There is at least one Balabushka in the movie, Jimmy Mataya was playing with his. That cue is currently in the Phil Windham collection in Chattanooga, TN.

David in FL said:

Reach out to Richard Hsu and be done with it...

Click to expand...

Thanks and just submitted order.

Still looking for a used one to use until the one I ordered arrives.

garczar said:

Problem with the bottle deal is when the bottle is on the table the opening is perfectly parallel to the surface. Very few players come into the ball dead-level. My point is there are better ways to hone a straight delivery. Buddy used to pimp a gadget(https://seyberts.com/products/buddy-hall-cue-guide?variant=41732475191494) that worked like this. Guess what? AFAIK he never used it. I was around him a fair amount and he never did stroke straightness drills. He just played, a LOT.

Click to expand...

Lol absolutely but, the opening will easily accommodate the smaller tips in use today. I never had a problem with 13s - maybe even contributed to linearity.
I think a lot of it has to do with <elbow drop or not>mechanics.

Perfect pendulum, obnoxious, compensating shaft taper
Piston stroke, xtra long "pro" taper

Silly stuff since that's more of an engineering problem than pool technical. Regardless, a bottle stand with variable tilt wouldn't be too hard to make.

As far as stroke training, maybe setting the concept of "point A to point B" would be in order. The stroke should simply move from A to B with point B laying a few inches past the sitting CB.
In the 99 shots book, Ray Martin says to shoot draw shots as if the cue ball isn't there. No reason this doesn't apply to all shots. (?)

Jacoby butt and shaft are bocote with good dose of gloss. No inlays, decals, or colors on shaft but still is special.
See four more bocote cues at https://forums.azbilliards.com/thre...ng-bocote-for-a-shaft-sure-looks-good.588083/
_ __

garczar said:

100yds, maybe.

Click to expand...

I wouldn’t travel more than a house away for piece of azz