Anyone Ever Get a Bad Custom Cue

TheBook

Ret Professional Goof Off
Silver Member
There are many cue makers today. It seems as if every day someone posts a cue or website of a new cuemaker. It always seems as this new cue brand is the best quality and hitting cue ever made. It almost appears as if anyone can buy a lathe and make a cue from the way all these new makers are popping up.

There has to be some bad cue makers out there. Has anyone ever bought a bad cue from a custom cue maker?
 
TheBook said:
There are many cue makers today. It seems as if every day someone posts a cue or website of a new cuemaker. It always seems as this new cue brand is the best quality and hitting cue ever made. It almost appears as if anyone can buy a lathe and make a cue from the way all these new makers are popping up.

There has to be some bad cue makers out there. Has anyone ever bought a bad cue from a custom cue maker?


What do you mean by bad?? It fell apart? It doesnt hit right? what? I dont think any cue maker new or old would let a bad cue leave thier shop and if they do then they shouldnt be making cues!!
 
lukeinva said:
What do you mean by bad?? It fell apart? It doesnt hit right? what? I dont think any cue maker new or old would let a bad cue leave thier shop and if they do then they shouldnt be making cues!!
Unless they just want to make "pretty cues" for the cash... :rolleyes:
 
TheBook said:
There are many cue makers today. It seems as if every day someone posts a cue or website of a new cuemaker. It always seems as this new cue brand is the best quality and hitting cue ever made. It almost appears as if anyone can buy a lathe and make a cue from the way all these new makers are popping up.

There has to be some bad cue makers out there. Has anyone ever bought a bad cue from a custom cue maker?

I think you need to define bad..

Quality of construction, inlays, customer service... things like that..

I got a bad cue once, I ordered it 19.oz and the cuemaker sent it to me at 22.5 oz. This is a true story, it was a Verl Horn. I ordered a rather plain cue, because I was told he built a great cue. When I got it I called him back and said you can't be serious right? He said I know its a little heavy right? I said little? Can you believe he made me a brand new cue at 19.0 in less than 3 weeks and let me keep both shafts from the original cue for my troubles. So yes the cue was bad, but Verl made up for it somewhere else. Thats all you can really ask from someone.

Joe
 
Bad can be anything that did not meet your expectations. Quality of wood, makes strange sounds when hitting the cue ball, bad finish, warped shafts or butt, veeners that don't meet at the points, joints, ferrules, tips , butts that don't meet flush with adjoining part of cue. Whatever made you disappointed in the cue. Does not feel better or as good as the cue it replaced.

I am not a fan of production cues but if one is asked about there may be as many bad posts as good. How often do you read or hear anything bad about a custom cue?
 
I had a Jacoby that was bad for me but probably great for someone else. I sold a Schon to get it and quickly resold it to get another Schon. Just a preference thing but I would not call the craftsmanship bad.
 
As someone who has sold equipment to hundreds of beginning cuemakers and has seen many of their early cues. I can say a lot of cuemakers put out cues that they would not be too proud of later. My first cue was not too great. I kept it. The second or third one was better but would not be sold today, but I did sell it then. Of course I wouldn't build that same cue for three times the price I got then and the person saw it before buying it. The work was a little sloppy by my current standards, but the cue was really long and he liked the way it hit so he bought it. It was an 8 point cue with veneers for $150 in 1989. Two of my first three cues I still have. Shortly after that I quit building them on wood lathes got a metal lathe and the quality improved a lot. What I am saying is don't expect anyone to be as good of a cuemaker with six months experience as they will be with many years experience. We require at least one year cue building experience before we will even look at their cues for joining the ICA as a Cuemaker. We require one year experience in repairs to allow them the title Cue-Repairman. Otherwise they carry the title Apprentice. I will say some people have gotten really good in much less than a year, but that seems to be the exception instead of the rule.
Chris
www.hightowercues.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
TheBook said:
There are many cue makers today. It seems as if every day someone posts a cue or website of a new cuemaker. It always seems as this new cue brand is the best quality and hitting cue ever made. It almost appears as if anyone can buy a lathe and make a cue from the way all these new makers are popping up.

There has to be some bad cue makers out there. Has anyone ever bought a bad cue from a custom cue maker?


got a wayne demeyer off ebay joint glue came unglued soon as i hit with it and when i got it the tip i poped it off with my thumb because it over hanged so much. Also got a 2 bad cues from jacoby beeing warped and the joints installed wrong and one joint had a crack. But jacoby sent me a all new cue they are realy good business people and some time i guess when ya make so many cues a few slip bye but jacoby are realy good with there customers and do any thing to help ya .
 
TheBook said:
There are many cue makers today. It seems as if every day someone posts a cue or website of a new cuemaker. It always seems as this new cue brand is the best quality and hitting cue ever made.

There has to be some bad cue makers out there. Has anyone ever bought a bad cue from a custom cue maker?


Well I think Cuemakers are following the paths of other who advertise other products. They like the words, New, Bigger, Largest, Best, etc.

As far a a Bad Cues, THINK Bob Meucci Cues, as I had a Power Piston II Ret Dot that was touted as something wonderful. It was not, its hit was CRAP, and SLOPPY.
 
Bruce S. de Lis said:
Well I think Cuemakers are following the paths of other who advertise other products. They like the words, New, Bigger, Largest, Best, etc.

As far a a Bad Cues, THINK Bob Meucci Cues, as I had a Power Piston II Ret Dot that was touted as something wonderful. It was not, its hit was CRAP, and SLOPPY.

I had a gilbert that i bought off ebay that honestly hit like junk. I can't explain the feelng. I can only say that it never felt right, i could never feel comfy with the cue. PPle that tried it said it stiff, thats why..but i dunno if thats it..i now play with a bender, its stiff..but responsive..the gilbert was like hitting a cue ball with a brick wall..no feeling whatsoever...i always miscued with it cuz i wasnt confident with it..horrible experience......

i know lots of pple love gilbert..but that cue just turned me off cold turkey from gilberts.
 
TheBook said:
There are many cue makers today. It seems as if every day someone posts a cue or website of a new cuemaker. It always seems as this new cue brand is the best quality and hitting cue ever made. It almost appears as if anyone can buy a lathe and make a cue from the way all these new makers are popping up.

There has to be some bad cue makers out there. Has anyone ever bought a bad cue from a custom cue maker?

I have gotten a lot of questionable shafts as well as bad finishes, cues not straight, glue lines and so on. I am talking about directly from the cue makers not second hand. I will send a cue back if it is flawed but will not bad mouth the cue maker just work it out with him. In almost every case the cue maker knew the cue was not 100% when they sent it and admit to it. I guess at a point they just hope you won't complain and send it.
 
Sounds like the moral to the story on this thread is...get a damn good production cue for yourself that'll play and hit just the same or better for a whole lot less money. (and probably look a lot sharper also) (and can be exchanged for IMMEDIATE replacement if something is haywire)
 
drivermaker said:
Sounds like the moral to the story on this thread is...get a damn good production cue for yourself that'll play and hit just the same or better for a whole lot less money. (and probably look a lot sharper also) (and can be exchanged for IMMEDIATE replacement if something is haywire)
Or, invent a time machine, go back about 6 years and put yourself on Joel's list and cough up the bucks today to get a damn good custom cue, huh?

Or, go back to 1981 and find that extra $50 bucks that the guy wanted for the one-owner Gus, that I was too STUPID to pay!! :rolleyes:

It's that time machine thingy that's snookering me. :D
 
drivermaker said:
Sounds like the moral to the story on this thread is...get a damn good production cue for yourself that'll play and hit just the same or better for a whole lot less money. (and probably look a lot sharper also) (and can be exchanged for IMMEDIATE replacement if something is haywire)

Damn you DM! Always beating up on us custom junkies!!! :D
 
That's exactly what I did. Used to have a custom...it was a nice-looking piece of junk...really sloppy hit. I play with a production cue now. Hits real clean and cost less than half of what the custom did.

peace
-egg

drivermaker said:
Sounds like the moral to the story on this thread is...get a damn good production cue for yourself that'll play and hit just the same or better for a whole lot less money. (and probably look a lot sharper also) (and can be exchanged for IMMEDIATE replacement if something is haywire)
 
I don't think comparing Ebay experiences is fair for the custom cue makers. I'm sure most of the makers try their best to have the best quality cue. What people do with the cue is not in their control. I suspect many of the bad custom cues bought off ebay are not the cue maker's fault.
 
drivermaker said:
Sounds like the moral to the story on this thread is...get a damn good production cue for yourself that'll play and hit just the same or better for a whole lot less money. (and probably look a lot sharper also) (and can be exchanged for IMMEDIATE replacement if something is haywire)

I don't think that you can call that the moral of the story. AFAIK the ratio of good to bad custom cue experiences does not fall in line with what you stated.
 
Cue of Fury said:
I don't think that you can call that the moral of the story. AFAIK the ratio of good to bad custom cue experiences does not fall in line with what you stated.

Point is production cues can hit good too...as good as or better than customs. Just because a cue is mass produced and cheaper doesn't mean it can't be as good or better than a custom. I play with a cheapo production cue and I think it hits great.

peace
-egg
 
I know that, and I don't think that anyone would say that production cues hit like shit. I think the main difference is in the total quality rather than just the quality of the hit alone.
 
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