Old school custom vs new
- Thread starter luke
- Start date
Who says you don't/can't build a cue by weighing and selecting various types of wood to achieve a specific weight and balance on a dowel?
clarified ...
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I certainly didn't. To clarify...Does selecting various pieces of wood to achieve a specific weight and balance have an advantage or disadvantage over using dowels and weight bolts? Does using a dowel and bolts into a core have a homogenizing effect on the playing characteristics? Do you risk changing the specific characteristics of a certain type of wood?
A typical A-joint constructed cue relies on metal ( weight bolt, connecting bolt and /or SS joint collar) to make weight unless the woods used are very heavy. A full length cored cue will play more like the core than the surrounding woods so yes, the specific characteristics of the outer woods are muted. Advantage or disadvantage.... I think you will find opinions vary on widely on this.
I have done it both ways you describe, and have settled somewhere in the middle. Coring is the best thing to happen in cue making since the lathe, but it took me a while to come around to that conclusion. I used to be a staunch opposer to coring, nor would I use metal in the "A" joint or have weights bolts. I believed in choosing woods according to weight & tone to naturally weigh & balance the cue. I built some awesome playing cues like that.
Then I began playing with coring, mostly so that I could use burls & high figure woods that otherwise wouldn't be strong or stable enough for cues. I soon realized through experimentation that combining a high tone host wood with a low tone core would result in a medium tone. Seems logical I know, but it took experimenting for me to learn it. That knowledge opened up pandora's box. I could now create any weight and tone I wanted just by manipulating the type & size of core wood. Wasn't long before began trying some different "A" joint experiments and found that a metal stud worked just as well as threading the tenon, and had no affect on playability. However, it did allow me to adjust weight internally. So now I use a typical "A" joint with metal stud. I even built a few cues with solid cores to see what that was all about, but wasn't happy with the lack of control I had over tonal characteristic.
As for weight bolts to control weight, I began doing that in order to stop folks from drilling into the back of my cues so they could change weight. Players wanted to adjust weight, and several cues were torn up by goofy repair guys attempting to make it possible. I preferred to weigh & balance the cue and seal it up to keep it as is, but buyers didn't always like that. Other than slightly affecting the balance, weight bolts do not interfere with playability, so it wasn't a tough decision for me to make when I began doing it.
Point being, there's a hundred ways to skin a cat. And just about every way I have skinned said proverbial cat, people loved the way the cue played. I believe I'm building the best cues I ever have right now, but so does every other builder. A guy using a full core believes it's best. A guy not coring at all believes it's best. I believe what I'm doing is best. And who's to argue? The end result is what matters, not the way you got there.
SW's and Searings are not cored . Two of the best known cues ever.
There is a lot more to cues to bundle them into cored and non-cored.
The cored cues though ( in general ) are more stable/less prone to warpage.
I guess what I'm wondering is ...Do woods in a cue play a similar part like the woods used in musical instruments? I have a friend who swears that ebony cues hit best, and another who prefers rosewood.
They both love high end customs. Would coring diminish the "playability" signature of specific woods?
They both love high end customs. Would coring diminish the "playability" signature of specific woods?
Yes woods do play a similar role in cues as musical instruments. That's what we talk about when mentioning tonal characteristics. Coring "can" diminish playability but it can also enhance, depending on many factors. Coring rosewood with maple will dull the tone of the rosewood. Coring maple with rosewood will brighten the tone of the maple. Tit for tat. The trick is to manipulate the woods to achieve optimum tone for playability, and that's where the debate comes into play because some folks like a mellow hit while others prefer a bright hit. There's no solid answer to your question. It's a very fluid, broad topic.
Google "silver bullet"... there ain't none.
I've made several cues from the plainest Maple one could imagine that
played just as good as Ebony, Rosewood, et al - sometimes better.
It takes a lot more to build a good hitting cue than just starting with the "right" wood.
Dale
95% of my cues have not been cored. So yes non cored cues are just as good as cored cues if the right pieces of wood are chosen for the right weight, balance and hit.
Actually, I understood perfectly - though I fear you didn't understand my answer
gained from quite a bit more experience... but who's counting?
Dale
I'm not gonna play that game. I have my answer and will hopefully continue to learn more.