is why I brought tipping into the equation, even with a 3X shaft.

[rexroh]

If you want to test but not change (destroy) the shaft too much you could take the grip off and re grip it with a grip with buttend cut off. You can then place the grip where you like down the shaft and test prior to any cutting of the shaft.

[The Mad Bomber]

It sounds as though no shaft is going to really help your launch and spin considering you're already playing a 3X. If you want to change that, you'll probably have to change your delivery or the actual head itself. I have to assume the bend point on that shaft is pretty high already, I'd be shocked if it wasn't. Keep in mind that we can make far more drastic changes to ball flight with a different head as opposed to a different shaft. You're going to have to add weight to the head to maintain swing weight in this case. What is the current swing weight? If you take 2" off the driver, the general rule says you'll have to add 2 grams of head weight for every swing weight point you lose. You'll lose 2.4-3.1 swing weight points for every 1/2" you trim, meaning you'd probably lose 9.5 - 12.5 SW Points. Adding that 2g/SW point means you'd have to add 20 - 24 grams to the club head. That is A LOT of lead tape and you'd be far better off adding that in Hot Melt. Keep in mind, the club will feel different. The weight of the shaft you remove will be far outweighed by the amount of weight added to the head. Now, If your driver is already playing in the High 'D' range, it won't be too bad. If you have a long build at D-3, it may not be worth it.

[Howard_Jones]

You can actually try it off before you cut anything, this DIY driver tune up will guide you trough it all and help you to get the max out of that club.https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/909991/diy-driver-tune-up-diy-fitting/p1

[LongDriveNick7]

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like I might be SOL in my current situation with how much I’d want to cut off the shaft. I’ll play around with the diy driver tune up though and see if it is anything I want to pursue.

[Stuart_G]

Don't underestimate the usefulness of Howard's driver tune up. it's really going to tell you almost everything you'll need to know. Just make sure when going through it, you use your on course swing, not your long driver swing (if it is different, most long drivers seem to say they have a different swing).

But a rough estimate (since it depends on the shaft model) is to tip the shaft 1/2" for each 10 gm of weight added to the head. Howard's tutorial will help you figure out how much weight will be needed and you'll get a chance to test what it will feel like w/o any tipping and if you even notice the shaft becoming any softer.

Just also remember that each shaft model has a max amount of tipping based the length of it's parallel tip section. So a shaft with a parallel tip section will have a max tipping of around 1.75" depending on the hosel bore depth.