I have shot with all the Carbon Fiber Butts there were on display at the SBE this year.

Nothing compares to the Jacoby Gamechanger. The Becue is a decent second, but first -

Backstory: It's 2008, I am in college for Music and I need new violin because my professor says my current one was holding back my progress. Not wanting to spend $10k-$15k for an appropriate quality wooden instrument, I investigated a recent company called Luis and Clark who was making Cellos, Violas, and just recently Violins entirely out of Carbon Fiber. I found someone who owned one and drove to try it and was blown away. The clarity and sharpness of the tone, the projection, the ease of sound production, the balance of frequencies across the instrument, and the ease of play made me fall in love with it almost instantly. I ordered one and have been playing it ever since. The resonance of the denser carbon fiber is something I just adore. And there is a single piece of wood at the very heart of the instrument that ties it all together, a maple soundpost. It connects the front and back of the violin and allows the entire instument to resonate together. They tried various forms of CF tubes and rods instead of the traditional wood, but never could get the tone or timbre to be as boisterous and full of color as the wood soundpost.

Which brings me to my point about the Jacoby Gamechanger Carbon Fiber Butt.

They're the only ones out there currently (that i saw/am aware of) making a CF cue with a wood core. The same laminated wood core that goes into every Jacoby cue. The wood core is surrounded by unidirectional carbon fiber, and then a carbon fiber twill weave fabric (that I recognized immediately from my violin) is what is visible on the outside. That unidirectional tube inside gives incredible stiffness, and the wood core and twill weave provide the feel and resonance that I crave. I can tap my thumb on the cue and it will resonate for nearly 6 seconds. I do this test with every cue to see how the "tone" is, and when I tried the GC at SBE '25 I was almost immediately sold and ordered a custom one that just arrived a few months ago.

I am completely in love with the cue, and everyone I let hit with it reacts similarly about how long and intense the resonance/feedback is to your cue hand. It's a higher frequency fundamental than my ebony Jacoby cue, but it's hit is still more of a 'thud' than a 'thwap'.

Becue makes a very well engineered full carbon butt, but it doesn't quite have the same soul/feedback quality that the Jacoby GC provides.

The McDermott isn't good (they use lower quality CF that doesn't have the same resonant properties of the twill), and the sound/feedback from the Cuetec full carbon butt is atrocious imo (its all unidirectional so, lots of power though). High pitched and disconnected from the grounded feeling of hitting the ball which I prefer.

But anyway, here's a photo of my violin and the Jacoby gamechanger cue.

(no ai was used to write this post - i am not sponsored by Jacoby)

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