Wayne,
Many of the manufacturers include premium shafts in their testing facilities. Titleist in their Science Van did even two years ago. I expect that when I go to the Callaway high performance centre up in Vaughan later in the week that they will too. I've never done Ping so them I don't know. It's probably the only effective way to do trial and error, although it would be better to do it on an outdoor range so you can actually see the ball flight.
As GJ has pointed out a good fitter can narrow down the possibilities for you and may have samples to try. Or you can take the appproach I've used in building my own clubs. Buy a bunch of shafts and heads that have profiles that fit my measured swing, then build them, try them and swap the components to find the ones that matches best. It gets kind of expensive (9 drivers in the basement so far
) but the difference in results is astonishing. A head that doesn't work with one premium shaft works wonderfully with another for instance. Aldila NV, ProtoPype, VS Proto, Graffaloy Comp NT, Proforce V2, GD Purple Ice, I have them all and they all perform differently even though they are all notionally stiff shafts. I've had three NV shafts that are the same that performed differently. One turned out to be mislabelled. Then try mixing and matching them to different heads and lofts, pheew. It ain't easy finding the right one, and the manufacturers get rich selling the hope that the next one will be magic just for you.