Spine aligned or hack job?

[swing33]

Bought set of Callaway X forged/MB 18 combo set off the bay and the Modus labels are positioned in all different places relative to the heads. There seem to be no markings and seller doesn't know the history. Ho can I tell if this set was spine aligned and maybe worth giving a go - or messed up and I need to send em back?

[farmer]

Can't tell for sure, but the steps on the shafts do not seem to be in proper progression. The bottom step on an 8 iron should be 1/2 inch lower than the bottom step on the 7 iron, as example. Howard will probably jump in, but from the pics, I would be very suspicious.

[swing33]

Thanks for the response - That actually does seem to be correct on this set. Bottom step on PW is 4” above the hosel and the it goes up 1/2” on each club all the way to 4 iron which is 7”.

[Manz60]

Nippon is a quality shaft mfg so I would think they do some sort of quality assurance before they silk screen the shaft. Its not like it was 20 years ago when this topic was first discovered. So even if a clubmaker did his own shaft alignment, the difference from the Nippon alignment would probably make very difference in shaft performance, if any. IMO

Hope this helps

M60

[sui generis]

The ferrule work looks pretty good. Based on that, my guess is that the set was carefully assembled. Play away. ?

[wcgolfer]

The only way to know for sure:

unshaft and test them in a spiner.pull a grip and see if there is a PURE label under the grip. I’d day game them and unless you are getting goofy results don’t worry about it.

[Stuart_G]

 

Agree that actually testing them out, preferably on the range, would be the best way to go. Regardless of what the builder intended, the labels not being aligned is really purely an aesthetic issue, not any kind of functional defect or reason to return the clubs.

And for 2 - yes that might be one way to find out but for #1 If you are talking about a bearing based spine finder, it's not that simple. The bearing based spine finders can actually be very inaccurate so they are a poor way to try and find the spine. The most commonly used and accurate way is to use FLO and a frequency meter to find the spine and NBP (strong and weak axis). That can be done without removing the heads but one needs to find a frequency meter (and the grips should be removed for accurate frequency measurements).

But using that method assumes the builder actually knew what they were doing. They may not and may have tried to use a spine finder regardless of how inaccurate they can be. Or they may have tried to align based on FLO without the corresponding frequency checks. So unless there are SST Pure labels and they are all aligned properly, there is no sure way to determine what the builder was intending.

[swing33]

Thanks for the response - some great info

[jll62]

This was my thought, as well. No guarantee the shafts were aligned in any sort of way, but it's extremely unlikely someone who does good ferrule work is going to install shafts in with silk-screened labels in a haphazard manner.

[JSN2357]

I bought similar shafts from eBay and when I spine aligned them I found most of the red Nippon logos didn’t align with the spine. So the situation does occur i.e spines don’t always align with logos. I’ve not heard of any fake steel golf shafts being sold so I’m assuming they are the real deal and the clubs been assembled with ALL the spines facing the same way. Which is up for debate in all the forums and which is best 3, 6, 9 or 12 o’clock. I tend to prefer 12 as it’s supposed to stop the club head drooping at impact. Hope this helps and doesn’t confuse you any further. Try playing a few rounds without thinking about it and see how well they are striking the ball. Cheers

[JSN2357]

I bought similar shafts from eBay and when I spine aligned them I found most of the red Nippon logos didn’t align with the spine. So the situation does occur i.e spines don’t always align with logos. I’ve not heard of any fake steel golf shafts being sold so I’m assuming they are the real deal and the clubs been assembled with ALL the spines facing the same way. Which is up for debate in all the forums and which is best 3, 6, 9 or 12 o’clock. I tend to prefer 12 as it’s supposed to stop the club head drooping at impact. Hope this helps and doesn’t confuse you any further. Try playing a few rounds without thinking about it and see how well they are striking the ball. Cheers

[JSN2357]

Hi just as a follow up, I doubt that as part of the shaft manufacturing process Nippon would stop to check where the spines were before applying their logo. I would assume that providing each shaft passed their weight and straightness profile quality controls, then the logos would be simply applied to the shafts. Manufacturing costs to align each spine wouldn’t be cost effective. Aligning and replacing shafts for Tour players Is a completely different thing altogether, the tour vans will have all the fitting kit you could imagine.

[onafriday]

I had Nippon 105s installed into my P790s to my specs and I had them pured as well.

They came out awesome, and the Nippon logos are all over the place.

[Hsbkforegolf]

doesn't matter, spine align is just a gimmick