Flood of Chinese made Southwest knockoffs , anygood

3andstop said:
The OP was asking about southwest knock offs though ... does Schmelke make those?
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You mad about something, bro?

The southwest knockoffs are garbage. If someone is looking to spend $50-150 on a cue, Schmelke is the way to go. I gave my opinion early on in this thread and Schmelke happened to get brought up.
 
3andstop said:
The OP was asking about southwest knock offs though ... does Schmelke make those?
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He didn't ask about Schmelke, and they don't, but I offer it up as a suggestion for consideration if someone is thinking of purchasing a cue in that price range. I personally think your money goes much farther at Schmelke over buying a product from China that's of dubious quality at best.
 
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3andstop said:
LOL, you probably don't remember Paul Harvey, but never the less, ... And now for the rest of the story. :smile:

I've never been one to spend much on cues for two reasons.

1. I have no interest in being a collector of fine art. Which is what I feel custom cues are. I enjoy looking at the beauty of them, and I can appreciate the hours and effort that went into making them. All of which identifies them as great art.

2. I'd never spend a shit load of money on a playing cue that I've never hit a ball with.

Having said that, the cheapo knock off cues don't feel so good to me initially, but after I taper them back about 18" or so and down to 12.5 mm, and I replace the tips with what I like,and sometimes a better wrap, then .... they're OK.

I can't get them to run 100 balls though. The one second up from the made it to 78 before it missed a freaking 8" duck into the corner pocket.

The cue 3 up from the bottom made it all the way to 81, two less than my old Meucci from 25 years ago, so it's obviously not quite as good as a Meucci.

The other two cues have never even made it past a mid 50, so ... we can also say they are not consistent in their build. :thumbup:

BTW ... All these were less than 500 bucks combined. That's after replacement wrap and with two shafts each. (8 shafts) and even joint protectors. LOL
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What worries me about the Asian cues, especially the cheap ones is warping. How long have you had those cues and have you noticed warping?
 
alstl said:
What worries me about the Asian cues, especially the cheap ones is warping. How long have you had those cues and have you noticed warping?
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I've had these things for just short of 2 years. If they warp, I'll use them as kindling, if a 2000 dollar cue warps I'll commit suicide. :embarrassed2:

No honestly, I've screwed around with these shafts, and none of them have so much as a tiny wobble.

I choose to use these cheapo cues because I have no qualms about playing with the diameter and taper until I get it how I like, and should I screw up, no biggie. So far, so good, and remember, I have 8 shafts that all interchange with the butts.
 
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DAVE_M said:
You mad about something, bro?

The southwest knockoffs are garbage. If someone is looking to spend $50-150 on a cue, Schmelke is the way to go. I gave my opinion early on in this thread and Schmelke happened to get brought up.
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Not at all, but by the OPs question, I assumed he liked the look of the southwest and didn't have the pocketbook to spend the money on one, or he didn't want to wait forever, so he asked about southwest knock offs.

The knock offs are more closely worth the 80 bucks with 2 shafts than a southwest is worth 2 thousand. It's wood and glue man .... wood and glue.
 
I had a box full of SW knock off shafts . Dozens of them.
I threw them away.
They were all warped.
 
PDX said:
My buddy has one, plays well, but this is wood is not very dense.
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Yeah, well we get what we pay for ... that is unless we pay thousands .... besides, why does it have to be dense? Its' got a nice dense steel weight in it. :D
 
I have had a few and they don't play bad at all, even better with a good tip.

I am hoping to find some decent Chinese made Schmelke knock offs......just for comparison.:p
 
I bought one. Didn't like it much, I thought the balance was a bit off, and the shafts were very light weight. One of them warped. The cue and the straight shaft got stolen, but I still have the warped one, of course:mad:.

Apart from one of the shafts warping, I don't think the cue was particularly bad. I just didn't like it. Liking a cue is mostly about personal preferences anyway.
 
SW Knock off's

I bought 3 or 4 of them, The shafts are never straight but not warped to the point they were useless .

I practiced putting different wraps on and even did a stacked leather boot lace wrap on one of them, looked really nice.

They played ok., I rather shoot with a old McDermott D model then the knock or any other cue mentioned so far.

I am really a old school cue buyer and think that some of these cues that hold together and stay straight are worth more then the new cues where the green wood goes in one door and 90 days later it come out the other factory door as a finished product.
 
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