I am not a cuemaker nor am I any more knowledgeable than the average enthusiast, however, the quoted poster is both and someone for whom I have a great deal of respect for. I thought I would share with you two of his posts that I remember reading about the subject.
"Just funky wood. Not all shafts are created equal. This is exactly the reason why I tone test my shafts before choosing them for a cue. There's a magic window of tone where the cue seems to just play awesome, pinnacle. I match the shaft & butt according to tone so to fit the cue into this window of harmonics. I do this by bouncing the components on the concrete floor, and by bouncing them in my hand. Two things i'm listening for is pitch & resonation, basically how pingy the wood is & how long it holds the pingy tone, kinda like a tuning fork. It all sounds friggin nuts I know. But I believe in the method so much that if I ever lose my hearing i'll quit building cues"
"Sound of hit is important to me. The sound is a direct relation to tone, which is the manner in which the cue vibrates & transfers energy. Lots of folks have called me whacky & disagreed with my theory of sound, but it never bothered me. To me, a cue should have a solid "ring" sound upon contacting the cueball. That indicates to me that I put the cue together solid with no voids or weak areas, and except for the deflective displacement of the cue flexing & compressing upon impact, I know the cueball is assuming all the power of my stroke. Not only do I have my sight sense to utilize, but now I have my sense of feel & hearing to use as well. Using three senses to play instead one is an advantage for me. Again, some people think i'm whacky for feeling this way. But most top tier builders agree & feel exactly the same. In fact, putting a cue together solidly with good materials makes it nearly impossible to avoid that sound. It's a byproduct of good construction."
