Why buy a custom cue over a factory made one?

[DanielDeTinne]

I have been playing pool for a little over a year now. I own a few McDermotts and want to sell one to try something different. So here is my question. Is there an advantage to buy a custom made cue over say an OB?
Other than beautiful inlays. My current go to cue is a McDermott M54AC with a G-core shaft that has a custom taper on it. I am leaning towards an OB cue with a Pro2 shaft.

 

[ginsu]

I have been playing pool for a little over a year now. I own a few McDermotts and want to sell one to try something different. So here is my question. Is there an advantage to buy a custom made cue over say an OB?
Other than beautiful inlays. My current go to cue is a McDermott M54AC with a G-core shaft that has a custom taper on it. I am leaning towards an OB cue with a Pro2 shaft.

An ob is not a custom cue. It is a production cue with a ld shaft.

 

[DanielDeTinne]

I understand that OB is not a custom cue. I what to know if there is an advantage to look into a custom cue such as a Josey cue over the OB. Thanks

 

[calibration]

production vs custom

If I may chime in here. I think you should look at it like this...would Mcdermott call you and review the pictures of your veneers, talk specifics about weight and balance point, along with wood types ?

If you want a pleasure in dealing with a custom, call Judd Fuller. Just a great experience.

The difference is personal treatment

also quality in the shafts,

also quality in the fit and finish

also,,,the resale value

Your money is going to a simple small operation, US made and believe me there not living high on the hill. Your not buying a big mack that you can get in the drive thru..

 

[Birriards]

So that you can brag on az about your 3000 dollar cue that you waited 3 years for. Otherwise, there are several great production cues out there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dr9ball]

I have been playing pool for a little over a year now. I own a few McDermotts and want to sell one to try something different. So here is my question. Is there an advantage to buy a custom made cue over say an OB?
Other than beautiful inlays. My current go to cue is a McDermott M54AC with a G-core shaft that has a custom taper on it. I am leaning towards an OB cue with a Pro2 shaft.

From a playing perspective, Probably not a huge difference. If you are a C player no cue is going to make you an A player.

For quality control, perhaps better shaft wood and getting a cue that plays the way you want it to and look the way you want it to, that's what a custom cue will do for you.

Personally I wouldn't chose to play with any of the LD shafts. I don't like them, but for some folks they seem to work fine for them.

There is no magical shaft, no magical cue that is going to make you a better player. You're going to have to put in the work to improve your skill level.

That's the hard tough love truth.

My advice is to try as many cues as you can. Figure out what you want your cue to look like, sound like, what type of feedback you're looking for and what playing characteristics are best for you. Then have someone make you one or buy one that already meets the above considerations.


I shoot equally well with a production cue I have for guests as I do my custom cues.

Buy custom cues for your love of cue art, for the pride in ownership and simply "because you can". Then get back to practicing on the weaknesses in your game.

enjoy the ride.

 

[bountybuddy]

Before you buy another cue try a McDermott I shaft. I shoot with a McDermott Sneaky Pete and have both the G Core shaft and the I shaft. All I use is the I shaft now. I feel it is the best shaft made. If you try an I shaft there is a good chance you will not buy another cue.

Over the years I have bought some expensive custom made cues. Expensive for a working guy that is. Cost for both was a little over $2,000.00. For one I bought two Predator 314 1 shafts which took the cost to almost $2,600.00. I still have both cues but seldom use them. What makes a cue expensive is the Butt. You pay a lot of money for a beautiful butt but the beautiful butt does not make the cue play better. The butt is not the most important part of a cue. The shaft is more important than the butt. The tip and ferrule are the most important parts of a cue.

My McDermott Sneaky Pete cost 20% to 25% of what my two custom cues cost. It plays better than both of them with the I shaft and maybe the G Core shaft too. Find a low cost cue that feels like it was made just for you when you stroke with it. Buy it and put a good tip on it, and then laugh all the way to the bank.

Good luck my friend. Shoot well.

 

[hang-the-9]

I have been playing pool for a little over a year now. I own a few McDermotts and want to sell one to try something different. So here is my question. Is there an advantage to buy a custom made cue over say an OB?
Other than beautiful inlays. My current go to cue is a McDermott M54AC with a G-core shaft that has a custom taper on it. I am leaning towards an OB cue with a Pro2 shaft.

You've only been playing for about a year and already own a few cues.

I suggest you pause the cue buying, play a few more years then look for a cue that really calls to you. Don't just keep upgrading to a fancier version of the same cue.

I've owned 2 major cues I have used in the last 20 years, a Joss I bought in the early 90s and a Ned Morris I got maybe 3 years ago. I maybe went though 3-4 cheaper cues like a low end McDermott, a Mali, couple of others I don't even remember in the first few years of playing though. Was basically a learning experience that did not do much for me.

The advantages a custom cue has over a production cue is that you can specify anything you want in a custom, plus you have basically a unique and functional work of art.

 

[cuejo]

OB cues are basically a production custom.
Royce and co build a production cue using the same type of care and high quality materials not usually found in production cues.

 

[Jaden]

I was just about to say the same thing.

OB cues are basically a production custom.
Royce and co build a production cue using the same type of care and high quality materials not usually found in production cues.

Royce and his staff give a production DESIGNED cue that is made with the selection and care that most custom cue makers use.

They have also done a pretty good job at getting knife edge points with a CNC.

Jaden

 

[cuejo]

Royce and his staff give a production DESIGNED cue that is made with the selection and care that most custom cue makers use.



They have also done a pretty good job at getting knife edge points with a CNC.



Jaden

His infinity points are pretty sharp

 

[bountybuddy]

I have read that Buddy Hall used a cue with a standard shaft. Every time he shot you could see the shaft flex. He was the number one money player in America for some time. Earl Strickland saved up $12,000.00 to play Buddy Hall. When they were done Strickland left broke. So I've read.

 

[DogsPlayingPool]

Pretty simple for me. It comes down to if I want the custom one more and if I care about the value holding.

 

[Celophanewrap]

My personal thought is I think you should buy one that fits. I have owned both and I can't imagine that I'll ever order another cue that I can't try out first, but that's just me. What I found is that regardless of the cuemaker's reputation, you may order just what you have imagined, you might have the opportunity to oversee every part of production, several months (or years) later when you approach the table with your brand new cue and you hit your first rack, it may not be at all what you expected. That's not meant to say I'd never buy another custom, but if I do it'll be one off the shelf that is already for sale, that I had a chance to test out first.
Right now you haven't really been playing all that long, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't really know what might fit. If you wanna step up in quality look at a Schon or a Joss, or Predator, or look at the I series shafts that are McDermott products. Any cue you get you can customize to your own liking, different shaft, different tip, new wrap, you'd be surprised.

 

[Harold Smith]

My only answer is with a custom cue, you never have to see someone else playing with the same cue in a poolhall.---Smitty

 

[3andstop]

Custom cues and regular cues are like woman. Custom cues are for looking at, and regular ones are for playing with.

Unless you are either rich or want to piss your money away, then you get to play with the custom ones.

They are like fine China or paper plates. You can still eat your dinner just fine on the paper plates, but the China looks better.

Tip, taper, weight, balance. Figure what you like then either order it for thousands, or sand it down the way you like it for a few hundred bucks at the most.

 

[RSCA HOOLIGAN]

here in Belgium there are now 5 players shooting with a Bob Danielson custom cue and i can say they all play better pool since , including me .

I shot with about 50 different custom / production cues from $50 to $3000 , nothing comes even close to the playability of my BD cue .

Always go custom !!!

 

[DanielDeTinne]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I think I will be getting the OB cue.
I have tried the I3 shaft on a friends cue. I played with it all night. It was great. I played with it a few times sense and always find that I shoot a little more consistent with it. I have also played with a Predator 314 2. I did not like that.
I rarely see the OB cues around but have read great things about them. I figure if I don't like it then I can always sell it or trade and get a I3 shaft for what I have now.
Thanks again everyone for all the feedback.

 

[RBC]

I have been playing pool for a little over a year now. I own a few McDermotts and want to sell one to try something different. So here is my question. Is there an advantage to buy a custom made cue over say an OB?
Other than beautiful inlays. My current go to cue is a McDermott M54AC with a G-core shaft that has a custom taper on it. I am leaning towards an OB cue with a Pro2 shaft.

Daniel

Going the custom route gives you more choice in design and materials and a little more involvement in the construction process. My only recommendations for going this route is to really know you're cuemaker before doing a deal with him. Over the last several years there have been hundreds of new cuemakers. While I believe that all have good intentions, some get caught up in life's issues and fail to deliver what they have promised. Please don't take this as a reason not to buy a custom cue, but just a recommendation to choose wisely.

If you go the more porduction route, then I'll give you a few reasons to consider our OB cues. We do build our cues in groups of certain models so we can offer a better quality designed and built cue at a better price. What we don't do is short cut the cue building process. In fact we do quite a few things that other production cue companies don't and even a few things that no custom cuemakers do.

Of course the first thing you notice is our Infinity inlays. We have developed a new technology that enables us to produce inlays with razor sharp points without using any "cheats" like filling rounded holes with colored epoxy. There is a reason the custom cues with sharp inlays are almost always ivory into ebony or something similar.

Next, we use high figured woods and quality materials. We're more like a custom cuemaker in choosing our woods.

Our signature silver stitch rings are very unique in a production cue. We use them for a very specific purpose. Many custom makers use silver in either stitches or rings, or both together. While there are some production companies who use silver in rings, which is pretty easy, we chose not to use them because they have a tendency to "pop" or fracture the finish around them over time. The way we build our rings with the vertical stitches gives us a great look with lots of bling, but shouldn't have the finish issues of silver rings.

The last thing I'll mention is the foundation for our cues. Our Straight Line Core system, or SLC, is stronger and more stable than any other way to build a cue. It takes more work, but the result is a cue that plays better and will last longer.

Of course there are more, but those are the big ones. Sorry for the sales pitch, but I'm pretty proud of our cues.

Royce Bunnell
www.obcues.com

 

[KRJ]

I have been playing pool for a little over a year now. I own a few McDermotts and want to sell one to try something different. So here is my question. Is there an advantage to buy a custom made cue over say an OB?
Other than beautiful inlays. My current go to cue is a McDermott M54AC with a G-core shaft that has a custom taper on it. I am leaning towards an OB cue with a Pro2 shaft.

No advantage whats so ever. Now, if you buy a custom cue, it could go up in value depending how "popular" the cuemaker is now, or will be in the future. But, like a stock, it could also go down in value as well.

Advantage of custom is you get exactly what you want, you choice of colors, woods, weight, shaft taper, etc. So, not a bad thing, but like buying a car, lots of option only adds to the price, not gonna make the car go one bit faster

For the most part, most production cues will not go up in value, and most will always go down. But, you are ahead of the game, because you put out a lot less dollars initially, so you might come away the same or ahead in 5 years or so.

Disadvantage is you take what they got, but most production companies have a wide variety of models, and you can get just about any weight you want with lots of wood choices, and shaft sizes.

And many folks play with custom cues with LD (production) shafts.

So, if you are looking for a magic bullet it is not there. You can use a Balabushka, but if your aiming, stroke and head are not in the game, it means nothing, nada, zilch. Pick up a house cue, and take the time to line up the shot, have a good PSR, proper mechanics and have a plan, and you'll win more games than any cue will do for ya

PS: I own custom and production cues, but they all have OB shafts