What's the skinny on S400 and X100's?

[TourTECH]

No way S400's have a lower flight than X100s. The tip section is much longer on S400's and the flex is weaker. I've played both and built both for clients and never seen S400's flight lower. Also my experience with TC's is that they flight higher than corresponding DG's by flex. This seems to be true throughout the set, not just in the longer irons. Just my .02.

[bradkv]

Hard stepping is simply placing a 4 iron shaft (untrimmed) into a 3 iron head. Soft stepping is putting the same 4 iron shaft (untrimmed) into a 5 iron head. The step patterns are changed a bit by doing it this way, and the flex will change roughly 1/3 flex. So, by hardstepping the shaft once, you get a shaft that plays 1/3 flex stiffer than normal. This, in my opinion, has a really nice effect on ballflight if you're trying to lower it, without as big an effect on directional accuracy. I think, with that 6 iron speed, a hard stepped x100 would really be a good choice for you. If you're planning on ordering a new set of irons this way, be careful, not all OEM's will hard step at the factory. I played a set of MP67's with X100 hard stepped once about 2 years back, and went to the same set without the shafts being hardstepped, and saw a noticeably higher ballflight with the standard setup, compared to the hardstepped setup. My apex lowered, the flight was flatter, and the spin was reduced quite a bit. For me, the ballflight with the standard setup in X100 allowed me to score better.

[Howard_Jones]

I guess there is but i try with a few words to explain

A set of shafts will always have the same length on the thickest butt part, while the part that makes one iron longer than the other is the tip.
- The tip is always softer than the butt.

If we want a flex that is 1/3 flex class / 3 cpm softer, we move all shafts 1 step upwards.
#3 shaft to #4 head, 4# shaft to #5 Head and so on.

To start with, the club will now be 0.5 inch longer (just like the 3 iron is 0.5 longer then the 4 iron)
so to get them to the right play length, we must cut of 0.5 of the but.

What we just did, was to gain 0.5 longer tip,(softest part) and paid with 0.5 butt,(stiffest part) and that makes the club to play 3 cpm softer than before, or 1/3 flex class,
- If we moved the shafts 2 steps, 3 shaft to 5 head, your clubs will end up 1 inch longer, like the 3 iron is 1 inch longer than the 5 iron.
- Now we have to cut 1 hole inch of the stiffest part the butt, but we already got ourself one extra inch of tip instead, so this club will play 6 cpm softer than standard or softer by 2/3 of a flex class
- If we stepped 3 times X flex becomes S, or S flex becomes R.

Hard stepping is the other way, where we take the 4 iron shaft, and give to the 3 head.
- That makes all your clubs 0.5 to short, so now they need 0.5 butt extension (longer stiffest part) who will bring up flex by 1/3 of a flex class or 3 cpm.

The tip trim trick in the post above, let you tip trim 3/8 so you don't need to move the shaft to hard step, you just put them back in where they belongs after a tip trim of 3/8, but yes, they will be 3/8 shorter, so its only good on new uncut shafts.

The reason for choosing 1x hard stepping of a soft shaft, or soft stepping a stiffer shaft 2x who gives the same flex might be several, but cpm slope progression, is what to consider
- Since iron heads becomes 7 grams + for every iron nr. shorter shafts must be stronger as they got shorter, to be able to deal with the progressive head weight.
- 2 grams eats up 1 cpm, so if our shafts all was the same, they will be softer, as they got shorter, and we cant play with that.

In the older days the PW was like 50* and the "shortest iron", and the first wedge.
Thats why they did not make any shafts shorter and stiffer than the 9 iron shaft.
- Today loft has changes so our PW is more like a 8 iron on loft, and thats no good for the way we play our clubs

Many players play their GW to full swing so the best for ball flight and consistency is to have the shortest and strongest iron shaft in the GW.
- The only way to get that, is by soft stepping a harder flex 2 times, because that will move the 9 iron shaft 2 steps and up to you GW.

If we hard stepp we goes the wrong way here, because now your 8 iron will be the shortest and stiffest, and all the rest shorter and more head heavy stuff, will use the same shaft as the 8 iron, and that means they get softer as they got shorter, and thats no good if you play them to full swing. (they goes higher and with less consistency, from your 9 and up)

[JCAG]

Some seem to forget that originally TT went

R100, R200, R300, R400, R500, S100, S200, S300, S400, S500, X100, X200, X300

They were weight sorted, not frequency sorted/matched. TT claimed that as a shaft got heavier, it became stiffer so the R300 was one full flex softer then the S300 and two full flexes softer then the X300.

Where much confusion comes from is there is no industry standard from manufacturer to manufacturer nor even within a specific manufacturer. ABC's Whatever is not the same as DEF's Whatever but to add to the confusion, ABC's model Lite Whatever might be quite different (performance/stiffness/feel, CPM's ,etc) then their model Mid Whatever.

An Apples to Apples comparision from manufacturer to manufacturer is near, if not, impossible. With no standards for measuring/comparing, many comparision will be personally subjective.

Now from a marketing/sales point of view TT outlived (and or purchased part/all) of their major competitors, Brunswick (FM Precision, Royal Precision, whatever) and Apollo. Like it or not, TT seems to be doing something right.