FWIW, Meucci's were not bad cues back in the day. I had one that was very nice - no plastic at all - and it played great. I gave it to Jerry Powers many years ago in exchange for a purple heart jump/break.
To answer Jay's question... the older production cues are better than the new ones because somewhere around the time period of TCOM, production increased and quality decreased. When the Asian market boomed in the late 1980's, there was more demand than supply. When that happenes, the production cue companies were forced to produce cues quicker, faster, cheaper - and in doing so the quality of the materials and the quality of craftsmanship decreased.
The companies were forced to hire more people to build more cues at a rapid pace. The quality in wood, inlay materials (using cheap plastic or decals), craftsmanship, attention to detail, service, it all went downhill with a lot of these companies, but they had to meet the demand for their product. The quality was gone, and soon afterwards, so was the demand.
IMO, the people that produced the ealy 80's models of McDermott cues (mainly the C & D series) made the best production cues EVER. I have been shooting with my McDermott D-21 since 1985 and McDermott has ALWAYS provided me with outstanding service. The cue hits just as good as it did the first day I had it.
As for Meucci - if you dig around a little you can find some nice treasures out there, like the cue type of cue that Holly described. Bob Meucci put out some fantastic cues (as well as some junk) but I would not dismiss all of their cues are garbage. I have a friend here in Orlando that shoots with a nice, older Meucci and he does a pretty good job getting the balls into the pockets with it.