Abstract: A golf club shaft, includes a flexible, elongate, tapered, fiber-reinforced generally cylindrical body formed from a fiber/resin matrix having carbon fibers embedded therein, an interior coating layer applied substantially continuously over the surface of the cylindrical body along the length and circumference of the cylindrical body, a plurality of secondary coating layers formed over the interior coating layer including an exterior coating layer, each secondary coating layer having a different color and surrounding at least one etched area wherein one or more secondary coating layers has been removed to expose one or more coating layers between the exterior coating layer and the interior coating layer, each coating layer having a different color; and wherein the difference in the thickness of the secondary coatings in the etched area is discernable from the remainder of the surface of the cylindrical body via tactile sensation when the golf shaft is gripped by a user.