What makes a production cue?
- Thread starter J Layer
- Start date
Think if it is bought from INVENTORY, and not made to Specific Specifications. It is Production, like a suit that is off the Rack, verses one the is Made to fit You after they measure you. Plus you pick cloth, style, # of pants you want, buttons etc.
Great answer... I might add produced in large quantities. I'll let you define large qty's.
Production Cue is one of many made on a Production Line Vs a Custom Cue that is made as a one of a kind or One of a limited number.
The Limited Number thing is just that a Limited Number of the XYZ Model Meucci!
I would think that a production cue is one made on some sort of assembly line. The parts are readily interchangeable. A custom cue is made to some sort of unique specifications for an individual user.
The logical extensions implies that parts can be made to be interchangeable and then assembled per some request from a user. However, I think that loses the intent behind a “custom” cue in which the user may make suggestions or requests for the design of a work of art. The custom cue may use some production parts but its essence is the unique design for a particular user. I suspect that not all custom cues are indeed custom made. My own cue was made for someone else and while it is indeed a work of art, it was not made for me.
The logical extensions implies that parts can be made to be interchangeable and then assembled per some request from a user. However, I think that loses the intent behind a “custom” cue in which the user may make suggestions or requests for the design of a work of art. The custom cue may use some production parts but its essence is the unique design for a particular user. I suspect that not all custom cues are indeed custom made. My own cue was made for someone else and while it is indeed a work of art, it was not made for me.
Cowboy
Limited Number can be a Production or Custom depending on how they are made. Take Dan James and the Famous Color Of Money Stick. He made 5 custom sticks for the movie that Cruise and Newman each got one. Dan James also produced 100's of Production run Color of Money Sticks of which I have one. But I would call the 5 sticks a limited number of custom made sticks.
JoeW
I think we are on the same page and you refined my definition.
Who is Dan James???:thumbup:..:thumbup:
Or, is it a cue that is made to spec or inventory, rather then for a specific person?
Indeed, Dan Janes' alter ego.:grin:
Nevermind...He's the guy who makes Josh cues...right??..:grin-square:
Sorry J..Back to the point at hand...I think most would say that TADs are custom but wasnt there a time when you could pick one from a catalog?..Would'nt that be concidered production?..
Sorry J..Back to the point at hand...I think most would say that TADs are custom but wasnt there a time when you could pick one from a catalog?..Would'nt that be concidered production?..
I think the same thing about Gina, Southwest too.
Gina has a model and you can order that cue over and over. Southwest, to me are a production cue.
Nice, but still a production cue.
Dale Perry is the only cuemaker making 1 of 1 anymore...:wink:
Ken
Amen NUFF SAID!
But can a cue maker have a production line at a affordable price and still make uniques , customs or limit-ed's?Some base "production" cues on the method of production.Like a CNC'D cue.I believe a assembly line cue production would be a mass produced cue.20-50 similar cues being made at the same time is what i would call a production cue.I would say that any cue maker that works on all cues at some point during construction ,that come out of his/her shop would NOT be a production cue.IMO
This question has been broached many times before, and the one conclusion is that there's no single, universal definition of a "custom cue". The criteria can only be a personal one. Lots of custom cuemakers, for instance, build a line of cues differentiated only by the use of different parts, but the template is the same for all the cues and cue designs. Gutierrez builds a line of cues, Tad builds cues switching individual parts, but neither will build a unique cue specific to your specs design. In fact, most cuemakers have a lines of cues,,,a model, as it were. In a broad philosophical context, these models are unique as a group, and designed by a craftsman, with maybe several unique qualities built into the construction that give all his cues a unique play. Richard Black and Bill Stroud cues for instance, I think have very unique hits. Then you have your production manufacturers that will build special cues that one might consider custom. To me the final critique is "what got them there". McDermott might build a special cue here or there, but they built their business model on production cues. However, I think I digress because the question posed by the OP is what makes a production cue, not cueMAKER. To that point, a cue built to unique spec design is a custom cue no matter who builds it.
My personal criteria is integrity. Every cuemaker, custom or production has a certain ideal to which he strives, so I have to draw the line. But if you go up the food chain, you will see that the better the custom cue the higher ideal to which the maker holds himself. As you go lower on the food chain you will see makers cutting corners and worse, not even having an understanding of what he is doing. One basic common denominator of production cues are inferior woods and shortcuts.
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I hate the question because most people who answer don't know the first thing about "production" anything.
Production is just something that is produced. You can have mass production, limited production, low volume production, one of a kind production, custom production.
The problem is that someone at some point incorrectly attributed the word "produciton" to "mass production," and the rest is history.
Schuler, Pechauer, Schon, can be considered production cues. Yet, they are some of the best built cues out there. Ginacue are made in batches, sometimes numbering into the dozens. That would be a production of Ginacues. Several low production, one-of-a-kind cuemakers at one point or another have had their cues sold as line items in magazines.
I can name some "custom, one-of-a-kind" cues that are pieces of crap in every sense of the word.
IMO, people should stop asking about the word "production." It's bogus, misleading and escalates inferences of negativitiy.
Fred <~~~ custom mass producer