Light Cues- Why not more common?

johnnysd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I recently got my new Tascarella.

It was customized by Pete Sr. to be very light using a combo of straight maple and Brazilian Rosewood.

The butt weighs 14.1 ounces and each shaft is 3.7oz for a total of 17.8. Shafts are 12.5mm.

It is just wonderful.

To me it seems that lighter cues have a lot of advantages, yet mostly you see cues that are 19.2 to 19.5 oz. I don't get it.

To me:

- A light cue has much more finesse. Much easier to do subtle little draws and follows

- It seems to get through the ball faster, allowing for more English especially on shorter shots than longer shots

- You can hit longer shots softer, especially on stop shots.

- They still have plenty of power because you can easily get a faster stroke with a lighter cue.

- Lighter cues are also easier to hold on to softly, reducing hand and arm tension..

- In the Tasc case, despite having a 1" ferrule, I think the combination of a light cue and 12.5mm shafts makes the cue surprisingly low in deflection -not a Z3 or Revo, but not very much deflection at all

Yet very few people us them. Almost all cues are 19-20oz, with the vast majority being 19-19.3, so that's what people want.

Pete said that after playing with my cue, he wanted to try a really light cue for himself.

Just curious why more people don't try light cues more often.
 

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Ron Padilla

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Nice cue! I also prefer a light cue as close to 18 or under they are hard to find!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

DecentShot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I recently got my new Tascarella.

It was customized by Pete Sr. to be very light using a combo of straight maple and Brazilian Rosewood.

The butt weighs 14.1 ounces and each shaft is 3.7oz for a total of 17.8. Shafts are 12.5mm.

It is just wonderful.

To me it seems that lighter cues have a lot of advantages, yet mostly you see cues that are 19.2 to 19.5 oz. I don't get it.

To me:

- A light cue has much more finesse. Much easier to do subtle little draws and follows

- It seems to get through the ball faster, allowing for more English especially on shorter shots than longer shots

- You can hit longer shots softer, especially on stop shots.

- They still have plenty of power because you can easily get a faster stroke with a lighter cue.

- Lighter cues are also easier to hold on to softly, reducing hand and arm tension..

- In the Tasc case, despite having a 1" ferrule, I think the combination of a light cue and 12.5mm shafts makes the cue surprisingly low in deflection -not a Z3 or Revo, but not very much deflection at all

Yet very few people us them. Almost all cues are 19-20oz, with the vast majority being 19-19.3, so that's what people want.

Pete said that after playing with my cue, he wanted to try a really light cue for himself.

Just curious why more people don't try light cues more often.

Is the premise of your question accurate though? Is there sales data that show the distribution of cue weight popularity? The reason I ask is, I think lots of players do have light cues.
 

Cuebuddy

Mini cues
Silver Member
My cues are usually 18. It can be a challenge with certain woods and materials to keep cues under 18 ounces.
For many its all about the base....no treble. :lol:
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
weights

I have experimented with weights from 12 ounces to over two pounds. Maybe lighter than twelve too, I messed around with a stick with a missing weight and the plug that should have went in behind it. Never put it on the scales though.

For all of us and for all tasks there is a "best" weight. A carpenter's hammer might be slightly different one person to the next, a sledge hammer has a best weight. I have swung from eight to twenty-four pounds. Oddly enough the eight wasn't great to swing. With a couple dozen sledge hammers on the oil rig and everyone making a grab for one in the mornings I found that a 12 or 16 pound hammer swung best. A fourteen might have been perfect but I have never seen one. Got stuck with the 24 pounder one day. No rebound at all. Swing it and it stuck! After that if I got an eight or ten it didn't leave my hand for twelve hours.

When it comes to pool cues, 18.5 to 19.5 will be the sweet spot for most of us, where it is easiest to do the task. A heavier cue moves balls easier but finesse shots become much more difficult. A lighter cue is harder to move balls around with but gives more finesse. Perhaps along with shooting cues, break cues, and jump cues, we should be toting a finesse cue! We would need one of those roll around golf bags shortly.

Heavy cues over twenty or twenty-one ounces are best forgotten, were heavier than needed on most tables even back in the eighties. The finesse cue on the other hand, has a lot of merit! With the fast cushions and fast cloth we probably could drop down to around a seventeen ounce cue to get the same cue ball travel we got back in the seventies and early eighties with a nineteen ounce cue. The catch is that the cue ball weighs the same and the heavier cue feels more comfortable hitting that six ounce ball. Drill a coin or two for weight and put them in your cue joint and it will feel like you power through the cue ball almost without feeling the impact.

Some friends were raving about twelve ounce snooker cues and what turned out to be a very early milk dud to play on bar tables. The cue cost ten dollars and the tip twelve installed, maybe the other way around. $22 all told anyway! Well I'm here to tell you that a sixty inch twelve ounce stick with about a ten mm tip will probably run with anything when it comes to low deflection! I wasn't just missing table length shots when I juiced the cue ball, I was missing the object ball by several inches.

Took me awhile to get that danged cue going, I had a family and life away from a pool hall then, but when I did it was the first stick I could play spot shape with. I could pick the spot I wanted the cue ball to stop and I would shade that spot almost every time, some part of the cue ball would be over it.

After gaining spot shape with that cue I got to where I could shoot spot shape playing off of the wall. There were nights I controlled every shot on the table, mine and the other person's too. I put several years into gaining spot shape but it was absolutely a license to steal, it elevated my game a bunch. I don't know if I would have ever learned spot shape without the light cue and finesse it had.

I took a twenty year break from pool and never have gotten really serious about it afterwards. I do play with a sixty inch cue that weighs about sixteen ounces though. Once in a blue moon I catch fire, usually on the short track. The eyes aren't what they used to be.

I strongly recommend light cues, not that anyone will listen! They will stay with what feels best and is easiest to use. That 12 ounce stick was a bear to use, it felt like you had to do all the work. It was trying to drive a twenty-penny nail with a tack hammer. You can do it but it requires a lot more effort than using the easiest tool for the job!

Lighter is better, but only if you are willing to put in the hours to make it work.

Hu
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
two and a quarter ounces!

My cues are usually 18. It can be a challenge with certain woods and materials to keep cues under 18 ounces.
For many its all about the base....no treble. :lol:


Jim,

I have one of your cues that weights 2.25 ounces. It would be helpful if it was a little longer though!

Hu
 

johnnysd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have experimented with weights from 12 ounces to over two pounds. Maybe lighter than twelve too, I messed around with a stick with a missing weight and the plug that should have went in behind it. Never put it on the scales though.

For all of us and for all tasks there is a "best" weight. A carpenter's hammer might be slightly different one person to the next, a sledge hammer has a best weight. I have swung from eight to twenty-four pounds. Oddly enough the eight wasn't great to swing. With a couple dozen sledge hammers on the oil rig and everyone making a grab for one in the mornings I found that a 12 or 16 pound hammer swung best. A fourteen might have been perfect but I have never seen one. Got stuck with the 24 pounder one day. No rebound at all. Swing it and it stuck! After that if I got an eight or ten it didn't leave my hand for twelve hours.

When it comes to pool cues, 18.5 to 19.5 will be the sweet spot for most of us, where it is easiest to do the task. A heavier cue moves balls easier but finesse shots become much more difficult. A lighter cue is harder to move balls around with but gives more finesse. Perhaps along with shooting cues, break cues, and jump cues, we should be toting a finesse cue! We would need one of those roll around golf bags shortly.

Heavy cues over twenty or twenty-one ounces are best forgotten, were heavier than needed on most tables even back in the eighties. The finesse cue on the other hand, has a lot of merit! With the fast cushions and fast cloth we probably could drop down to around a seventeen ounce cue to get the same cue ball travel we got back in the seventies and early eighties with a nineteen ounce cue. The catch is that the cue ball weighs the same and the heavier cue feels more comfortable hitting that six ounce ball. Drill a coin or two for weight and put them in your cue joint and it will feel like you power through the cue ball almost without feeling the impact.

Some friends were raving about twelve ounce snooker cues and what turned out to be a very early milk dud to play on bar tables. The cue cost ten dollars and the tip twelve installed, maybe the other way around. $22 all told anyway! Well I'm here to tell you that a sixty inch twelve ounce stick with about a ten mm tip will probably run with anything when it comes to low deflection! I wasn't just missing table length shots when I juiced the cue ball, I was missing the object ball by several inches.

Took me awhile to get that danged cue going, I had a family and life away from a pool hall then, but when I did it was the first stick I could play spot shape with. I could pick the spot I wanted the cue ball to stop and I would shade that spot almost every time, some part of the cue ball would be over it.

After gaining spot shape with that cue I got to where I could shoot spot shape playing off of the wall. There were nights I controlled every shot on the table, mine and the other person's too. I put several years into gaining spot shape but it was absolutely a license to steal, it elevated my game a bunch. I don't know if I would have ever learned spot shape without the light cue and finesse it had.

I took a twenty year break from pool and never have gotten really serious about it afterwards. I do play with a sixty inch cue that weighs about sixteen ounces though. Once in a blue moon I catch fire, usually on the short track. The eyes aren't what they used to be.

I strongly recommend light cues, not that anyone will listen! They will stay with what feels best and is easiest to use. That 12 ounce stick was a bear to use, it felt like you had to do all the work. It was trying to drive a twenty-penny nail with a tack hammer. You can do it but it requires a lot more effort than using the easiest tool for the job!

Lighter is better, but only if you are willing to put in the hours to make it work.

Hu

Wow, great post. Thanks for the input.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
17 ounce and less is great for carom and 3c
19ish great for pool
Dont know why just feels right
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
I traveled with two snooker cues...16.75 and 18.5...
...the light cue was the most powerful but the heavy one handled thick cloth better.

Two pool cues...18.5 and 20.25....there were conditions where one favored the other....
...but I would only use the light one for one-pocket.

For a quick draw from close conditions, the light cue seemed superior.
 

$TAKE HOR$E

champagne - campaign
Silver Member
I recently got my new Tascarella.

It was customized by Pete Sr. to be very light using a combo of straight maple and Brazilian Rosewood.

The butt weighs 14.1 ounces and each shaft is 3.7oz for a total of 17.8. Shafts are 12.5mm.

Thats about as perfect a player as you could get, weight wise, specs and wood. When I have a cue made, which is very rare anymore, I always ask for the shafts to be in the 3.5 - 3.7 max range. If it takes longer then so be it. There are two types of cues, the ones that play good and the ones that sell good. The 4 ounce 13mm shaft cues are selling points. Ask any good player, some may not even realize theyre playing with a mid 3 ounce shaft tho, what they prefer and maybe 1 out of all of them will say they prefer a 4 ounce or heavier shaft thats 13 mm. The best playing cue I have found, which I have 6 more coming very soon, is all maple. The entire butt is one piece of straight grain maple. Its radial laminated but there are no screws, bolts, buzz rings, dowles or anything else that doesnt need to be in there. Not saying those things are wrong when building a cue, just that they for sure dont need to be there.

Thats a sweet cue you have btw...
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
want some red wood?

I’m glad that you two each have one of my ultra lites. I hope to make a bunch once it gets cold up here. Been collecting some sweet woods😎


I have a lot of cedar heartwood. Last time I looked it wasn't cracking bad. Down here the most common cedar cracks terribly. I don't know what variety this is, it was all in a straight line down a driveway so obviously planted. I can send you fifteen-twenty pounds when I get around to cutting it up. Might have some mystery wood in the bin too, never know! Oh yeah, I have some over hundred year old wood that would probably make awesome minicues, light and dark.

Lemme know!

Hu
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
In martial arts techniques...(this is second hand info) there are two types of punches
that are very useful...a jab where you stop your punch very quickly....
...gives your opponent a sharp pain and diverts his attention...
A punch where you follow through...even if it doesn’t win the fight immediately...
...he’ll feel it for a week.

I equate them to stroke techniques...short follow through for quick reaction from whitey..
...long follow through gives whitey a longer memory...needed on long draws.

The light cue makes the first stroke easier...the heavy makes the second stroke easier.
...the different uses can apply for your type of game...or table conditions.
That’s why I traveled with light and heavy cues.

The heavy cue keeps the cue ball dead a fraction longer
 

johnnysd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thats about as perfect a player as you could get, weight wise, specs and wood. When I have a cue made, which is very rare anymore, I always ask for the shafts to be in the 3.5 - 3.7 max range. If it takes longer then so be it. There are two types of cues, the ones that play good and the ones that sell good. The 4 ounce 13mm shaft cues are selling points. Ask any good player, some may not even realize theyre playing with a mid 3 ounce shaft tho, what they prefer and maybe 1 out of all of them will say they prefer a 4 ounce or heavier shaft thats 13 mm. The best playing cue I have found, which I have 6 more coming very soon, is all maple. The entire butt is one piece of straight grain maple. Its radial laminated but there are no screws, bolts, buzz rings, dowles or anything else that doesnt need to be in there. Not saying those things are wrong when building a cue, just that they for sure dont need to be there.

Thats a sweet cue you have btw...

I am a big fan of the radially laminated cues. I am having one built for my friends son as a graduation gift. It will be a 62" cue and I think will be a great first cue for him. Thanks on the cue, it is just awesome.
 

misterpoole

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Balance point is very important as well. A forward balanced cue can feel lighter than it actually is. You can get the best of both worlds.
 

Cuebuddy

Mini cues
Silver Member
I have a lot of cedar heartwood. Last time I looked it wasn't cracking bad. Down here the most common cedar cracks terribly. I don't know what variety this is, it was all in a straight line down a driveway so obviously planted. I can send you fifteen-twenty pounds when I get around to cutting it up. Might have some mystery wood in the bin too, never know! Oh yeah, I have some over hundred year old wood that would probably make awesome minicues, light and dark.

Lemme know!

Hu

I promised you a “catch up email” and I intend to soon. On my way across country delivering my last kid to Cornell. Four for four on that school!
 

Bavafongoul

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Here Is What I’ve Learned Over Many Decades Of Playing Pool.

Lots of folks know me as being very meticulous about the weight of my pool cues.
I’ve passed up some great cues that were heavier than my preferred weight range.

All of my flat ivory joint cues have cue butts that weigh between 14.4 to 14.6 ounces.
The screw is either radial pin (TS cue) or else 3/8 x10 & 3/8x12 threads (other 5 cues).
The shafts weigh between 3.8 ounces to 4. 2 ounces. The tips are Kamui Clear Black (S).

My heaviest cue is the EP cue that plays at 18.8 ozs (14.6 & 4.2) whereas the others are
a little lighter. And moving the cue ball requires only ordinary effort but the tactile feel of the
flat ivory joint is retained. A key consideration is the weight proportionality of the shaft & butt
When you enjoy a cue weight ratio that is 20% (shaft) & 80% (butt), you have the best combination.
Don’t go lower than 19% or higher than 23% and IME, 21-22% (shafts) tend to be the sweet spot.

Now before you go off telling me about what other considerations there are, I know all of that & have
keen understanding of pool cue anatomy after having several custom cues built. In general, look at
cues built by Gus, George, Barry, Paul, Joel, Ernie, Ed, Bob or gosh, look at any of the great cue-makers.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents on the topic and anyone that has tried my cues pretty much walks away
mumbling about how well balanced and solid the cue feels to their stroke, especially w/ follow or stun.
If you haven’t thought about this, next time you find a cue that feels unusually good, check the wt. ratio.


Matt B.
 

Cron

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
To boot, carbon fiber butts? I've now found 3 manufacturers that will make carbon fiber butts, cheapest place, $2,000 (for a prototype).

My Schmelke is 57" @ 14oz. I currently have it @17oz weighted like a house cue (hoping to get to 16.5oz in a few months). If I decide to put a 6" CF extension on it, it will be 63" at 16oz.

The quick way for me to adjust to lighter weights is to play masse only. Doesn't cure all the inaccuracies that have to be worked out with the new finer control, but it kills the feeling of being lighter surprisingly quick.

Nobody is selling carbon fiber butts..... yet (I want to try 70" at 15oz before I die, but for a 2k investment, I'll have to wait).
 
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