Custom and High End Cues on the Decline?

bigdaddydave said:
I don’t think there’s anything mythological about a custom cues hit. I’ve played dozens of aftermarket shafts. They all played really good, but hit like crap.

I think a lot of players care more about ld performance.
Click to expand...
I own a fair amount of custom cues still but play with a cheap Mezz.

With the Mezz I can change the weight and there are a bunch of different shaft options.

The extension is excellent and super light and I played for a while with it on all the time.

I used to play with a South West, which I still own.

My Mezz I bought after taking a lesson with Mika and it was super cheap.

It was $375 with one shaft...........

That was over a decade ago.

I played with it some, then sold it, then bought it back and didn't play with it for years, until I wanted to check out CF.

The Mezz is hard rock maple painted black........

It's has the Wavy Joint.

The Mezz CF shaft is expensive ( the most I've ever paid for a shaft ) but it hits nice.......

The Mezz, I don't worry about dinging.

I have customs that I've had refinished and then I am scared to play with them because they are perfect..........

Don't get me wrong, I love custom cues.

Most of the great cue makers are humble as church mice.
 
garczar said:
No players under the age of, say, 45ish don't give a shit about the 'mystique' of a custom cue. A cue is a tool nothing more. I started back when the belief was that to play good you had to go custom. Those days are gone forever. Good playing cues can be had from 100bux on up.
Click to expand...

Sure, but most of these people aren't discussing Valhala, Star, etc. cues. They are talking about Kittycues and Mess. I won't get into the argument about whether shaft technology is better, but there is nothing about a production butt that is better than the custom offerings. When you talk about the price people pay for a decent looking kitty or mess, you aren't far off of a bespoke custom from many good makers.

I'll go with the custom every day.
 
Woking with a cuemaker to design and watch a cue be built is pretty satisfying in my opinion. I picked cuemakers that I liked their style (mainly ringwork) and had them make cues that included wood I liked. I loved the process.
I played with all of them until it didn't make sense to be playing in a poolhall with such an expensive cue. I bought a used custom sneaky.
 
garczar said:
No players under the age of, say, 45ish give a shit about the 'mystique' of a custom cue. A cue is a tool nothing more. I started back when the belief was that to play good you had to go custom. Those days are gone forever. Good playing cues can be had from 100bux on up.
Click to expand...
I always liked playing with my "personal" cue, whether that be an old house cue that I fixed to my liking or to a cheap two-piece cue that I fixed up to my liking. Along the way, I gravitated to cues that cost more of which some were production and some were custom.

In each case, I used the cue as a tool and I was more interested in its playability than I was its make or price.

FWIW, I don't like cues that look gaudy with a bunch of logos or weird designs. I prefer a simple-looking cue that I can use as a tool to get the job done.

Lots of the new name-brand production cues have big logos and weird designs that make them look cheap.
 
HawaiianEye said:
I always liked playing with my "personal" cue, whether that be an old house cue that I fixed to my liking or to a cheap two-piece cue that I fixed up to my liking. Along the way, I gravitated to cues that cost more of which some were production and some were custom.

In each case, I used the cue as a tool and I was more interested in its playability than I was its make or price.

FWIW, I don't like cues that look gaudy with a bunch of logos or weird designs. I prefer a simple-looking cue that I can use as a tool to get the job done.

Lots of the new name-brand production cues have big logos and weird designs that make them look cheap.
Click to expand...
where i play its almost like a big, black line as far as cue type and age go. none of the younger crowd use or give a shit about hi-end custom cues. almost all use some sort of cf shaft on a generic butt. the only players in the joint that use customs are the 50+ crowd and most of them are buying Cuetec's or some random import with a cf shaft. Its rare to even see a Joss or a Schon anymore, younger guy/gals don't have any 'cue history' like most of us do. As older players fade away customs will be a rarity.
 
HawaiianEye said:
I always liked playing with my "personal" cue, whether that be an old house cue that I fixed to my liking or to a cheap two-piece cue that I fixed up to my liking. Along the way, I gravitated to cues that cost more of which some were production and some were custom.

In each case, I used the cue as a tool and I was more interested in its playability than I was its make or price.

FWIW, I don't like cues that look gaudy with a bunch of logos or weird designs. I prefer a simple-looking cue that I can use as a tool to get the job done.

Lots of the new name-brand production cues have big logos and weird designs that make them look cheap.
Click to expand...

I got into customs because it was hard to get my money out of production cues. All customs are not built the same. There are cue makers whose name will hold value, increase in value, and cue makers whose reputation (or lack of) is such that their cues will not retain value. Like most collectible objects. I’m not a collector or flipper. My goal has always been to play with a nice cue, sell or trade for another nice cue, and keep trying out different makers-and not lose money. Been doing that for 20 years and I haven’t lost a penny. In most cases I’ve come out ahead. I've landed on a 4 point Tascarella with solid ivory joint as my favorite-as of now!
 
At pool leagues and tournaments I rarely see anything but predator and cuetec these days. The lower level new players will have a Lucasi. Rarely do I see custom cues anymore
 
Tarheel said:
I got into customs because it was hard to get my money out of production cues. All customs are not built the same. There are cue makers whose name will hold value, increase in value, and cue makers whose reputation (or lack of) is such that their cues will not retain value. Like most collectible objects. I’m not a collector or flipper. My goal has always been to play with a nice cue, sell or trade for another nice cue, and keep trying out different makers-and not lose money. Been doing that for 20 years and I haven’t lost a penny. In most cases I’ve come out ahead. I've landed on a 4 point Tascarella with solid ivory joint as my favorite-as of now!
Click to expand...
FWIW, I have NEVER sold a cue for less than I paid for it, custom or production.

In pretty much every instance I have sold a cue, the person has seen me playing with a cue or I am playing a person and they have asked to try my cue. After trying it, they offered more than I paid for the cue. Sometimes, I turned down the offer and then they offered substantially more. Sometimes I sold and there are other cues that I kept no matter how high they offered.

I have been offered over 10 times what I paid for a couple cues and turned down the offer...one of them is a production cue.
 
HawaiianEye said:
FWIW, I have NEVER sold a cue for less than I paid for it, custom or production.

In pretty much every instance I have sold a cue, the person has seen me playing with a cue or I am playing a person and they have asked to try my cue. After trying it, they offered more than I paid for the cue. Sometimes, I turned down the offer and then they offered substantially more. Sometimes I sold and there are other cues that I kept no matter how high they offered.

I have been offered over 10 times what I paid for a couple cues and turned down the offer...one of them is a production cue.
Click to expand...
That's great. Pre-internet I was not as fortunate selling some of my production cues. Very small market at the time.
 
Production cues are just so damn consistent and easy to attain that it is hard to justify paying huge $$$ for a custom. Having said that, I am having a custom built a we speak. I have owned Scruggs, Carmelli, Jacoby, Shuriken, Nitti..the list goes on. The only one I liked was the Carmelli as far as playability goes. My main player is a bright green Schon, but I like to sample different cues as much as I can. The younger guys in my hall all play Cuetecs, Valhallas, Mcdermott Star, Kodas, etc. They like the fancy cues I bring around, but not enough to buy one on their own. At 38, I am a lot better off than i was at 25...No chance I would be having custom cues built then.
 
lakeman77 said:
Predator, Cuetec, Mezz and others make cues consistantly as good or better than 95% of the customs. They are available now, without drama, stalls, delays and fraud. And CF came along. I wouldn't do the custom thing again for all the tea in China :)
Click to expand...
I went the same way, after an over 10 year hiatus from playing pool and selling all my pool gear my main concern was a great playing cue with no concern on it's appearance, my Becue is all CF, it definitely looks more modern, far from a traditional cue, but I love the way it plays and I am playing better than I ever have.
 
To each his or her own, but I've never understood the appeal of $$$ customs, because discussions of "hit" aside, they're mainly about visual beauty. The skill that goes into making them is absolutely incredible, but to my eye a 30-inch long, little more than inch-thick cylinder is just not much of a canvas for visual art. Picasso's points and rings would have to look pretty much like Meucci's or Szamboti's or Barnhart's--just my opinion. Still, I have to agree that there's something sublime about appreciating fine craftsmanship (even if it looks a lot like the $100 cue on the table next to you).
 
This was the last custom I had built.

Nothing too fancy.

Simple Merry Widow with beautiful woods.

Cocobolo butt cored with Purple Heart with Sindora Burl handle.

Matching extension and three shafts.


IMG_0662.jpeg


IMG_0331.jpeg


IMG_0664.jpeg


IMG_0663.jpeg
 
HawaiianEye said:
This was the last custom I had built.

Nothing too fancy.

Simple Merry Widow with beautiful woods.

Cocobolo butt cored with Purple Heart with Sindora Burl handle.

Matching extension and three shafts.


View attachment 867720

View attachment 867719

View attachment 867716

View attachment 867718
Click to expand...
Yow. That's my idea of a custom. I have 6 Players and Schmelke Merry Widows/Plane Janes, all of which I use with a CF shaft and they play great. No decals, no points, just Zebrawood, Rengas, Curly Maple, BIrdseye Maple, Bocote and Rosewood. But I can see splurging on a custom that looked like that. Beautiful.
 
You know the biggest reason I changed from a fancy custom.. I don’t have to worry about it in bars lol if my p3 gets damaged and stolen it’s easy to replace . My monster Scruggs I had not so much. It was like taking a classic car out and worrying about where you were parking or who’s around you lol it just wasn’t fun anymore.

I recently had this conversation with a friend who just inherited his dads pre franklin monster south west. This cue has tons of ivory and scrim shaw . I’ve never seen anything like it from southwest. Ivory inscribed joint protectors .. the works. South west told him if he’s willing to ship it over seas they can get $25 to 30K for it. But if you sat that on a table at leagues and someone sat the new svb special edition cuetec next to it all the league players would be drooling over that and not even look at the southwest 🤣
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top