Domed tip flat tip mushroom tip any real advantage

[denja]

We have Domed tips, Flat tips, Mushroom tips, Over size tips, and even a tip with concave sides splaying outwards towards the tip (No idea what they call this one) My question is are there any REAL advantages in these different shapes, watching a video by I think John Parris I noted that they finish their tips with a very severe domed shape thats what got me thinking in contrast Mike Wooldridge finishes with a very shallow dome.

[culraven]

The advantage of mushroom or oversized tips is that you can change your tip size without the expense of changing/alterng your cue. As for the doming it is mainly personal preference, but again it can be an inexpensive way of trying a smaller tip. My personal preference, and I believe it is considered the norm, is a dome that mirrors the curvature of the ball. Mike's tip's are perfect for me, although they are very grippy, so if you over dome them they are very hard to control. I've found the best way to get the perfect shape is to use the bow tie type tool, although it's designed for larger tips, if you hold it at a 45 degree angle it works really well.

[vmax4steve]

Imagine that your tip is dead flat and three inches in diameter, it would be very difficult to strike the cue ball off the vertical centre line with that.
Again imagine that your tip is sharply pointed and only five millimetres wide, it would be incredibly difficult to strike the vertical centre line with a tip like that so a compromise between the two must be used, flat for centre ball and dome for off centre striking.

For this reason I dome my tips but keep a small flat top to them.

The oversize tip just expands on this theory.