nippon 950 gh s/r shafts

[nick sparkes]

first off i would just like to say hello to everybody as this is my first post :) the question ive got for you is ,i cant get the s/r shafts so i wrote to nippon in japan now they said i could get the desired shaft by soft stepping the stiff 1" i.e putting the 36" shaft (8iron shaft) in the wedge and so on and so on but what he hasnt told me is what to do when i get to the 4 and 3 iron as there wont be a shaft to go in them ,so do i hard step a reg shaft mmmmm this is messing my head up now ,has anybody got any ideas as to the best way to do it as the must be a way.

regards

nick sparkes

[boogielicious]

The 950GH stiff shaft is somewhat between the R300 and S300 stiffness in DG.  I use the 950GH stiff for a six iron swing speed of ~82-84mph.  I am between R300 and S300.  My fitter went with that with no soft stepping.

You may just be better off with the 950GH in stiff.

[nick sparkes]

ive tried the stiff in my 52 degree wedge but it was a wee bit to much for me ,soft stepping would be ideal but like I said unless  they do the shaft up to a 1 iron which will go in my 3 and a 2 in my 4  im pretty much at square one again.

[WUTiger]

Originally Posted by boogielicious

You may just be better off with the 950GH in stiff.

A clubftter I know says the R and S flexes in the NS Pro metal shafts tend to be softer than average.

The 950GH HL worked fine for me in the Nike VR.S Forged irons. I had a good session hitting them. This session came after having hit 70 balls before lunch with various clubs.

Given, these iron heads launch the ball fairly high. If I had gotten these irons, I would have avoided the HL (high launch) version of the shaft, because the short irons seemed to balloon a little.

Being you're a 9 HDCP, I would take boogie's advice and consider stiff. Of course, a little launch monitor time could help you make the final decision.

If you're interested, here's a review I did of the 950GH HL (Stiff) in the Nike irons:

http://thesandtrap.com/products/nike-vr-s-forged-iron-set-4-thru-pw-aw-right-4-thru-pw-aw-nippon-n-s-pro-950gh-ht-steel-regular

Also, you mentioned putting a shaft tipped for 8i in your wedge. This would be the equivalent of a double soft-step. Nicklaus supposedly did this with his wedges back in the Seventies to soften the feel on partial shots. He basically got a home-made version of the modern Spinner wedge shafts.

I have always liked the stock shafts on Cleveland wedges, so I don't know what to tell you on this wedge matter.

[nick sparkes]

I was told to soft step a stiff 950gh shaft by 1" i.e  put the 36" shaft in my wedge (pitching) which standard i believe is 35" to get the same feel from a stiff nippon to make it play like the stiff/regular version ,this was straight from nippon in japan therefore it would be like putting the 8 iron shaft in my pitching wedge and so on like the 3 would go in my 5 ,i now believe they do the shaft up to a 1 iron so that can go in the 3 iron and my set will be sorted :) just hope they play well lol

[nick sparkes]

regarding the 52 56 and 60 wedges im going to put the nippon wedge shaft in them to keep the set pretty much the same ;)

[WUTiger]

Softstepping the shafts would mean putting the 7i-tipped shaft in the 8i, the 8i-tipped shaft in the 9i, etc. Softsteppping decreases the stiffness of a shaft by about 1/3 a flex. After moving the shaft up, you would need to trim 1/2" to keep club lengths to specifications.

Doing a 1" difference in length would make a double softstep (7i into 9i ) , and decrease stiffness by about 2/3 a flex. Not sure what the Nippon guy was talking about.

Again, can you use a launch monitor and get data using the Stiff vs. Regular versions of the shaft?

Also, do you have a clubfitter who could help you on this? Once you trim the shafts, you can't put metal back on .