Perhaps this is a stupid question...does a soft tip shaft add loft to a driver and,therefore,makes it more forgiving?

To be honest , if you want to add loft to the driver, best to get a driver with more loft.
The softer lower section does one thing, it helps to unload the shaft at impact , giving the false sense of adding loft to the driver.
It would help a slower swing speed to achieve the unloading of the energy.

There should be no affect on forgiveness. If you have a swing that is fast enough AND you have a late release, the softer tip can certainly add dynamic loft and needs to be fitted. However, without both of these swing characteristics, there is little dynamic loft added by the shaft flex: the shaft is more or less straight at impact. As Release suggests, if you are looking to affect your ball flight, including launch angle, do that by adjusting the loft of the head.

There are two primary effects of a soft tip:
a) it creates greater sense of loading of the shaft, which will affects the the player's tempo and his/her timing of the transition and release. The degree to which this sensation is added, in my understanding, depends on the stiffness of the tip section relative to the stiffness of the butt section.
b) it will affect the feel at impact -- a tip that is too stiff for the player can feel "harsh."

I think it is the first of these that Release is referring to when he discusses the unloading of energy. This "unloading of energy" is actually the gains that result from shaft flex encouraging/facilitating good tempo, transition, and release. I don't think he is talking about releasing energy from the shaft flexing "into the ball." There is actually VERY little, if any, added "kick velocity" resulting from the shaft flex at impact.

Back before the adjustable loft era, tip stiffness was indeed a consideration. I can't speak for anyone else, but I remember putting a graffaloy pro-launch blue shaft (stiff) in my old PING G5 driver and noticed a dramatic improvement with a notably higher launch angle.

It's also worth noting, however, that I had a flat swing plane (primarily because I stood a tad too far away from the ball at address) and was already playing a 12º head, which at the time was the highest driver loft offering on the market for men. I would've gone with more loft back then if I had the option, but the only other alternative for me was to purchase a lady's driver (which I eventually experimented with and found reasonable success) with 14 degrees loft. Of course - I had to throw in a stiff men's shaft and at that point I really didn't need the lower kick point. I could belt that thing... 260-270 yards, 14º lady's PING driver. It was really just more or less a glorified oversized 3wood, but I used that thing for 2-3 seasons and used it well. Then PING came out with the higher lofted options (13.5º) for men back during the G15 model I think it was, and although I really didn't notice much difference from the Lady's model I'd been playing - at least the guys I played with felt better about being outdriven 20 yards with an authentic men's club.

I think this modern era of adjustability has pretty much closed the book on the tip stiffness discussion, at least for drivers. But it's still a consideration for the traditional non-adjustable fairway woods out there, although those too are becoming more and more a thing of the past.

    Weirfan And here I thought this was going to be about reaching the age of 60

    I sort of remember turning 60.......................kind of...........

    Soft tip shafts feel great at impact - feels like you smashed it good (even if you didn't).

      PA-PLAYA
      Again, for the vast majority of golfers, tip stiffness (or more accurately, shaft profile) only affects the feel of the club and has little to no direct affect on ball flight. Any change in ball flight that occurs has more to do with the way the player swings the club in response to the feel. So, I don't see how loft adjustability negates the relevance of this fitting spec. As long as a head is a weight at the end of a shaft, shaft profile will impact feel and needs to be considered when selecting a shaft.

          kelco9

          Whatever you say, bud. I've never had a problem representing the minority.

            Weirfan
            What do you need to know, Peter? I might still be able to remember some of it....

              I have only been fitted for a driver once back when I was just 67, (now 71) and I believe it was probably a good fitting , Track man at driving range, with cart full of heads and shafts, well respected fitter. I had 10.5 Cobra LD with Grafalloy pro launch 65 regular. Hitting consistently low trajectory shots @180-200 ish yds carry with 20 ish rollout . He put me in a 12 Ping G15 (Ping dealer/fitter, you know ) with the PING regular flex soft tip TFC. He stated the soft tip was giving me more spin, hence higher trajectory and more carry . I may even get more distance when fairways are soft and roll out limited compared to my old club. A center hit feels solid. A bad toe mis-hit gives really bad springy, wippy feel, especially if I'm over swinging as I am want to do. I still game that driver and working hard to maximize it still. I'm using dry white board markers on the range balls and concentrating on getting center face hits and smoothing out my swing . It is helping , finally. Drove much more consistently yesterday , both longer and straighter. I checked one of my drives with GPS at 247 yds. V. Little wind and flat fairway. I was happy. but honestly , I am useing DTG2 Felon balls.
              HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

              My ss with a driver is around 85 mph.In my home course range I usually reach 220 m (carry+roll).
              My problem is that 3 years ago I was given a sa present a 10.5 deg Ryoma Maxima V Type (pro version) I would hate to part company with.Inexplicably I hit this driver as long or longer than than my 13 deg Nakashima NX TL and the Wishon 919THI on a Graman GMAXXX (48g) and a GD GSeries(48g too).
              of the same weight respectively.The Ryoma is teamed up with an Accra Dymatch RT 62g) in R flex but this head shafting depth is 20mm only which makes the tip more active.Both the Graman and the GD are A flex and the most reactive tip is that of the Graman.My teaching pro loves how well balanced is my Ryoma and advises me not to replace the Accra for the Graman.Anybody out there has had any experience with the Graman GMAXXX in A flex?

              what feels good for you could be entirely different than the next golfer.
              If you're not looking for pure distance and shot pattern, feel is a subjective matter. You will never know unless you had tried the combination with the shaft and the head yourself.
              Same shaft would also "feel" different in different heads, even with the same make and exactly the same spec.

              One thing I would suggest is mark the orientation of the shaft to the head before you pull the head, so it could return to the original insertion when you need to reinstall the shaft.