Can someone spare a few minutes to answer some basic shaft questions or point me in the direction of somewhere I can read up on this?

Firstly - Shaft flex - Is this just determined on swing speed or are there other factors? Does the overall shaft flex affect the trajectory of a shot?

Tip flex - How does this affect the trajectory? Does a softer tip increase or decrease the trajectory? If a shaft mentions no specific tip flex, then is it the same as the overall shaft flex?

Spin rate - What effect do the flexes have on this?

Also, If a certain shaft suits someone for a particular driver will that shaft work for all drivers for that player, or do you need to be fitted for each different driver. Main reason being that I am looking for something older like a TM 300 or 320ti, or Titleist 975, and I don't think I'd find anywhere that has a decent selection of these. So if I got fitted for a new TM or Titleist driver, and then looked for one of the older ones with a similar shaft or had one fitted myself would it work?

Ta.

Anyone?

> Does the overall shaft flex affect the trajectory of a shot

Playing with a shaft that's too stiff will often lead you to struggle to get the ball up.

> Does a softer tip increase or decrease the trajectory

Generally, it will increase the trajectory.

> Spin rate - What effect do the flexes have on this?

Generally, too soft a shaft would tend to increase the spin rate which would make the ball climb... and then drop. You'd lose yards in this situation.

> If a certain shaft suits someone for a particular driver will that shaft work for all drivers for that player

Pretty much. Unless you are super consistent swing wise and/or are looking to optimise your launch conditions. Bear in mind though that some heads spin more for some players with the same shaft. I have an R7 Quad and a Nike SQ; with the same shaft the R7 spins a good amount more than the SQ.

> So if I got fitted for a new TM or Titleist driver, and then looked for one of the older ones with a similar shaft or had one fitted myself would it work?

Maybe. Suck it and see. I've been buying up cheap shafts with different properties to see how they perform in the same head. Just to satisfy my own curiosity on all of this stuff.

More on this stuff, here: http://www.purelygolf.com/E/Shaft.htm

Matt