Talisman Tip Review

I promised you guys my opinion on Talisman tips and here it comes.I want to start by saying,I'm no expert in tips,in fact through out my career I think I've only tried about a half dozen different tips on my OMEN cue. http://www.omencues.com/
The shaft I play with is a Predator 314 small cat.
The tips that I have tried are;Moori medium & hard,Molavia hard,Le Pro hard,Triangle hard,and finally Talisman Water Buffalo medium & hard.Now I like hard tips for a couple of reasons;
1:they last longer
2:the sound
3:the feel
4:they don't mushroom as easy
I've played most of my career with hard Triangle's as my favorite,so that is my benchmark tip.
I also must confess to you that I'm a tip abuser!I grind my chalk in,during my PSR(pre shot routine)and as a result a hard Triangle will only last about 4 weeks of play,this is with only shaping the tip on initial install to the radius of a dime,and letting it flatten too a nickle and then maintaining that radius.Which with a Hard Triangle is about 3 more times to be shaped with a tip tool.Now during that 4 weeks of play I'm at the table for 6 hours,5 days a week.So it's a fair amount of play.

First up is the Talisman WB Medium.This is the first laminated tip I've tried in years,I never had much luck with them in the past.For me they were too soft and I had a few de-laminate,let alone the cost of just one!
This was a nice tip for a medium.It played slightly softer than a hard Triangle when new,and was very consistent through out it's life till the very end of it.When I first put this tip on I was amazed at how well it grabbed the cue ball,I actually had to change the way I addressed the CB with spin,moving back closer too center ball for all shots.The amount and speed of draw shots was most impressive,and very nice to watch.I had too adjust my stroke too this tip,but that's to be expected when you change hardness in a tip.This tip also produced a nice sound when you stroked the ball.When I installed it I shaped it too a dime,and after break in,it was a nickle radius,and never changed.I never had too use a tip tool on this tip beyond a gentle taping too perforate it.This tip also holds chalk very well,the only time I miscued with this tip is when I jumped right out of the shot!It's pretty rare for me to miscue but it did happen a couple of times with this tip,but it definitely was me jumping up or dropping my elbow.The only complaint I have with this tip was it's life span,I wish it would have lasted more than 4 weeks for me.If it would have lasted say 5 weeks I'd be putting another Talisman WB medium on my OMEN!

Talisman WB Hard:
I've only had this tip on about a week,and love it so far.I'm going to hold off on this review till I grind it down a little further or it's on for 3 weeks or more.I feel that's the only way too give you a fair review of this tip.I can tell you, that it grabs the CB very nice,sound great,and feels great!But I feel it needs more time for initial break in than the medium.

Talisman Break/Jump Tip:
So,a B/J tip is an extremely hard material such as leather or plastic.
I chose to use a Talisman leather B/J tip over G10 fiberglass,because of the new tournament rules.I put this tip on my Xbreaker that had a G10 tip originally.

I've had to make some rather large adjustments to my break to get it to work for me,and I still don't have the results I was hoping for.So this probably wont be a favorable review.

The tip is hard but there is a loss of speed and power on the break shot.I've had to increase my tip speed dramatically which decreased my accuracy.This makes it very hard to control the cue ball,and squat the rock in the middle.When I do get the accuracy,speed and power the tip performs well.
As far as a jump shot goes I'm impressed with the feel and control you get when you can get it off the table.But getting the CB off the table is no easy task with this tip.It also requires a totally different stroke than the G10 tip that comes on an X-Breaker.It seems to me that this tip requires so much speed rather than power that you must spend a lot of time practicing your break and jump shots if your changing from a Phenolic or G10 tip.

Too be fair too Talisman I made a mistake when installing this tip and had a pad installed.I'm not positive that a pad would decrease the performance of the tip dramatically,but I do know it has a negative effect.The pad should not be there!So I will be getting another B/J tip from them in the future,and trying it with out a pad.I'll post that review also.

As far as mushrooming goes,I've had ZERO mushrooming with all three of these tips.Mushrooming is my biggest problem with tips and is one of the reasons I grind my tips too nothing.I always shape my tips too a dime the first time and let them flatten naturally too a nickle.So far none of these tips have ever moved from there!

The cost of Talisman tips? I got 4 tips for $37 shipped!
2 medium
1 hard
and a free B/J tip & a monogrammed hand towel!That's a good deal.I ordered directly from the Talisman website.
STRETCH