My main player is a Schon right now, but I've got ermmmmm let's round up to 10 McDermott's in cases scattered throughout my house, and my main breaking cue is a McDermott Mach 1, and my backup breaker is a Sledgehammer from McDermott.
In my opinion, McDermott is the Epiphone of the Pool Cue world. They're not the best at anything, but not the worst at anything either. They're the pinnacle production cue company. They figured out how to produce a good playing, quality looking and feeling cue for a price the average consumer can be happy about spending every time they hold their McDermott (Wow, I should be a marketing manager for them...).
Part of McDermott's success is their oldddddd and steady supply of wood blanks for their cues. It allows them to run production numbers and produce cues that won't warp, even in your average bar bangers hands. They also use a lot of "reclaimed" materials in-place of more expensive options other manufactures use. Like ivory, ebony, pearl, turquoise etc.
McDermott's offer a solid hit, but they kind of stop there. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a good solid hit. I've never been impressed with the way they weight their cues, and I'm not a big fan of how they match their shafts to their joints on each cue because they just don't bother to make every cue pin joint the same diameter. So this means when you go buy an aftermarket shaft like a jacoby v4 and stick it on your McDermott, it's guaranteed to be off by a few thousands in diameter or even off-set at worst. I've experienced this with tons of McDermott cues, and McDermott admits it themselves and request you send your cue in to get matched with one of their carbon fiber shafts. Which, to be honest is nothing more than them going to two bins of their defy shafts and choosing either the larger diameter or smaller diameter joint and giving you whichever one fits best. Does any of this change playability? Absolutely not, but it's where makers like McDermott start losing me to other makers like Schon.
I really only started caring about stuff like that after I begun making cues myself. Before I made cues, I shot with McDermott and figured they were the best cues in the world. Now I am nerdy and extra anal about some cue stuff.
All that said, I still love McDermott, and tell everyone that's new to the sport to start with a McDermott G-core if they can afford it, or a Lucky if they can't afford a G-core.
Also, if you're ever near McDermott, swing by their head quarters in Menomonee Falls. I live about 15 mins away from them and swing in frequently to chat with them and pick up tips or consumables. They're really good folk over there and happy to help, or give a tour.
