Cue specs- 9 ball, 8 ball, straight pool, One Pocket, snooker, billirds

My break cue is a Mali with a 13.5 mm tip, pressed lepro. Thick taper and butt.
Playing cue is a Hagan with 12.75mm, lepro. Thin solid rosewood butt.
My snooker shaft is simply an OB low deflection shaft... it works.

Snooker cues in general have straight taper by default of how they're made. 8-10 mm is common with brass ferrules
Billiard/Carom cues are generally 56 or 57 inch length, despite being played on larger tables. They also have tiny 10mm-ish tips. Tapers vary from european to conical to eiffel.
American pool old school cues were made to work with very different equipment, so it's tough to say in this category. Bigger tips used to be more common, along with ivory ferrules. Also adhesives and cue-making techniques have evolved tremendously over recent years (coring, LD, etc).
Modern pool cues tend to lean toward a pro taper and don't vary too much from game to game from what I've seen (i.e. - 9 ball to 8 vs straight to 1p).
Chinese 8 ball is new, and I have no clue what players prefer as many come from american pool and many come from snooker. Assuming smaller tips than average and LD tech
for those constructed like pool cues, and bigger tip sizes for those constructed like traditional snooker cues.

IMO Break cues should be LD, and jump/masse cues should have very tip high end mass. This is the downside to J/B combo cues. I have a Lomax, which is actually the perfect in between: breaks extremely accurately and jumps with ease.

I only play one pocket and nine ball and nowadays I only play with one cue. 60 inches, wrapless, 12.7mm shaft. For me personally, the more potential variance in my game (e.g. different cues, tables, switching from measle ball to red circle ball, etc.) the worse I play. So I just keep things as simple as possible.

I will say that if I had any propensity for switching, I'd keep the longer cue for one pocket as there are a lot of situations that require some amount of reach.

I'm pretty much all the same.
Just starting up again with new equipment to settle on - but I'm quickly coming to favor ...

Player is 19 oz. Joss. I like the 12.25 - 2.50 range the best, although I do have ones down to 11.75 and up to 13. The 11.75 is a very nice OB, but being off just a very little bit makes a big difference in the shot, and I'm not quite that consistent yet. I like the pro taper (10-12 or 12-14. The Meucci 14-16 is a bit longer than I need)

I have a couple break cues - but lean toward the 20 oz. Action 13.25 phenolic tip and European taper.

I do have other cues that I like a lot - but the above is my preferred choice.

I prefer 8-ball, but also like 14:1 when it's an option. I'm not a fan of 9-ball at all, but don't "hate" 10 ball if I have to do rotation. I never really played much of the other ones. Most of the time I use a medium tip - although I do like a soft one for straight pool. The softer tip seems to move the ball around a bit more precisely for me, and it doesn't get hit too hard all that often.

I have six years worth of records of practice sessions with an AcCueShot shooting down the center of the table. Same thing doing three speed shots. Final result is my best control and most comfort is with a 18.8 oz. wrapless Frey SP. solid shaft. That is my player, end of story. So much so that I'm bringing four more expensive cues to SBE to sell. I no longer want to putz around with the other cues. It really only hurts me.

I could see having my second matching shaft changed to a softer tip, but that's about it.

3c 56.5 inch 17-18 ounces, 12-11.5mm tip, medium tip

All small game caroms I like 54 inch, 16 ounce, 11 mm soft stip

Pool I play with my 3c cue 57 inches

All european taper

Same except for break cue which very seldom gets any use any more. Don't have a Snooker or Billiard cue so would have to play with pool cue.

Edit: One of my four shafts is about 12 mm so I would and have used it to play Snooker with.

look at for instance, Mark Gray, who has done great at Mosconi Cup 9b and the US Open 9b using an ash snooker cue.

I remember Jay Helfert saying that at one tourney long ago, Keith showed up without a cue and so Jay loaned one to him and, of course, he took it down. :thumbup:

the indian does seem to keep being way more important than the arrows. I think we overthink our equipment much too much. I know I do.

I don't play 1p but I do think there is one good advantage you can have with your cue in that game. I recall Pat Fleming came up with a weight that could be slipped onto your shaft for those shots where you are jacked up shooting over the stack or similar. These situations come up a lot in 1p so that made sense to me. Probably you could get a forward balanced to that could help with this, also.

best,
brian kc

Chopdoc said:

A cue can't play by itself...so the Indian versus arrow argument is a no brainer as far as i can see.


Yet, certain specs do seem to be favored for certain types of games. I am wondering about that.

I don't mean to imply that one cannot play without the "right specs". Not at all.



What got me thinking was my playing last Sunday. I play occasionally with a friend who spent years in 9 ball leagues in California. We usually play 9 ball. I usually use my 60 inch Huebler.

We played 4 or 5 racks of 9 and then decided to play straight pool to 100.


The Huebler didn't feel right. So after a bit I pulled out my old Joss. When I last looked at the score it was 80 to 40 in my favor. It was his turn and he ran a handful of balls and I then ran 20 and out.

I had not played straight pool in at least 20 years. The Huebler felt wrong. The Joss felt right.


I am not really a one pocket player at all, but I consider my Dayton cue my one pocket cue...it just feels right. Softer tips, but other than that similar specs to my Joss.




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Click to expand...

Is your Joss also 60"? If not, my theory would be that with 9-ball you tend to need to move the ball all over the table more, which = "letting out your stroke." I've always considered 14;1 a more "precise" game, with less movement, and more "touch". Just my guess.

What kind of specs separate cues for different games?

Pool:
9 ball cue specs? Pro taper, 12mm, somewhat stiff, hard tip
8 ball cue specs? Pro taper, 11.25mm Tip, somewhat whippy, medium tip
Straight pool cue specs? see 8-ball--maybe a soft tip
One pocket cue specs? see 8-ball

Then of course there are break cues. super hard tip, 13mm straight taper, very stiff--same weight as play cue.

Jump cues? short light, straight taper stiff light shaft, super hard tip, nose light

Masse cue specs? short heavy, straight taper stiff medium shaft, soft tip brass ferrule, nose heavy.

Chopdoc said:

Can you elaborate on how and why the different cue specs fit the different billiard games? For ignorant people...like me?

I don't even know what "small" caroms means.

Can you give us pool players the simple overview where the cue specs and carom games are concerned?





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Click to expand...

glad you asked
''small games'' in carom are

straight rail, no rails needed to score

one cushion, self explanitory

and balkline, three variantes,

47.2,71.2,47.1

in order of difficulty
a game with boxes or zones drawn on the cloth and you can only make 2 or 1 carom in each zone, before having to drive one of the object balls out, or else your turn is over



i posted a thread with videos on these as demonstrated and explained by frederic caudron, todays best all around at ALL carom games


http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=447954



small games typically are played with the short cue and very light, with soft tip
soft tip helps on all the small nuances of the extreme english used in these games,
tiny masse shots,

the balance of a short cue, you most of the time hold it far up on the handle, makes it even shorter and a straighter more controlled stroke,

incrediblly technical and by far WAY more challenging than they appear


for 3 cushion a bit more weight seems to help when you need to go around the table twice so the 17-18 ounce range is what works for me

Having really just returned to the game in last falls league session, I'm still trying to figure out my player let alone a certain cue for a certain game. In the past I typically played 8 and 9 ball and used one cue including breaking. I now no longer break with my playing cue which right now is a Blue Grass hustler with a 13 mm shaft. I'm inclined to use it for any game I play and would like to not complicate things with using different cues.

JazzboxBlues said:

Having really just returned to the game in last falls league session, I'm still trying to figure out my player let alone a certain cue for a certain game. In the past I typically played 8 and 9 ball and used one cue including breaking. I now no longer break with my playing cue which right now is a Blue Grass hustler with a 13 mm shaft. I'm inclined to use it for any game I play and would like to not complicate things with using different cues.

Click to expand...

I really like the idea of not complicating things, too.

I'm afraid I've already complicated things though with having a player, a breaker and a jumper in my bag.

Think about guys like Cornbread Red and the many others who kicked so many behinds with just their players...

best,
brian kc