I got to know Bobby a little after he married a sparring partner of mine - even visited his shop out in Alsip (southwest of Chicago). Great guy with a pretty techy CNC setup and a good design eye. Even plays a respectable game of one pocket (on the table in his shop).
My question was Why would Jacoby wants that at all?
It’s a Wes hunter because he told me it’s similar to southwest. The motif and design represents that area
Maybe
I wrote the InsidePOOL article on Schuler Cues shortly after Ray passed, and interviewed everyone at the shop during my visit. Prior to Ray passing, Noel was already the lead cuemaker. Ray signed the cues, but Noel started playing around with signing. When Ray passed, Noel continued being the lead cuemaker, and his brother was also on the build team. By that time, Terry Trim was sole owner, and his son Bryan was the shop manager. The decision was for Noel to sign Ray’s name, and they added SLC to mark the era.
Ray had at least 5 major tapers as standard, with over a dozen (maybe much more) stored as all his shafts were turned on a CNC lathe. The major tapers are marked accordingly on his shaft with code letters.
Jacoby has offered contract cue building for quite some time, as do other cue builders, especially the ones with lots of flexible machinery (CNC controlled). So, the reason was simple: it’s exactly part of their business model. It had very little to do with getting into the carom market.
This is not true. Ray was building many more shafts for pool than carom. Not even close. Simply because there was a bigger market for pool cue. But he built carom shafts because he was a carom player, and in carom circles his cues would be the go to for many North American carom players.
Interestingly, I have a Schuler low deflection shaft from after Ray passed, and it’s laminated. But I don’t believe it has a hole. I’m guessing the Trims and Mendozas were experimenting and didn’t yet know about end mass and thought it was just the lamination. That’s unfortunate that the low deflection shaft that you’re describing didn’t become part of their standard offerings.
World 14.1 Champion and Runner-Up WPA World 9-ball (johnny archer) and probably in my top 3 Most Underrated Cuemaker of all time.
I was going to mention your name because I had a vague memory of your having one of his low deflection shafts. I played with a few of them, I guess at varying stages of development. It started when I told Ray I had a Predator shaft made to fit his cue. That didn't go over well with him at all, as you can imagine! He didn't like the idea of people putting someone else's shaft on his cues, so he started developing his own low deflection shaft. But it was late in his life and I think he would have needed more time to develop it to his liking. I pretty much left the brand after Ray's passing, so I didn't know who was making their cues in the end.
He would have hated me. I probably have twelve or more non-Schuler shafts for my Schulers.
Freddie, I think it's understandable for people to think that he made cues mostly for the carom players.
I would add Dennis Dieckman to those two, but I agree that they were the most well known for making carom cues. All of them eventually made more pool cues than carom cues. And for sure, Ray’s carom offerings were popular globally, because carom was global compared to pool at the time.
If you mention Schuler or Diekman, most think of carom cues first. Mention Helmstetter and most think pool cues.
I have a few brochures/leaflets for "THE Schuler Cue." One lists "a choice of 6 standard shaft tapers or any number of custom shaft designs." Another leaflet, with a 20-year anniversary sticker on it, lists 7 standard tapers. Three are "Recommended for pocket games," two "Recommended for pocket & carom," and two "Recommended for carom & pocket." His "Hit classification" ranged from "soft" to "stiff."
Ray schooled me on his opinion of the benefits of a sharper taper, so I started experimenting with them. I switched to an open bridge for about a year, which was a pretty bold move for me to make on tour, and I played with the carom shaft for a while, and then switched to an American shaft taper. I think I was able to make a closed bridge with that one. My stroke wasn't short like the 3C players who stood taller at the table.