who created the jump cue?

Bob Jewett

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... First to offer a jump cue as a product to sell: Pete Tascarella - someone saw Pat Fleming's rig and asked Pete if he could build a cue with a removable back end so he could jump. Long before a j/b cue was being sold ....
Any idea of the timing for the jump cue?

Joe Porper was selling a jump/break cue by late 1989.

Anyone remember when jump rods were being sold? I remember some special equipment specs were added to outlaw them.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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First jump cue was Sammy Jones, married to Lorrie Jon at the time. He simply used a shaft to jump the cue ball.

First phenolic tip on a break cue? Mike Gulassay. There may have been some some attempts before, but his Sledghammer was the first available production break cue, as far as I know.

All the best,
WW

Sammy was the first player I ever saw jumping with his shaft. He could put the cue ball an inch behind the object ball and jump straight over it! Crazy but true.
 

triley41395

You'll shoot your eye out
Silver Member
Sammy was the first player I ever saw jumping with his shaft. He could put the cue ball an inch behind the object ball and jump straight over it! Crazy but true.


What year was that Jay?

I'm sure I'm not the first person to see someone jump a cueball but I can remember in 86 or 87 there was a guy at a local pool hall that had an old house cue he had cut down to around 20 inches, maybe 5 or 6 inches above the points, turned down that 5 or 6 inches to about 3/4 inch put on a radius and used that for jumping. No tip just chalked the wood. He was pretty darn good using it too.
 

Cornerman

Cue Author...Sometimes
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Any idea of the timing for the jump cue?

Joe Porper was selling a jump/break cue by late 1989.

Anyone remember when jump rods were being sold? I remember some special equipment specs were added to outlaw them.

I bought a Joe Porper J/B way back then. Pete said he was made his first j/b cue for a customer in 1976.

Christ Hightower posts here, and I know he was making them.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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What year was that Jay?

I'm sure I'm not the first person to see someone jump a cueball but I can remember in 86 or 87 there was a guy at a local pool hall that had an old house cue he had cut down to around 20 inches, maybe 5 or 6 inches above the points, turned down that 5 or 6 inches to about 3/4 inch put on a radius and used that for jumping. No tip just chalked the wood. He was pretty darn good using it too.

Mid 80's I believe, maybe even sooner. I'd have to ask Sammy to be sure.
 

ctyhntr

RIP Kelly
Silver Member
I heard his Witness Protection moniker is CTE. So, when John is at work, the code phrase is CTE works. When he goes home, the code phrase is CTE doesn't work. :)


Uhh... Does this involve a witness protection program?:ignore::confused::eek:
 

KC7MRQ

AzB Silver Member
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Faint memory of a hard tip in 1995.

I purchased a couple dufferin conversions around the '95 time when I stop in at Gary Victor Billiards in Victorville. At the time there was cue maker that was showing off a tip material that jumped balls very easily. I watched people screw around and jump cue balls from one table to another with his jump cue. All I remember, name wise, was Steve from Phelen.


Corey
 

trinacria

in efren we trust
Silver Member
I purchased a couple dufferin conversions around the '95 time when I stop in at Gary Victor Billiards in Victorville. At the time there was cue maker that was showing off a tip material that jumped balls very easily. I watched people screw around and jump cue balls from one table to another with his jump cue. All I remember, name wise, was Steve from Phelen.


Corey

gary victor from Victorville? sounds like a Pixar movie idea
 

classiccues

Don't hashtag your broke friends
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The metal jump rod I have has a phenolic tip and I think they predated most jump cues.

JV
 

Rico

AzB Silver Member
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When instroke first came to the BCA tournament in Vegas i bought a case and a jump cue made in Germany by the Arthur cue maker. Cant remember was like mid or early 90,s.Dave Yeager was jumping the big ball with a shaft in the 70,s Doubt if he didnt learn from someone else.
 

deanoc

AzB Silver Member
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The first jump cue I ever saw and only one I ever tried was
a Frog or something close

Jerry Franklin of South west cues and I tried it out on his dads bar table

Jerry smiled and seemed quick to learn, I had trouble and never tried oneagain


A slight change of subject,but I don't recall ever seeing efren jump
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
The first jump cue I ever saw and only one I ever tried was a Frog or something close.

Jerry Franklin of South west cues and I tried it out on his dads bar table

Yes, the Frog was definitely among the first jump cues, and its player rep was future BCA Hall of Famer Robin Bell Dodson, who asked onlooking spectators to say "ribbit ribbit" whenever she reached for it.
 

Bob Jewett

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Yes, the Frog was definitely among the first jump cues, and its player rep was future BCA Hall of Famer Robin Bell Dodson, who asked onlooking spectators to say "ribbit ribbit" whenever she reached for it.

As far as I can tell from the old ads, The Frog was among the first to have a brand and serious marketing. I remember seeing Robin at Trade Shows with The Frog. I believe it came after the Joe Porper jump/break noted above.

I was unsuccessful in finding ads for jump rods but I vaguely recall them. The jump rods were soon outlawed by changed equipment regulations. I think that was when the minimum length was introduced along with the limitation on metal ferrules.

I don't think jump cues improve the game.
 

cueman

AzB Gold Member
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I think Meucci was the first to mass produce jump cues. I think either Rick Howard or Paul Huebler was the first to market jump break cues. I was the first to market the jump break with longer forearm section. Several used a solid phenolic ferrule tip combo on the fat shaft length jump rods before Mike put them on his cues. I was also the first to use a phenolic leather combo where you break with leather but jump with phenolic. Best of both worlds in my opinion.
 
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