I took a chance on a custom cue from Sicily and am, for the most part, pretty happy with it.

The good - I think it's beautiful. I wanted a cue that was focused on exotic woods, with little ornamentation, and that's what I got here. It features Bayur Burl, Black & White Ebony and Boxwood, with some nice ring work. The cue plays great with a weight & balance in the zone for me - 14.3oz butt, 17.8oz with the Vertex shaft, 17.6 with the matching shaft. Balance point 19" from the bottom of the bumper.

My shaft preference here is my Vertex shaft from Shelby Williams. The hit is nicely solid and the dark brown color goes very well with the handle wood. The stock shaft is ok. The hit is a little less solid, maybe due to the wood to wood connection, maybe the tip, which the maker said was a Red Devil. It still plays good, though I prefer the other shaft.

The Not So Good - I can feel most of the metal rings through the finish. Maybe that's normal though since wood expands & contracts while metal rings do not. The big disappointment here is the joint protectors. They look somewhat used & abused to me. The butt JP looks a little splintered and it goes on so tightly that I worry that it actually will splinter when screwing it on. The shaft JP looked a little scuffed on the sides and the finish is unevenly applied (see photo of the top of it). Not up to the fit & finish of the rest of the cue and not up to the standard you expect from a cue that costs $1,200.

When I sent a message about that issue to the maker, Gaetano Virzi, he apologized and said he accidently included the wrong set and would make it right. Here's the thing though - making it right was waiting until his next cue coming to the US was shipped. He would include the new set in that package and have whoever was receiving the new cue forward them to me. This is because to ship them solo would be expensive. I understand the concern over cost here, but you admitted to making a mistake. When you make a mistake, you fix it - on your dime. I have not heard any follow-up on new JPs coming my way though. It could simply be that he's got my money, I got his product and it's a done deal as far as he's concerned.

I feel the product is good. It's beautiful and is one of my best playing cues, but I'm not sure I'll be a repeat customer here (he's definitely got some other cues that are visually appealing to me) because the skill & effort that went into the cue itself did not carry over to the peripherals and follow-up service.

I purchased an older gandy big g with drop pockets. After removing cloth I found it has these "Palmer Goldtek," cushions. Used the Google machine and searched here and could find ANYTHING. They are soft but was considering putting some tawainese cushions (MBS or similar). Since there is no info out there on these cushions, I'd assume they aren't spectacular. Wanted to verify before proceeding.