Today, "sneaky pete" refers to a style of cue. Simple as that. Nothing more to it.
For trying to actually make a classic sneaky pete with stealth in mind, I think the old Dufferin house cues made for the best sneaky petes. However, it's very hard to find an old one from the 1980's that's still in any kind of decent shape for conversion to a sneaky. Maple used in cues in the past was higher grade than the stuff used today in budget and low end cues.
Basically, just make them two piece. Slightly re-taper the shaft. Nothing extreme like Meucci pro taper or anything 12.5mm. Just get rid of that awful taper that opens up to 15+ mm after 8"....Avoid going with a different shaft. Some maple is brighter with slightly different color and grain and that's a give away. Better to use the existing cue, it will match perfectly. No joint collars of any kind.
Joint needs to be done as well as possible to make the seam as hard to see as possible. Next, a nice big huge brass pin of some sort to add some weight up front for balance. Most one piece house cues are terribly butt heavy. If that makes the cue too heavy, the cuemaker can drill out the butt, use an aluminum screw for the bumper or there are other methods to decrease weight. Overall, the butt should be mostly left alone. No addition of rings. No buttcaps. No inlays. No signatures. No NOTHING. No removal of any stampings or engravings indicating the cue's weight. No fancy finish. Just leave it alone.
Ferrule should also be left alone. Nothing wrong with the standard ferrule. Just put a good tip on there.
That's what makes for the most stealthy sneaky pete. Creation of a sneaky should revolve around making it two piece and some minor performance mods as mentioned above, such as slight taper work, better tip, change the balance of the cue. And also check for defects - make sure everything is straight, ferrule, shaft, butt, joint interface.
The best sneaky pete, is the one where the only possible give away is the seeing the very fine joint seam. Also, if you're serious about deploying a stealthy sneaky pete, then you have to bring yourself to chalking it like some drunken slob in a bar. That means getting a nice nasty blue ring on the ferrule. I know it's hard to do that. I cringe at the thought. My playing cue's ferrules are pristine. The chalk cube never touches the ferrule ever. Have to fight the better player habits inside of you and chalk like banger. Use the screwing-the-cap-on-the-bottle technique. Choose cubes of chalk with deep holes in them. Once you mangle the ferrule with chalk scratches and a nice case of blue-ring disease...it should stay that way and you don't have to keep doing it.
Never bring along any kind of cue case. Not even a soft case. Carry the cue in your hand. It doesn't hurt it. At some point you have to assemble it and disassemble it. You can do this upon entering the premises and while exiting. Don't do this in front of potential victims. If you need a tip tool, the best one is probably the Willard. It shapes and scuffs. No need to deal with mushroom or any of that. In fact, mushroom is probably a good thing to keep up appearances. Mushroom isn't inherently bad for play, it's the fact that mushroom also corresponds with a poorly shaped dome. If you got a good dome, the mushroom is irrelevant. Keep your tool on your key chain, and use it only when absolutely necessary and as discretely as possible. Better yet, prep your tip before you go to hustle the drunks. And play with a tip that doesn't need constant maintenance so you don't have to do any of this. Forget these layered tips. They suck and are over priced hype. Stick to something like a pressed Elk Master, a Triangle...along those lines. They work better, cost $0.50 and don't need to be picked and tapped every 5 racks.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, most APA SL2 level players out there can spot a stealthy sneaky like this pretty quick. They can probably name the 5 most popular sneaky petes on the market. Doesn't matter that they themselves play with a Budweiser or Nascar cue. Times have changed. And actually, the modern "sneaky pete" is the Budweiser or K-mart cue. You are far more likely to get someone to view you as a banger if you break out some kind of decal cheap cue like those Budweiser cues. With those, you have to throw away the ramin wood shaft and get a maple shaft. Then mangle it's ferrule with chalk. Have a cue maker attempt to straighten the butt and to eliminate as much joint run out as possible. The Budweiser/Nascar cue is the modern sneaky pete. Or anything with extremely large corporate logos, flame jobs, or heinous decal graphics will also work.
The sneaky is only sneaky to the non-player. Such as drunken bangers playing on bar boxes, not pool halls. What can one hustle from them? Not much. Small sums, beers. Basically a waste of time unless you get off on beating down players who don't know that BCA 8-ball rules even exist. Anyone betting any real money is wise enough and will be paying attention enough to not be fooled by some sneaky pete no matter how stealthy it is. In fact, most people don't care what you're playing with. They're watching your stroke and skills. And the results on the table. Match flow etcetera.
That is why I said at the start of this post, today, it's really just a term describing a particular style of cue. Nothing more.
