ShopTalk: Expensive vs inexpensive components

[Bernie Baymiller]

Even if you are a good amateur, I'm not sure you do get what you pay for when you purchase expensive components...unless you are purchasing the brand name. With only a few tools, you might be able to build a set of irons for about $15 a club that will look almost as good and play as well or better than anything five times the price. But to do it, you need a swingweight scale, a gram scale and a way to measure shaft consistency and flex, whether by frequency of deflection. The S/W scale is $50-$90, gram scale about $25 (digital postal scale) and my DIY Neufinder2 deflection shaft matching machine about $100. I guess I'd add an inexpensive chop saw ($25-$40) to make trim increments a lot easier.   There are companies which make inexpensive-medium priced shafts, like SK Fiber, whose specs are dead on and whose performance is excellent. You can find proprietary shafts from several component suppliers which are as good and even less money. Some suppliers will hand sort head weights for you (at least they come very close).   I just finished a set for under $15 a club that plays better for me than any set I've ever hit at any price. They hit solid, straight and long. Yes, I knew what flex the shafts had to be to within .025" deflection, or about 1/2 a flex, I knew the slope that worked the best for me and I knew the length which gave me a correct lie for my swing. I weighed everything, adjusted heads ($6.95) for a swingweight of D3 across the set (came within 0.6 of a point across 9 irons, D2.9-D3.5). Flex of .446" (a mid-low R on my NF2) was my baseline and all others were matched to it +/- .002" on a 3/8" slope. I aligned them NBP-COG, though the filament wound shafts ($6.30 each) were so consistent that they probably didn't need any particular alignment. (Incidentally, if you haven't tried this alignment on irons, I highly recommend it. I haven't hit wedges this straight in the last 10 years...every shot is dead on where I aim it. Now, if I could just get the distance right....) Grips were a buck...kind of like a Players Softee...comfortable and good grip in any weather (I use a "cloth-type" glove), and this type grip is the easiest to put on and take off of any I've tried.   If you don't need to show off any particular logo, and if you know what you are buying and where to get it, you can make great sticks for little money. If you buy highly advertised and hyped brands, you can count on paying 40%-80% extra for their marketing costs. Funny thing is that in analyzing the consistency of most of the more expensive components, I find they often aren't as well made as the inexpensive ones...shafts in particular.   Bernie Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]         ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 12:03 PM Subject: Re: ShopTalk: mars iron components In a message dated 10/4/03 11:25:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hi dan, Ive been hearing a lot of talk about the wishon components, would you consider them over any other component lines available? Wishon heads are "pretty", weights and other specs. are dead on. Weight ports allow for customizing. Other than KZG (which cost more) I would highly recommend Wishon components.  There are other "good" components but you will have to do more work on them to get a really good set of irons out of them. The adage "you get what you pay for" is very true here. Depends on your building skill and your inventory of tools. Arnie