Something with lots of butterflied colors.
What pool cue to own if you just wanted to impress...
- Thread starter hang-the-9
- Start date
That looks like a Viking Demo Cue Rainbow Sampler dealer cue. They were offered to dealers to show Viking's various options of woods, wraps, and plastics available on their 'custom' production cues.
It does make for an impressive cue, depending on your definition of 'impressive'.
There was one on Ebay in 2012 asking $1200 but the seller said he was hurting for funds and the first $700 would take it. I don't know if it sold.
I am always impressed when a guy shows up at the bar with his girlfriend carrying his cue case for him, as if she were some sort of cue valet. Then the case turns out to be a little black almost-square box containing his 5-piece Asian cue that he thinks is something special. You'll know the guy when he balks at raising the bet from one dollar to two, or when his girl pays for the beer and digs in her purse for quarters to keep him playing, or when he gets mad and claims 'chickens--t pool" if you play a safety which leaves him without an easy shot.
I am not impressed with most cues, though I respect the time and effort that goes into a custom cue, I also respect the appeal of a production cue that puts a quality cue in the hands of people at an affordable price, and supplants those worthless old multiple-weight-ring cues at the basic end of the market.
As for beauty, I prefer something like the Adam bushkas for their classic style, and the Samsaras for their modern style. I don't care for the Black Boar style that emphasizes how many tiny fleur-di-lis patterns they can get per square inch of available space, with sharp ends galore and many inlays of shiny surfaces, seemingly just to show they can do it - to me they've become kind of a fancy Japanese room divider screen writ small and have nothing to do with cue design, just a demo of what can be done under certain circumstances of an almost obsessive-compulsive level of attention to detail combined with quality manufacturing equipment.
Viking Demo Cue
That's exactly what it is. Like many cues, people either love it or hate it. I just acquired this recently and it is a great cue playing cue. Heavy, but I like heavy cues.
That's exactly what it is. Like many cues, people either love it or hate it. I just acquired this recently and it is a great cue playing cue. Heavy, but I like heavy cues.
Well, how does that have any bearing? My reply was to a post that stated 99% of pool players hadn't heard of Tim Scruggs, Mike Cochran, Bill McDaniel & Black Boar cues. I don't consider knowledge of these Iconic cue makers to be part of the contemporary pool scene as you describe it. It's history, a few of the most respected makers ever & for someone to state most pool players have no idea who they are then it seems that today's average player has no history of the game & that as I stated is a travesty. YMMV
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And this historical knowledge would be acquired how? Where is the travesty in someone not knowing the unknowable?
Books,
The Internet,
Conversing with people knowledgeable on Billiards history,
to name but a few.
Regarding the other question about current players lack of knowledge, that might be true and true for several reasons.
Someone who is strictly a player might not have an interest in the history of cuemakers and cue making. Others might only have an interest in current cuemakers and some might be learning.
Sure, this cue might lop my head off, but it's still a McDermott. I'm much more scared of the guy with the Fellini case and the 25 year old plain Szamboti or South West inside.
+1 :yeah: