Break Cues

Depends..... theres nothing wrong with breaking with your cue, a house cue, or any other cue. The break cue thing started as a bit of a gimmick and has evolved into an actual market, with all the phenolic tipped cues etc. Todays break cues are designed to transmit power to the cueball very efficiently, and you have the benefit that many break down to jump cues as well.
If you break well with the cue you bought, and you are happy with it... you made a good buy. If its not hitting them good enough for you, or you are the type to dwell on your decision... bad buy.
Chuck

Hey let me know when your at hadtimes and I will bring a couple of my break cues. You'll get a pretty good idea of why a quality break cue is important.kevin mcclain

Yeah thats a pretty typical response. This is why internet billiard stores are the way to go. You can get a vast array of products to choose from, the products are priced well and you dont have to deal with some of the odd responses/ideas, from someone behind the counter at a billiard supply place.

Main reason people don't like breaking with their playing cue is to prevent the shaft from warping, tips from mushrooming, or even damaging their actual playing cue (crack ferrule, split shaft maybe, or even the flew while breaking, there are many many reasons, but I was just pointing out a few). Phenolic tips are great for breaking, love it or hate it. J/B cues are designed and engineer to transfer to power of your stroke to the tip of the cue as Chuck has mentioned. Also, this is just my own theory and I don't know how true it is, a hard tip like phenolic, that doesn't absorbe shock like a leather tip would not cushion or absorbe the impact while breaking, causing more of your stroke's power to transfer to the CB rather than a leather tip that absorbe, but I alsosome of the power. I see a lot of people breaking with hard leather tips, so I don't know how true my theory is.

Spend the extra 30-50, a total of $60-80 and get a J&J J/B (I spent $80 and got a Kaiser Panther J/B, I don't regret it at all, I personally like the wood joints better) from one of the vendors on here. I forgot who had it, I think it was KOINKID or FAST_N_LOOSE, maybe bamacue. I really don't remember. Probably the best J/B you can buy for that money. I think it was $60 shipped for the regular J&J J/B and $80 shipped for the Kaiser Panther J/B.

I also hear that Poolfool also has his sneakiest pete J/B, there is a review on the cue review section IIRC, and the review seems great. Good luck buddy!

Chino

If you find the right dealer, you probably can get a J&J 4414 or J&J 4410 for like $100 with an extra shaft and joint protectors. I have been using a J&J 4414 as my general playing cue and jump/break for the past 10 years. It is a great cue. J&J offered several different shafts for it, some are pro-taper with 5th avenue leather tip and some are conical taper with phelonic tip.

When I saw the mention of Hardtimes, I thought it was the one in Southern California in Bellflower. I'm 15 minues away from there.

Do you need a real "break" cue? Of course you don't, but your reasons for wanting one could include:

• Not messing up your playing cue
• Getting more force with your breaks if you struggle otherwise
• Adding to your collection
• Easier jumping
• etc

Really the most important reason is that you don't screw up your main playing cue if you're pretty violent or intense with your breaks, or if your playing cue is already on its way out.