Best Custom Cue

Best Custom Cue

  • Bill McDaniel Cues

    Votes: 9 4.3%

  • Black Boar Cues

    Votes: 30 14.4%

  • Gina Cues

    Votes: 25 12.0%

  • Gus Szamboti Cues

    Votes: 56 26.9%

  • McWorter Cues

    Votes: 3 1.4%

  • Paul Mottey Cues

    Votes: 8 3.8%

  • Richard Black Cues

    Votes: 10 4.8%

  • South West cues

    Votes: 43 20.7%

  • Tad Kohara Cues

    Votes: 19 9.1%

  • Thomas Wayne Cues

    Votes: 5 2.4%
  • Total voters
    208
There is no "best" cue. What makes a Szamboti "better" than a Mottey or a Gina or a Joss West? Did Gus have some secret sauce he put in the glue of his cues? Let's face it, Gus was a pioneer, as is Ernie, and Bill Stroud etc... A lot of modern day cue makers use the same techniques acquired from these guys. I'm sorry, I just don't see how the word "better" or "best" fits in here. Now, if you want to make a poll on the shittiest cue I think you may have something.

Speaking of Gus being the best, I know a few people that have Szamboti's and each of them hit differently. One of them has a hit that I can't stand. With such variation in hit is it fair to say he made the best cues ever? And I think most here will agree that hit is subjective. That cue that I didn't like may feel like the nuts to someone else.
MULLY
 
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Top Ten

First I will start by saying the list is not really a list of truly the best top ten cue makers...with the exception of Gus Szamboti,Gina and Black Boar and South West which are the only ones that would make the top ten. The others on the list are very good cue makers...but definetly are not my top ten. The secondary market dictates quality, collectabilty and pricing and resale value and these three hit all four perfectly. So here's my list:

Gus Szamboti - The King was ahead of his time and his forearm/veneer work,inlays,style,design and playability...total over all quality was a 10. Gus had and has the most beautifully styled cues in the world. Gus would use different style rings and inlays in a cue and wow...perfect. With all of the technology and equipment availability today, Gus still surpasses 99% of all cue makers then and today. Gus is probably the ultimate inspiration to cue makers. The man had unbelivable talent and eye for design and execution. Gus is the ultimate collectable cue. Awesome,awesome...Great playing and great investment value and if you don't have one...that is unfortunate, do yourself a favor and find one and spend the money, you will get much more than you paid in a Gus Szamboti cue.

Dennis Searing - The contemporary Gus Szamboti. His execution in his cues are absolutely the best in the world.. from the joint pin to the butt cap and everything in between is as perfect as is humanly possible. His shafts are the finest,truest and cleanest I have ever seen in over 30 years. His veneer work and His inlay work is the tightest and cleanest in the world. The most perfectly executed cues I have ever seen....and using a loop!!! And his cues play like most awesome. Great playing and great investment value and at least one should be in every collection. A Dennis Searing cue is a must to own.

Gina Cues - Cue making genius, his career over the last what over 40+ years is remarkable to say the least.Fabulous designs and an inspiration to many. Beautiful overall execution. Excellent investment value and at least one should be in every collection.

John Showman - Old school and knows how to do it. This is a guy that really knows how to use a pantograph, John is one of the two best pantograph guys in the world. His overall execution is awesome and designs are his old school style. John has his own thing going on... Great investment and at least one Showman should be in every collection.

Frank Paradise - What a cue, Frank was a guy that had his own thing going on, what beautiful designs and the cues played darn good. Overall very good execution. Excellent investment value and excellent playing cue.

Bob Manzino - The Picasso of artistic cue makers. Bob's design's are often and near breath taking. Bob has a true artist mind in his cue's.Overall excecution and his silver work is mind blowing. His work gets more intricate with each new cue. Bob and Tony(Black Boar) have created some of the most amazing designs in cues of anyone to date. Excellent investment value and you should own one of Bob's work's of art.

Frank Coster - Awesome designs simple and some fancy, like the gear design. Just real cool cues. If you have the dough, in the collection.

Barry Szamboti - A cue maker that exemplifies the ultimate in old school.. Each and every cue that Barry build's is beautiful. He learned from the King and went on to create his own style and reputation as a great cue maker. Owning a Barry cue is also a must have. Great playing,Great investment value.

Tony Scianella - Black Boar - Talk about a guy that has his own thing going on, his design work and execution are awesome. This is another gifted guy like Bob Manzino, they have the artist mind and then do the execution.

Herman Rambow- Innovator and one of the fathers of cue making. Treasured and played with by the great pool players like Mosconi. He is often overlooked on the top ten. A cue well worth owning. Excellent collector cue.


The top ten I selected was rather easy...but there are a few others that should be named:

Joel Hercek - Joel's design work is pretty cool. His execution is top notch. A full splice guy and proud of it. Excellent investment value. You should own one.

Pete Tascarella - Old school excellence. Popular cue maker. Nice overall work.

Ron Haley - Awesome execution and design work. Ron's boxed veneer points are awesome.His mitered veneered boxes are....probably the best in the world. Contemporary old school. Very good investment value.

Dave Kersenbrock - An innovator in cue making and has had some real cool designs. One hell of a cue maker. Excellent investment

Jerry Franklin - To me A South West cue is perfect in design and never goes out of style. The family has carried on the tradition and have I am sure made Jerry proud. Excellent investment value, excellent player. You should own one or two...

Eugene Balner- He created so many real cool looking cues and which are still extremely popular today to own by collectors. You can get a real nice Palmer at a very reasonable price compared to most collector cues today.

Cognoscenti - Joe was very wise and instrumental in the use of CNC. He created many awesome designs and some pretty darn nice shafts. He really took the CNC during his era to a whole new level. Nice cue to have in your collection.

George Balabushka - George made real awesome cues with the help of Gus Szamboti(Gus' forearm's) and Burton Spain(forearm's- Gus forearms were vastly superior to Spain's) and the cues were legendary in playability.George's design work was absolutely amazing..rings inlays etc. George is not on my top ten list for the above mentioned lack of the forearm not being built by himself, but other than that a great cue. Great investment value.

Tad - Tad has his own design and is noticeable across the pool room. Real cool looking cues. I think the older Tad's are probably the best. This is another must own cue. Good investment value.

Richard Black - Richard has been around many rears and has built some magnificent cues. His use of gold and silver has been amazing. He has a gift for design. At arms length his cues are stunning....but I believe his execution is not up to that of the top ten. But in saying that he has done many beautiful cues.

Someone to watch -Eric Crisp - Eric has his own thing going on..his use of woods and the designs as simple as they are as beautiful. I think it might be a good idea to get one of Eric's cues.

I could go on......that's my list.

I base my opinion for the top ten at looking at cues through a loop and taking in consideration of the era of which they were made. I have played and/or owned most of the cues listed. I have also based a investment value historically what each cue makers cues have sold for new and then on the secondary market place over the last approx. 15 years.
 
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Calgaryplayer said:
Aside George Balabushka cues, which one do YOU think is the best? and Why??
Click to expand...

How did you come up with this list? What makes you think George Balabushka is the best?

I am very interested in your response...



Chris <~~~~~~ wish there were different choices so I could vote
 
A story:

Was visiting with Dennis Searing at his shop a few years ago and he told me that when he was a young player he would get a new Gus every year or two. After a few rounds of orders he sent in his request for another cue; this would be his (Dennis) perfect design.

When the cue arrived from Gus's shop, Dennis was hopeful that the design execution would be what he had envisioned. As he unpacked the cue his excitement grew; it was even better than he had hoped for. Gus hit a home run in taking Dennis's vision and building it to a T.

Excited, Dennis went to hit some balls with it and the cue hit terrible. :( He said that there was no way he could call Gus and tell him this.

What's the moral of the story? I don't really know other than all Gusses don't hit perfectly. Many might, but not all.

Best,
Brian kc
 
CMD said:
How did you come up with this list? What makes you think George Balabushka is the best?

I am very interested in your response...



Chris <~~~~~~ wish there were different choices so I could vote
Click to expand...

very simple, if YOU think the best custom cue is on the list, then YOU vote for it. If YOU think they are not the best, YOU don't have to pick. ;)
 
Best Custom Cues -- TOP 13

This is all subjective. And yes, I have either hit with or owned each one of these. And I understand that if you asked 20 people you will come up with 20 different answers. But here is my top 10.

1. George Balabuska, Gus Szamboti, Richard Black, Barry Szamboti, Richard Chudy (you can put them in any order you want). If I was forced to, I would put the two Richard's first and second, then both Szamboti's third and fourth and then Balabuska.

6. South West, TAD, Gina, AE Cues, Mike Webb, Tim Scruggs, and Bill Schick and the Nova Cues. Jeff Fugal over at AE Cues is making some great looking and great hitting cues for less $. Michael Webb is another that makes a great cue for the $.

No disrespect to the other cue makers and I do believe those others that were on your list makes good cues. But I'm not sure if they break into my top 20.
 
Story in wrong context

Kickin' Chicken said:
A story:

Was visiting with Dennis Searing at his shop a few years ago and he told me that when he was a young player he would get a new Gus every year or two. After a few rounds of orders he sent in his request for another cue; this would be his (Dennis) perfect design.

When the cue arrived from Gus's shop, Dennis was hopeful that the design execution would be what he had envisioned. As he unpacked the cue his excitement grew; it was even better than he had hoped for. Gus hit a home run in taking Dennis's vision and building it to a T.

Excited, Dennis went to hit some balls with it and the cue hit terrible. :( He said that there was no way he could call Gus and tell him this.

What's the moral of the story? I don't really know other than all Gusses don't hit perfectly. Many might, but not all.

Best,
Brian kc
Click to expand...

While part of this story is true, what I said, and especially the context it was put in is not only incorrect but disappointing to me.
From the very first cue I ever built for someone else I've held to the policy that if when you receive the cue from me, if you don't like something about the cue, from playability, workmanship, value I don't care what it is, you'll have three choices. Make another cue with changes made that would make you like the cue, return it for full refund, and last make adjustments that will make the cue right for you. Always the customers choice out of the three. The reason I've held the policy I do, is because I feel that if you don't receive a cue that you can play with, then it's the same as not having a cue at all. When I used to get cues made, I wanted them to play with. Then Many times I've followed telling the customer my policy with the story of one of the cues I got from Gus.
I wanted this cue built by Gus that was kind of my dream cue. It was a hoppe style cue, beautiful birdseye forearm, stainless joint, ebony points/butt sleeve, titlist colors done by him, and a ivory hoppe ring. He nailed exactly what I wanted. It was so perfect, and I wanted to play with this cue more than anything I had before. I knew the workmanship was flawless in this cue, but in the end I couldn't play with the cue, and I tried for a long time. The cue was perfect, just wasn't right for me.
The moral to the story for me, and why I would tell the story. I knew that it doesn't matter how good the maker is, or how perfect the cue is it still has to work for the individual player. I knew Gus did his job, and built me a truly awesome cue. It wasn't his fault I couldn't play with it. The next cue I got of his I played with until I started making cues myself. I only sold the cue when I did because I wanted to buy my first metal lathe to start doing something I knew I would love to do. (making cues) I'm sure many of you know this story because I've told it a lot.
Why I was disappointed when I read how I was quoted, is that I've always idealized Gus, appreciated everything he ever did for me, and is still my inspiration. Gus in my mind is one of the best ever to make cues period.

Thank you,
Dennis
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickin' Chicken
A story:

Was visiting with Dennis Searing at his shop a few years ago and he told me that when he was a young player he would get a new Gus every year or two. After a few rounds of orders he sent in his request for another cue; this would be his (Dennis) perfect design.

When the cue arrived from Gus's shop, Dennis was hopeful that the design execution would be what he had envisioned. As he unpacked the cue his excitement grew; it was even better than he had hoped for. Gus hit a home run in taking Dennis's vision and building it to a T.

Excited, Dennis went to hit some balls with it and the cue hit terrible. He said that there was no way he could call Gus and tell him this.

What's the moral of the story? I don't really know other than all Gusses don't hit perfectly. Many might, but not all.

Best,
Brian kc

searingcue said:
While part of this story is true, what I said, and especially the context it was put in is not only incorrect but disappointing to me.
From the very first cue I ever built for someone else I've held to the policy that if when you receive the cue from me, if you don't like something about the cue, from playability, workmanship, value I don't care what it is, you'll have three choices. Make another cue with changes made that would make you like the cue, return it for full refund, and last make adjustments that will make the cue right for you. Always the customers choice out of the three. The reason I've held the policy I do, is because I feel that if you don't receive a cue that you can play with, then it's the same as not having a cue at all. When I used to get cues made, I wanted them to play with. Then Many times I've followed telling the customer my policy with the story of one of the cues I got from Gus.
I wanted this cue built by Gus that was kind of my dream cue. It was a hoppe style cue, beautiful birdseye forearm, stainless joint, ebony points/butt sleeve, titlist colors done by him, and a ivory hoppe ring. He nailed exactly what I wanted. It was so perfect, and I wanted to play with this cue more than anything I had before. I knew the workmanship was flawless in this cue, but in the end I couldn't play with the cue, and I tried for a long time. The cue was perfect, just wasn't right for me.
The moral to the story for me, and why I would tell the story. I knew that it doesn't matter how good the maker is, or how perfect the cue is it still has to work for the individual player. I knew Gus did his job, and built me a truly awesome cue. It wasn't his fault I couldn't play with it. The next cue I got of his I played with until I started making cues myself. I only sold the cue when I did because I wanted to buy my first metal lathe to start doing something I knew I would love to do. (making cues) I'm sure many of you know this story because I've told it a lot.
Why I was disappointed when I read how I was quoted, is that I've always idealized Gus, appreciated everything he ever did for me, and is still my inspiration. Gus in my mind is one of the best ever to make cues period.

Thank you,
Dennis
Click to expand...

Dennis:

Let me sincerely apologize for omitting the context of this story in my post. Absolutely, when you told me about this, it was while explaining your policy where you encourage your customers to provide you with their feedback, good or bad, so if there is any disappointment with a cue you made for them, that you would have an opportunity to make it right.

And for sure, I meant no disrespect to the iconic Mr. Gus Szamboti. I only sought to underscore how even the best of the best cuemaker's cues can have variability, and as you pointed out, that despite your having previous Gusses that worked out well, for whatever reason, this particular one did not work out for you.

My post in no way meant to call into question your high regard and respect for Gus Szamboti.

Sorry if it read that way.

Best,
Brian kc

 
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Calgaryplayer said:
Aside George Balabushka cues, which one do YOU think is the best? and Why??
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My top 5 list of greatest cuemaker would probably include 10 cuemakers.

In no particular order, the list would include (and isn't complete):

Bill
Ernie
Gus
Barry
Dennis
Pete
Mike
Jerry
Tim
Jim & Dave
Tony
Bob
 
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dennis is the MAN........

pulled out the master.....dennis i hope all is going well....and i will be calling you in 01/11......thanks again for making such a great cue.....mickey carroll
 
Calgaryplayer said:
Aside George Balabushka cues, which one do YOU think is the best? and Why??
Click to expand...

Best investment cue?
Best playing cue?
Best cue for the money to go out and have fun playing with?

To say one cue makers cues are the best over all of the fine cue makers who have built and are building cues is not a fair question. How many of us have had the opportunity to try all of these cues so we can make a fair comparison - I would say none of us have tried them all. This is more of a popularity poll than a best cue poll......

James
 
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