I received my Prulhiere cue on 11/12. I will try to give as honest a review as possible.
You can see the cue from the maker in this thread. Cue I just made for an AZ member
First I must say that all communication and delivery has been both professional and prompt. There may be no other maker in the country that will allow you to pick your own woods and deliver to your door in under two weeks. My immediate response upon opening the package was that the cue looks just as good (from a distant overall perspective) in person as in the photos. The grain of the woods are incredible. The cue was perfectly straight and screwed together smoothly. The taper for this cue felt very solid and consistent. I believe the taper makes the cue extremely solid and provides smooth feedback - this is of course very subjective but I was very pleased. As mentioned in previous threads there is a maple core and every shot I took felt solid. The finish is very consistent and smooth - honestly one of the best I have seen.
When I received the cue there was some very serious glue leakage at most of the joints. You can see this in the photos attached. I posted these photos without contacting Brian (he knew I would be posting a review of the cue). Immediately he apologized for shipping a product this way and offered to make it right. Brian communicated the entire time. We sent multiple emails back and forth and spoke once on the phone. During the phone conversation, I asked him to replace the tip on the cue as I much prefer layered tips. Brian agreed. I accepted his offer to correct the issues and returned the cue a couple days later and Brian received it on or before 11/21.
I recevied the cue back on 12/12 - still a quick turn around for a custom cue. This time there were no excessive glue lines as before - see photos attached. There is one minor glue blemish on one ring and nothing else worth mentioning - no wood is perfect unless a cue maker is throwing away 80% of their stock for each section of the cue. Even after multiple shipments, the cue was perfectly straight and screwed together smoothly. After the refinish the joints are not exactly the same size - will try to include pics and measurement, but it is thousanths difference but I notice it. Again not a disappointment, it only cost $170 - I don't expect Dennis Searing level quality. This review is still mostly aesthetic as Brian did not change the tip. I hold myself at least partially responsible here as I did not send anything in writing to remind him of this request. I have not shot with a triangle tip in years and do not want to try to compare this cue with such a vastly different tip. I could have this done locally, but feel to provide a quality review all work should be performed by the cuemaker.
Please keep in mind that the numbers below are on a scale of 1-10 and the cue cost $170. If you buy a cue for $170 and expect to have 10s in every rating, you need to wake up.
Aesthetics
Finish: 9.5
Joint Work: 6
Wood Grain: 9
Playability
Taper: 8 (subjective but solid)
Weight: 7.5 (maybe just a hair heavy at 19.1 but I did not specify when ordering - it has a weight bolt which I could change and would probably improve the weight and balance for me)
Balance: 8
Hit: Need to play with new tip.
Communication: 9.5 (would be a 10 but we missed the tip change)
Price: 10 (no way anyone else is doing this for $170.
Value: I have to play with it more before I can give a number here.
You can see the cue from the maker in this thread. Cue I just made for an AZ member
First I must say that all communication and delivery has been both professional and prompt. There may be no other maker in the country that will allow you to pick your own woods and deliver to your door in under two weeks. My immediate response upon opening the package was that the cue looks just as good (from a distant overall perspective) in person as in the photos. The grain of the woods are incredible. The cue was perfectly straight and screwed together smoothly. The taper for this cue felt very solid and consistent. I believe the taper makes the cue extremely solid and provides smooth feedback - this is of course very subjective but I was very pleased. As mentioned in previous threads there is a maple core and every shot I took felt solid. The finish is very consistent and smooth - honestly one of the best I have seen.
When I received the cue there was some very serious glue leakage at most of the joints. You can see this in the photos attached. I posted these photos without contacting Brian (he knew I would be posting a review of the cue). Immediately he apologized for shipping a product this way and offered to make it right. Brian communicated the entire time. We sent multiple emails back and forth and spoke once on the phone. During the phone conversation, I asked him to replace the tip on the cue as I much prefer layered tips. Brian agreed. I accepted his offer to correct the issues and returned the cue a couple days later and Brian received it on or before 11/21.
I recevied the cue back on 12/12 - still a quick turn around for a custom cue. This time there were no excessive glue lines as before - see photos attached. There is one minor glue blemish on one ring and nothing else worth mentioning - no wood is perfect unless a cue maker is throwing away 80% of their stock for each section of the cue. Even after multiple shipments, the cue was perfectly straight and screwed together smoothly. After the refinish the joints are not exactly the same size - will try to include pics and measurement, but it is thousanths difference but I notice it. Again not a disappointment, it only cost $170 - I don't expect Dennis Searing level quality. This review is still mostly aesthetic as Brian did not change the tip. I hold myself at least partially responsible here as I did not send anything in writing to remind him of this request. I have not shot with a triangle tip in years and do not want to try to compare this cue with such a vastly different tip. I could have this done locally, but feel to provide a quality review all work should be performed by the cuemaker.
Please keep in mind that the numbers below are on a scale of 1-10 and the cue cost $170. If you buy a cue for $170 and expect to have 10s in every rating, you need to wake up.
Aesthetics
Finish: 9.5
Joint Work: 6
Wood Grain: 9
Playability
Taper: 8 (subjective but solid)
Weight: 7.5 (maybe just a hair heavy at 19.1 but I did not specify when ordering - it has a weight bolt which I could change and would probably improve the weight and balance for me)
Balance: 8
Hit: Need to play with new tip.
Communication: 9.5 (would be a 10 but we missed the tip change)
Price: 10 (no way anyone else is doing this for $170.
Value: I have to play with it more before I can give a number here.
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