Esoteric Cue Traditional with Ivory Inlay

scdiveteam

scdiveteam

Rick Geschrey
Silver Member
Hi,

Here is a 4 point player with 16 Ivory Inlays, Irish linen, box veneered rings with 2 shafts.

Butt 14.7
Shafts 3.9 & 4.0

SOLD - Shipping and Insurance included with tips installed to your preference.

My cues are all designed to be slightly forward balanced so adding a rear weight and bringing it up to about 19.25 would not aft load the weight and balance.

Other Features:

13 MM Parabolic Tapered Shafts with modern pro taper climb

Parabolic Tapered Butt Geometry

Butts Built of solid laminated maple full core

Flat Face Joint with big modified pin 3/8" x 14

Garolite Shaft Inserts

Here are the progress pics of the build:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=288424

Thanks for looking,


Rick

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Thanks For All The Photos

The looks are terrific, however, Rick Geshrey's cues are not known to me. Any readers out there with firsthand experience with his cues? The ivory joint looks to be shorter than most ivory cue joints, except perhaps for a few Gilbert cues I've played with.

How is the ivory joint on this Esoteric different than others? It appears to be an ivory collar surrounding a wood face center. Wood to wood is supposedly the best feel in a cue joint and the cues I own either have a solid ivory flat face or a piloted ivory joint. Does this ivory cue joint design offer any advantage or superiority in its design versus other ivory cue joint versions? Rick, by the way, what's the typical age of the wood you maintain in inventory for making your cue shafts? What's the average weight on one of cue shafts, for example. let's just say a 13mm shaft?

The price of the cue in the photos seems reasonable to me. However, it also places the cue in the same approximate price range of cues from some prestigious named cue-makers that are generally available in the secondary market. Nowadays, spending upwards of two grand will buy a whole lot more cue than it did 3-4 years ago. So based on looks, Rick's cue will compete with the best of them but the cue's overall feel and playability is completely unknown to me. Are there any forum readers that have any firsthand experince owning/playing with one of Rick's cues?

In closing, as I previously stated, this is indeed a very handsome cue Rick has made. If it plays anywhere close to its great looks, then his cues are indeed a cue that anyone would be pleased to add to their collection.
 
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I believe Rick's background in cues comes from Omega, DPK if I am remembering it correctly?...................
 
Bavafongoul said:
The looks are terrific, however, Rick Geshrey's cues are not known to me. Any readers out there with firsthand experience with his cues? The ivory joint looks to be shorter than most ivory cue joints, except perhaps for a few Gilbert cues I've played with.

How is the ivory joint on this Esoteric different than others? It appears to be an ivory collar surrounding a wood face center. Wood to wood is supposedly the best feel in a cue joint and the cues I own either have a solid ivory flat face or a piloted ivory joint. Does this ivory cue joint design offer any advantage or superiority in its design versus other ivory cue joint versions? Rick, by the way, what's the typical age of the wood you maintain in inventory for making your cue shafts? What's the average weight on one of cue shafts, for example. let's just say a 13mm shaft?

The price of the cue in the photos seems reasonable to me. However, it also places the cue in the same approximate price range of cues from some prestigious named cue-makers that are generally available in the secondary market. Nowadays, spending upwards of two grand will buy a whole lot more cue than it did 3-4 years ago. So based on looks, Rick's cue will compete with the best of them but the cue's overall feel and playability is completely unknown to me. Are there any forum readers that have any firsthand experince owning/playing with one of Rick's cues?

In closing, as I previously stated, this is indeed a very handsome cue Rick has made. If it plays anywhere close to its great looks, then his cues are indeed a cue that anyone would be pleased to add to their collection.
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Hi,

Here is some info:

Esoteric's History

Our Company, "Esoteric Cue"is home to Cue Makers Ray Hernandez and Rick Geschrey. Ray, a Tool & Die Engineer of 40 years also happens to be the last cue maker to work in the Omega DPK shop and trained Rick in his cue making journey. Rick had a cue repair business in his pool hall and was ready to start building cues. After Omega DPK closed their doors, Rick put up the capitol to develop a Custom Cue Shop with Ray as the Master Cue Maker and Design Engineer. Over the past 8 years they have developed the shop equipment and machining procedures to produce what they feel is a world class product.

From the start of their operations Ray insisted that the 3/8"x14 Omega Style Modified Joint Pin with the Garolite shaft insert using the parabolic taper was the direction to pursue. Ray & Rick had the tooling developed for the pin to be manufactured to a high accuracy tolerance. Ray also programed a parabolic shaft taper on the CNC to produce a taper bar for the table saw shaft cutting machine to create a taper with a bit more spine than the Omega contour creating a very stiff hit.

While Ray sold his Esoteric "Hernadez Signature Cues", Rick personally built 50 cues as his beta testing model that he gave away free to his league members, employees and friends at his Billiards Cafe. These cues were observed in the field over years and slight adjustment improvements were implemented before Rick sold his first cue as he was then confident in his refined skills sets as a cue builder and the end product's standard for quality.

After building about 70 cues Rick re developed his in house shop procedures and QA QC program and changed the butt construction design of the Esoteric Cue to a 100% full cored units instead of the A-Joint Pin joinery. He also re designed the butt contour to have a slightly thinner handle as this new contour has a parabolic curve taper from the butt cap to the A-Joint area, then the fore arm is conical to the joint. This geometry, the shaft taper and full core construction creates the hit of these cue. Esoteric Cue have a quiet solid hit due the the laminated maple dowel core.

The cue shown here is cue 143 and Rick is now the sole cue maker producing cues at Esoteric but Ray now 72 years old comes into the shop and builds a custom cues now and then for his select local customers.

Last year Rick took his cue making to a full time job status and relocated his shop to Palatine, Il from his Billiards Cafe in Algonquin which is now being managed by his son Tom. Esoteric Cue has only been exposed to the national and international market for only the last 16 months.

Thanks for you interest.
 
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Thank You For The Background

Thank you so very much for this synopsis of the company's background and your cue-making experience. The description reads really good and helps build one's confidence when ordering or buying an Esoteric cue.

Although the joint on the cue in the photo does not have an ivory joint, that would be an easy fix. Would an ivory joint version also have the shorter looking cue joint? Does the shorter style joint offer any advantages over a customarily longer ivory cue joint like other cue-makers use?

It seems to me that the transfer/vibration feel though the cue should be affected and quite possibly that could be some improvement in hit & feel. Just the wood to wood center suggests a very different feel than a piloted joint with metal to metal threading. But change doesn't always promise improvement and so I'm trying to gather some more information.

The best feeling cue joints I've personally played with comes down to a coin flip between the cue joint on my Mottey cue and my Scruggs cue, both of which are ivory. I favor flat faced (full) ivory joint as a rule but am wondering whether the design of the Esoteric cue joint offers any superriority over other design ivory cue joints or else why would I or anyone want to ever change what we already play with and enjoy?

Thanks for any information on this question about the cue joint design. I think it directly relates to the overall interest and appeal of owning with a Esoteric cue.

Matt B.
 
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Rick is flying way way under the radar. Grab one of his cues, you won't be disappointed. In fact you will probably need to find someone to chisel the smile off your face. Great cues from a real good guy.
 
That is a beauty:-) I like the veneer stripes between the points, the veneers colors and the nice pics....

-Jon Birger
 
I really, really wish I had some money! This cue is absolutely beautiful. I love the traditional look.

I would buy one of Rick's cues before many other "top-tiered" makers in a heartbeat. As soon as my taxes come back in a few months, I hope to either buy one, or have him make me one.

Good luck with this cue Rick. It is exquisite, in my humble opinion.


Braden
 
Bob Farr said:
Rick is flying way way under the radar. Grab one of his cues, you won't be disappointed. In fact you will probably need to find someone to chisel the smile off your face. Great cues from a real good guy.
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Great cue Rick.

As an aspiring cue builder, I can say that Rick has hastened my learning at a faster rate than it ever would have been working on my own. I have been to his shop twice and I am always amazed at his attention to detail in his cue building. He documents all procedures and involves QC in everything he does. OH yea........ did I mention that he is a great guy to call if you need help with any aspect of cue building.

Kim
 
whammo57 said:
Great cue Rick.

As an aspiring cue builder, I can say that Rick has hastened my learning at a faster rate than it ever would have been working on my own. I have been to his shop twice and I am always amazed at his attention to detail in his cue building. He documents all procedures and involves QC in everything he does. OH yea........ did I mention that he is a great guy to call if you need help with any aspect of cue building.

Kim
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Thanks all for the kind words.
 
Rick, very interesting history, great cue, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with you at the cue show this year.
 
Esoteric cues

Rick is a great guy. I visited his shop last year, bought a blank from him and he even threw in some extras shaft blanks. He is extremely knowledable and his cues fit and finish are some of the best I have seen and I have seen most of them all. Highly recommended.......Deacon
 
Bavafongoul said:
The looks are terrific, however, Rick Geshrey's cues are not known to me. Any readers out there with firsthand experience with his cues? The ivory joint looks to be shorter than most ivory cue joints, except perhaps for a few Gilbert cues I've played with.

How is the ivory joint on this Esoteric different than others? It appears to be an ivory collar surrounding a wood face center. Wood to wood is supposedly the best feel in a cue joint and the cues I own either have a solid ivory flat face or a piloted ivory joint. Does this ivory cue joint design offer any advantage or superiority in its design versus other ivory cue joint versions? Rick, by the way, what's the typical age of the wood you maintain in inventory for making your cue shafts? What's the average weight on one of cue shafts, for example. let's just say a 13mm shaft?

The price of the cue in the photos seems reasonable to me. However, it also places the cue in the same approximate price range of cues from some prestigious named cue-makers that are generally available in the secondary market. Nowadays, spending upwards of two grand will buy a whole lot more cue than it did 3-4 years ago. So based on looks, Rick's cue will compete with the best of them but the cue's overall feel and playability is completely unknown to me. Are there any forum readers that have any firsthand experince owning/playing with one of Rick's cues?

In closing, as I previously stated, this is indeed a very handsome cue Rick has made. If it plays anywhere close to its great looks, then his cues are indeed a cue that anyone would be pleased to add to their collection.
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Hi,

I just got a PM concerning the question if this is an ivory joint, it's not but the inlays are.

Here is my philosophy on Ivory Joints as was my response to the PM.

Rick


I use Juma Joints on my cues except for custom order were Ivory is requested. Juma is harder than most Ivory but it has a quieter hit and machines like it is a softer material. Juma is the best thing that has happened to c=ue making IMO.

It has been my experience living in Chicago that too many people allow their cues to get cold in the winter and then play with them causing the ivory to crack so I don't garuntee Ivory joints.

Ivory is an organic material and many joints stand up over time even if abused concerning temperature and playing with the cue when it is cold. Ivory in my opinion is a very beautiful material and I love using it for inlays but as a joint material it can be problematic even when it is sleeved.

Thanks,

Rick[/QUOTE]

PS: Thanks Decon for you kind words, it is appreciated.
 
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