A Very Rare Cue - Schmelabushka

Kickin' Chicken

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lol

For a long time I've been recommending Schmelke Cues to anyone looking for a solid quality cue at a very affordable price. This is based upon my own experience from many years ago; had a Schmelke and was always impressed.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I called and special ordered a Balabushka style from Schmelke and I picked this design which is one of my favorites from GB. I was able to get the straight grain maple front and veneers to compliment the swirly blue acrylic that would be used in the buttsleeve.

You absolutely can not go wrong with a special order cue from Schmelke. :cool: :thumbup: :cool: And working on this order with David was a pleasure.

best,
brian kc
 

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Glad to hear this Brian. I was getting close to ordering from them, simply because I don't know who else to order from. My requirements are very modest. I've not heard a bad word about them yet. It's not rocket science. Just takes a company that gives a crap, and everything I've heard makes it sound like they do.

I'm still playing that cue you sold me. It's everything you said it was.
 
Great looking cue, Brian...

..but very hard to order for anybody with a speech impediment...:eek:
 
Schmelke

Sorry to have to post this but with the ringing endorsements Schmelke usually gets I feel forced to relate my experience with one now and then also. I bought a simple wrapless cue from them, one piece butt. I was curious how they could turn out cues so cheaply and I wanted to try a long shaft without having to splice a shaft blank. Not positive, I think I bought a 34 inch shaft with the cue. I don't remember the ferrule and tip if there were any upcharges or not. The cue was I think $165 about ten years ago.

The shaft was a noodle, far worse than my early eighties Meucci. This wasn't a huge surprise and cutting the shaft down to 30" made it a typical one piece maple shaft. No knock on the play of the shaft, I figure as much my fault as theirs.

Then my cue broke in the middle during normal play. Closer inspection revealed that the shaft was not threaded for the insert. A hole was drilled so big that the insert could be turned into the shaft without threading it. The insert threads barely scoring the wood. Some glue was apparently supposed to make up the difference but there was not nearly enough glue to fill the area, at a guess, 20% or less of the glue needed to fill the gap between wood and brass insert. Best I recall it looked like wood glue too, questionable to join brass to wood if it was.

Later I rebuilt the cue. I changed out the pin, joint collar, and the shaft. When I removed the pin I found it was threaded 3/4" or less into the wood, a 5/16" pin.

Hu
 
All i know is this cue looks cool to me :)

I have hit a few balls in the past with a few different Schmelke Cues and i liked the way they played.

ok.jpg
 
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