Looking for shaft options

[Jtgavigan]

First, a little background on me. I have been playing over 30 years, low single digit handicap, approx 110 mph swing speed with the driver. I play a set of snake eyes 675b blades, dg sensicore x100 shafts, driver is snake eyes 675T with pro launch red with axis shaft, x flex 44.5", 3 wood is a just built Maltby KE4-3d with a grafalloy red x flex, 43.25", quick strike tour 18 degree hybrid, grafalloy red x flex, wedges snake eyes 650w with dg sensicore x100. My tempo isn't overly slow or fast, but I am pretty aggressive from the top, so I tend to load the shaft a bit coming down.

 

I haven't built anything new in a while until the 3 wood this week, and one thing I have noticed is that shaft prices have continued to climb. As you can see, I tend to like lower launch shafts (my favorite shafts in the past have been grafalloy blue, pl red, fujikura speeder 757 (had one given to me in a driver, replaced it with a blue when it broke and liked it just as well if not better), and going way back, ei-70) as I can hit the ball too high at times and it is not hard for me to get the ball to balloon. What I am noticing is a lot of shafts that I might like are $300 plus.

 

So, here are a few questions I have:

 

1. What are some other options for me with wood/hybrid shafts other than the pl red for under $100? I noticed that the ust mamiya axiv tour green is an option. Any others? What are your experiences?

 

2. I get all my shafts PURED, so I was wondering if there is really THAT much difference between a $50 shaft and a $350 shaft? I mean, one that I will notice? I don't doubt that the expense is justified for the shaft because of materials, manufacturing process, etc., but will I even notice?

 

I have tended to like experimenting with shafts, but I don't have thousands to spend. I don't want to make a $350 mistake. Any thoughts are appreciated.

[johnnythunders]

See the threads on arthur extreme shafts, best bang for the buck, and they make some stout low launch shafts for under $75. And they perfrom as good as the $350 shafts. Todays shafts are so good you really dont need to pure them anymore, read golfshaftreviews were they test radial quality of shafts.

[Jtgavigan]

Interesting, I never even looked at these. I will definitely give them a try. The red certainly needed PUREing as I installed it nearly label down as I have with my other one. Thanks for the recommendation!