I've been wanting to try one of your cues for a long time, and I have watched them with interest on Ebay. If you were to choose me as a winner I'd post a long review, complete with measurements and high resolution pictures. As of now I have not posted any reviews on Azb, I was going to post one of my McDermott G-224 and I still have the draft, but not the pictures, so I'll use the stock picture as my illustration.
Here is my review:
I ordered the McDermott G-224 from Nielsens Billiards, and as usual it arrived well packaged and in a timely manner.
When I first got the cue out I could not believe that this cue only cost about 250 dollars! It had a beautiful piece of bocote and a nice, deep and glossy finish that brought out the beauty of the wood. The linnen wrap was nice and tight, white with brown spots which again was a good match for the wood. It had white rings above and below the wrap, with the one below shifted a bit down, instead of close to the wrap, which is an unusual design choice but worked very well.
The cue specs were as follows:
19,5 ounces, 58 inch, 12.5 mm tip, plastic joint with 3/8*10 pin. When I first picked it up I could not believe it weighed as much as 19,5 ounces. The weight was perfectly distributed along it's length and a very natural balance. The cue felt almost like it was floating in my hand. The G-core shaft seemed like a normal maple shaft, except for the red ring below the ferrule. There is in fact a hollow carbon tube inserted into the front end. The shaft appeared to be a solid piece. At first I thought that the red ring might be distacting, but it turns out that I didn't even notice it when I was playing. The butt size fit my hand perfectly, I can't remember what the measurement was but it was a medium size.
I got several compliments on the cue at the poolhall and for such a "plain cue" everyone seemed to want to pick it up and try it. They all remarked on the nice balance, and I'm not lying, I could not convince any of them that the cue was 19,5 ounces! It felt lighter to all of them, and these were players who all had sub 19 ounce cues.
I had to cut off the Everest tip, which had gone dry and did not hold chalk very well at all. I replaced it with a Milkdud. In play the cue was very nice. It didn't have any real weaknesses to speak of. The hit was fairly firm and cueball control felt very natural. I felt very much in control of the ball no matter what the speed. The G-core shaft has a somewhat different feel than an ordinary maple shaft, it feels a bit firmer, but not in a bad way. Compared to other carbon cored cues, the feel was much more like a solid maple cue. It didn't have particularly low deflection, fairly similar to a regular maple shaft of the same diameter, maybe slightly lower.
The cue, I felt, excelled at firm shots where it felt like the carbon core really help to keep the shaft solid. I have a standard test of all cues where I run 28 balls in straight pool to see what they are good for. On the very first try I ran 40 with no effort at all, and it would have been more, if I hadn't gotten interrupted by a friend wanting to chat. I felt the solid hit of the shaft helped a lot of the firm breakshots, where ld-shafts sometimes feel a bit flimsy. The cue did all things about equally well, follows, draws, spin shots they were all fairly easy and predictable. Of course, being used to ld shafts, the sidespin needed some adjustments, but it was not too much trouble. Overall the cue, while not having any extreme strengths in it's playability, had no weaknesses either. Even jumpshots were fairly easy. I don't generally break with my playing cue, but if I had to, I'm pretty sure it would have been up to that task as well.
I really regret selling this cue, so much so that I may buy another one in the future. I'd recommend it to anyone who'd like a pretty cue that performs well for a budget price.
