chuck4golf Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 As I try to educate myself on the JDM driver market (and have my eyes opened by the people who post on this forum. I thought I was a gear freak, but now I am a novice!) I saw a post by Craig who had a shaft custom built for his swing. Plus there are a few companies that build heads to exact specs for you. So, now my mind kind of boggles and I am totally intrigued by the idea. But even with my advanced understanding (relative to the general golfing public - I have a masters in golf equipment and fit to the swing, but a lot of you guys have PhD's and beyond), I would not have a clue how to think about this systematically, except to hook up to a launch monitor. But how would you experiment with custom dimensions for a shaft? So how do you that have bought custom spec'd heads (and shafts!) do this? How'd you decide the exact loft, weight distribution, etc? Through a fitting? From knowledge of your swing? Ouija Board? But I completely buy into the idea of this level of customized and pretty much think this is what I want to do. Why the hell not, if you can approach it intelligently. I am just not sure how one would do this, other than go to Japan where the inventory and fitting expertise resides. Which I can do since I travel to Asia (India) a lot. Any insight would be really appreciated. Thanks, Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck4golf Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 Haha, I just found the thread where seven dreamers custom shaft is 130K USD. I figured it would be pricey, but that's too rich for even a committed addict like me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffer19 Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 There is a cheap model at about $1K+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 Hi mate To the best of my knowledge Seven Dreamers has 2 options. Take the 130k option out as it is simply a wall ornament. Chris and the TSG guys know much mkre than me and hopefully Chris will chime in and correct me if I am wrong, and also with many more details than I have. Option 1 is to give a heap of information by answering a heap of questions. they then choose a shaft from their range to give you either Distance, Control or a balanced shaft. ( as in best overall ) for you based on these questions Option 2 is where you have a fitting at their place, they analyse the data and then you can choose again from those 3 shaft options. This shaft is made from scratch by them to fit both your swing numbers and also the head it is going in to. Thisis the option that I chose, and will write about the experience in the other thread in the next day or so. Certainly neither of these options is anywhere near 130k. You need to remove a couple of zeros Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck4golf Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 Ok, that's helpful. I was thinking, $130k and my wife would seriously tie my cajones in a knot and feed them to the fish. But a couple of grand for a totally custom driver/shaft is doable. Craig, I really look forward to reading about the process of how this worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck4golf Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 (edited) I am trying to understand the process if you build a customized head and customized shaft, which sounds great. It seems you have to settle in on the head first then add the shaft accordingly. But if you're customizing a head, how do you zero in on its variables (loft, cog, even size) without knowing what the shaft is going in it. Maybe whether a specific head is 10.4 vs 10.6 degrees isn't very important, but obviously some design specs are huge factors. The point is, since you have to make one decision first between shaft and head, but each component impacts what is optimal in the other, well seems like getting caught in a loop that has no end. Hmmm. As I write this, I am thinking the customizing of a head or a shaft mainly impacts things on the margin. So, perhaps customizing the head (or both) isn't worth the trouble. Get a fundamentally correct head for your swing and needs, then tweak the shaft to optimize it. That sounds reasonable. I don't know about you guys, but to me this is really fun stuff. In the end, hardly anyone I play with will even know or notice, and it's not going to jump me into the state amateur finals or even drop my score much. My current driver is already pretty damn good. It's just a personal thing. Golf is a deep love for me. I have played for 50 years, and frankly am playing the best of my life. My swing is getting more solid. I'm not as long as I was but who can fight time? So I play from 6100 instead of 6600 yards. But having elegant equipment is a personal thing, resonant with the love and pleasure of playing. Chuck Edited August 2, 2014 by chuck4golf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TourSpecGolfer Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 What iron are you talking about? There are custom grinds available for a small handful of brands. The company making isn't going to move the CG by much or change the size of the club. What your talking about is designing your own iron from scratch and to do that right it cost a fortune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck4golf Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 (edited) No, not irons. I am seeing driver heads that are built to custom specs. I had thought I read where the cog was customized, but now went back and see that it's only weight ports, which is pretty standard feature. But loft, face angle, lie, weight. Edited August 2, 2014 by chuck4golf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TourSpecGolfer Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 No, not irons. I am seeing driver heads that are built to custom specs. There is only one I know of which is Kamui Works. The rest are just hand picked heads, do you know of others? How one would figure that out is pretty simple, just think of adjustable drivers, if you want a draw bias you will put more weight on the heel, if you want a fade bias the other side. If you want ball to go higher than you go with a higher loft. I don't consider Seven Dreamers fully custom unless you go to the $1800 Haute Couture shaft but you need to be in Japan to get fit. Their Matrix series is actually picked from 57 templates and is fit Exclusively by TSG online using a 16 question system, the shafts are made to order but you don't need to fit yourself. Hope that helps, we are not saying you can build whatever you want so please choose it. It's a process, like gold's factory, or buchi or anything else we offer, they require personalized service and a logical process to get you through it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck4golf Posted August 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2014 Kaumi Works is the main one. I know very little about JDM, mainly just from reading this site. I had assumed the other 'custom' heads mentioned were custom built, but even if choosing the head already built, the quandary is the same. I will pm you and take this off line. Thx, Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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