As with most things in life, there is a minimum that the product should cost in order to ensure that it's not sheer junk. Just to set the table, the "bar" I generally want to eclipse for a two-piece cue is having (at least) the same playability as a house cue. IMO, for two-piece cues, that's bar is around $100. You still have inexpensive materials, but the tolerances are generally better, and the components are not the absolute cheapest for the task.
In terms of making a cue, there are a number of key places where significant corners can be cue making the cue play bad. Poor wood/shaft material is one place. Warped and wobbly shafts are very common in the cheap cue variety. Also, using very cheap / reject plastics for the ferrule and at the joints is prevalent. In terms of manufacturing, using a lot of glue to hold poorly fitting pieces together is another shortcut. For example, cutting a narrow tenon on the end of a shaft and then gluing a crappy fitting ferrule on that can be done very cheaply because it's fast. If you want a more correct a ferrule/tip fit, it takes a little more time, which translates to more money.
At the joint, you can use a very cheap 5/16-14 or 18 brass insert setup to connect the shaft/butt, and use this same type of "glue everything that doesn't fit together"shortcut. It's very fast, pretty cheap, but not very "good." You'll get air pockets and things tend to (literally) fall apart after a short time because of impact. It's easy to have a flat faced joint that's close to "true" on both sides because you're just running a lathe across it quickly.
The butt is harder to screw up as it's just a single piece of wood, but it could be. The net result here might just be noise or a wobble when assembled. You can sometimes save a wobbly cue by facing the joint, but not often when they are very cheap. The materials will be cheap and may not be pretty, but I don't think that matters to playability.
When you get to about $100 production cue, typically the shaft is made more precisely, the ferrule/tip combo is better, the joint is tapped/done correctly, and butt is more solid. Having a correctly done 3/8-10 pin is relatively expensive, if only for the time it takes to drill then tap. If the joint is bored then tapped, it's done even better. (personally, for cue in the $100 range, I'd make sure it's a 3/8-10 as I find them more consistent in cheap cues).
So, connecting a number of posts in this thread:
-for the car analogy, my comment is closer to Hu's original post. If the student has a new-ish mustang, then he's already over the $100 bar. Then you can talk about tightening the nut behind the wheel. But the premise of the thread (as I read it) was whether equipment makes a difference, not whether it makes an incremental difference. For the former question, equipment makes a real difference when talking about a crap-can vs a mustang. Once you get to a modern car/cue that passes the base threshold, then it's a focus on the tip of the cue [i.e., the tires on the car]. The ONLY thing touching the cue ball is the tip. The ONLY thing touching the road is the tire.
- this also relates to the question of whether it shoots "better." Semantics always gets us caught up in the objective vs subjective component of this question. But there is definitely an objective component of whether a cue hits "better." For example, you can shoot with a broom stick, but a cue will shoot "better." You can shoot with a $20 cheapo log-type cue with a piece of leather on it, but a $100 cue will shoot "better." After that $100-ish point, you start to get into the subjective area of whether the cue is "better." Expensive low deflection shafts, unique joint pins, decorated cues, etc. They all add value to the cue, but they may (or may not) add performance to an individual. As noted many times, the old masters used what they had.
-one more example: you can take a one piece Dufferin off the wall and it'll shoot just fine. Probably pretty good. If you want to convert that into a good 2-piece cue, it will still take about $100 in equipment and time. Maybe a little less for a very proficient cue maker, but not much. [have you ever seen a conversion for less than a few hundred bucks?]
In sum, IMO equipment does make a difference, but that's only to get over the minimum bar. After that, it's like having a Porsche GT3 instead of Mustang. They both get you 'round the track, but one costs more money. And, IMO, having an ornate cue that plays just as good as a house cue is why you pay extra $$ for a high end cue.
-td
