What is a good break cue?

IMO expensive break cues are the biggest money gimmick in pool. Any decent cue with a hard tip can be used as a break cue. An old Dufferin with a hard tip is as good as anything. I also think it helps to own and use your own break cue, for the sake of consistency.

I believe it is important to have a dedicated jump cue. Jumping requires a lot of skill and touch. The jump cue makes a big difference in controlling the shot. I prefer a separate dedicated break cue with a leather tip and a separate jump cue with a phenolic tip.

who is this

Is this Bluejuice?

A straight stick with a decent tip on it. Never seen a stick that made anyone a better breaker. You learn to be a better breaker, then the brand of the stick doesn't matter.

I’ve come down to believe the fastest stroke and hardest tip will produce the best results
When you strike the cue ball below the equator and striking the head ball full at an angle.

Imagine a straight line from the CB thru the rack’s head OB & extend that thru the corner OB.
That’s my contact point for a break shot but you have to hit the head OB full on hard dead center.

Use a break stick that you generate the fastest stroke & make sure the tip is rock hard leather.
Otherwise grab the heaviest house stick you can find with no rattles & bang as hard as you can.

If you think the break is important, and I believe it is, obtain a break stick or combo break/jump cue.
But if you’re like me, 2 bum shoulders, it doesn’t matter which stick I use cuz there’s not much mph.

On a budget a Players JB-5, JB-6 or JB-12 will give you +/- 90% of the performance of the very best break cues out there (like the Mezz Kai, Mezz Dual Force or BK Rush). Finetune it with your preferred tip and it's more like 93%.

Off course, 7-10% matters, so definitely not talking down the more expensive cues but as is true with a lot of stuff, that last 5-10% extra performance/quality costs a lot.

The Rage Heavy Hitter Jump Break Cue is a decent budget break cue.

On the more expensive end, there's the Predator BK3 and the Mezz Power Break Kai which are great cues

While I have a few break cues, my main two are an Elite and a Jacoby Edge. But the reason I am writing is because this is a very nice thread. Everyone is contributing quality answers and I just want to say thanks for such an nice, informative thread.

I bought an Action break/jump cue from PoolDawg and had a White Diamond tip installed. It breaks really well. I think it was about $125 out the door.

I also bought a Pure X HXT cue for bars. It was only $160ish. It plays nice and has a stiff taper. But it has a Kamui soft tip standard. It also breaks very nice, but it's too easy to get a ton of spin when you hit the cue ball just a bit off.

I had a Predator BK Rush. Tested it over a week or so, 100s of breaks on my home table (7' with Simonis 860). It broke well, but not 7x better than my Action.

I bought a Mezz Kai with a White Diamond tip. It breaks better (for me) than the BK Rush. So, I sold the BK. The Kai has a sport wrap and the BK didn't. I like the sports wrap more than what I thought I would. The Kai was used, but very good condition, and I bought it off of Facebook for under $400.

Most cues break good enough - even my "house" cues, which are McDermott Lucky branded cues. They may not send the cue ball on the rack as hard as my other breakers, but they work fine.

Hope some of this is useful.

TATE said:

IMO expensive break cues are the biggest money gimmick in pool. Any decent cue with a hard tip can be used as a break cue. An old Dufferin with a hard tip is as good as anything. I also think it helps to own and use your own break cue, for the sake of consistency.

I believe it is important to have a dedicated jump cue. Jumping requires a lot of skill and touch. The jump cue makes a big difference in controlling the shot. I prefer a separate dedicated break cue with a leather tip and a separate jump cue with a phenolic tip.

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ALL expensive/custom cues PERIOD are money gimmicks imo

but i dont buy them cause i think they will make more balls for me
i buy them cause they pretty

House cues where I play are all Dufferins. It’s what I use. I break as well as anyone with a dedicated break cue.

Having said this, we play mostly 8 ball. Pool in Canada means 8 ball by default. Whereas in the USA it seems to be 9 ball. I don’t try to break at 100% power, I use 65% and concentrate on leaving the white near centre table and leaving at least a small cluster. Being predominantly a Snooker player, I like to use tactics and safeties. Problem balls are an advantage to me especially when playing someone With good technical skills. If I can’t outshoot them, I can use 5 decades of experience to outthink them.

So, I use a decent house cue as a break cue.

Geosnooker said:

Having said this, we play mostly 8 ball. Pool in Canada means 8 ball by default. Whereas in the USA it seems to be 9 ball. .

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8 ball is the game in the usa

8 ball is not the most popular game in pools halls where I’ve frequented, not at least with better players.
It tends to be used more as a format for Scotch or mixed doubles format and leagues like APA, BCA, etc.

Anyone really believing that all custom cues are a money gimmick pretty much reveals one of two things.
Either they really do not understand the craft of cue-making or don’t possess the wherewithal to understand.

Pool cues are a totally individual thing in terms of preferences. That applies to the look and construction.
It is the selection of materials, actual fabrication and tolerances, weight proportionality and such that make
custom cues different. Would you say that all wrist watches are a money making gimmick, or automobiles,
or custom gun makers? All pool cues do the same thing, right? Isn’t this also true for guns, watches & cars ?
Don’t all of them do the same thing.... keep time, shoot & transport us from place to place. Cues hit pool balls.

Now in the hands of a great player, the cue becomes less of a factor but even the Legends and greatest
names in pool play had custom cues and preferences for the cue weight and shafts. I submit that if anyone
truly believes that custom cues are a money gimmick, they just don’t know as much as they think they do.

last night i played a 3c match for the first time in a long while against my old buddy who plays non stop

i submit i won with my fiddy dollar players cue that i toss in the back seat without a case
i must be a great player by the statement above

Scott Lee said:

This...^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Use a house cue...costs nothing!

Scott Lee
2019 PBIA Instructor of the Year
Director, SPF National Pool School Tour

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FYI:

Sadly lots of places are using Slip On Tips now (Boston Billiards in Nashua NH as an example). So I don't think that would make a good break cue. Though a good house cue is great imo.

Bavafongoul said:

8 ball is not the most popular game in pools halls where I’ve frequented, not at least with better players.
It tends to be used more as a format for Scotch or mixed doubles format and leagues like APA, BCA, etc.

Anyone really believing that all custom cues are a money gimmick pretty much reveals one of two things.
Either they really do not understand the craft of cue-making or don’t possess the wherewithal to understand.

Pool cues are a totally individual thing in terms of preferences. That applies to the look and construction.
It is the selection of materials, actual fabrication and tolerances, weight proportionality and such that make
custom cues different. Would you say that all wrist watches are a money making gimmick, or automobiles,
or custom gun makers? All pool cues do the same thing, right? Isn’t this also true for guns, watches & cars ?
Don’t all of them do the same thing.... keep time, shoot & transport us from place to place. Cues hit pool balls.

Now in the hands of a great player, the cue becomes less of a factor but even the Legends and greatest
names in pool play had custom cues and preferences for the cue weight and shafts. I submit that if anyone
truly believes that custom cues are a money gimmick, they just don’t know as much as they think they do.

Click to expand...

Its not that custom cues are gimmicks rather I would say a custom cue in excess probably the $1,000 price point are just cake decoration. At $1,000 price point one should probably be able to find what ever they are looking for in a cue besides aesthetics. With carbon fiber cues that is becoming even more true.

Just make sure what ever you decide on....that the tip on your break cue, does not damage the cue ball.

I give up....Texas Carom employs the reasoning and rationale of a 10 yr old.

And placing a $1000 max on a custom cue is just as naive because how much is
anyone’s time worth? There’s overhead, inventory, insurance, occupancy, employee
benefits, bookkeeping & accountancy, payroll taxes & the cue-maker’s own time.

How much an hour should a cue maker be worth? How many hours go into building
a cue. How many hours for CNC programming? How much time for hand mitre work
and gluing veneers? And let’s not forget spoilage and breakage when building the cue,
plus equipment costs and maintenance thereupon? And utilities expense for the shop &
business licenses, advertising, trade show costs. There’s so much in expenses incurred.

$1000 for a custom cue and still make a reasonable profit, I submit that people who
subscribe to this may have never owned their own business, don’t know a whole lot
of what’s involved with custom cues or else had bad prior experiences with ordering
a cue from someone & has a poor understanding of the real world costs of cue making
thinking CNC machinery basically does most everything which is not the actual situation.

There is still time involved and the basic tenet of business is time is money and so what
is a cue maker’s time worth? The cue maker has unique skills. Well, so does a plumber,
carpenter or electrician. How much does that occupation get paid versus the billing rate.

A general rule is take your fully allocated expenses for the business, direct & indirect expenses,
divide that by the number of hours in a week or month, calculate a fully absorbed hourly rate and
double that. Whatever’s the number comes to, double it to arrive at the hourly rate to build a cue.
And that’s before any final markup for profit since some cue designs can become labor intensive which
slows down the number of custom cues that are completed. Time is money & especially with cue makers.

The best cue makers command the best prices because they make the best cues & the best just costs more.
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