I think I know why people care
I have been reading this thread, and have had this conversation many times ( though usually with people who are not very knowledgeable about cues).
While I have been trying to come up with a valid working definition that would appease most ( cause none would appease all), something occured to me. Why do people care so much about defining a cue/cuemaker as custom versus production? When you look over people responses to this question you can see that people are emotionally involved in the classification as it pertains to them, or their favorites. It was said that Evan from Schon was offended to be referred to as a production cue maker. Why?
I guess the answer is percieved quality. It is an assumption that by saying a cue is a custom cue that more care was taken in its maufacture. This is why people cue owners and cue makers will take offense to being labeled as "production". This is why anyone who makes or sells or buys cues has an interest in being referred to as custom. I think that this is where the actual problems arise. This is why the term "custom cue" gets thrown around so loosely by everyone.
If you have a production cue, and I have a custom cue it is assumed that mine is somehow better or more special than yours. I think it also comes from a time when there were only maybe 10-12 cuemakers actually doing custom cue work. You either had a brunswick or a house cue, and then a select few actually had custom cues made for them. There really was not much in the middle. The market for custom cues just did mot exist, and so not many people could afford to make cues full time. Nowadays, MOST cuemakers would fall somewhere in the middle of being a pure custom or pure custom maker.
People feel that by admitting a cue a to be a production model is saying it is not the best quality available. If we can get past this way of thinking, we may be able to take a morer objective look at the definitions. It is kind of ironis because Henry ford was one of the first to pioneer mass production, and one of the reasons was to IMPROVE quality.
I think quality control is an issue with both custom and production cues. If your name or brand is known for excellent quality control you will be highly regarded no matter how many cues you produce.
A lot of the appeal in a custom cue is pride of ownership. Strictly speaking, a custom cue can only truly be custom for the original owner, though the percieved quality can be transferred to another. Not to mention that the same combinations of specs will most likely be desired by many different players. I mean cue length, taper, weight and balance can vary quite a bit, but I got to say that most of these things do stay in a fairly small range MOST OF THE TIME.
Think about why the original poster started this thread. He already has a schon cue which he is very happy with. Somehow the cue's percieved quality will be more if the general concensus is that it is a custom cue and not a production cue. The cue will not change depending on this classication, only the perception. I am not meaning anything negetive to the poster, I am glad you started this. I am just pointing out how we (all of us) think about these things. Some production cues ARE better than some custom cues. Some cuemakers quality ranges a great deal more from cue to cue than other makers. Even custom cuemakers make cues in batches. I do not know of any cuemaker that takes an order starts the cue, and works on only that cue from start to finish, then starts another cue. It is still something that can resemble an assembly line. They almost always have shaft wood in batches at different stages of completeion hanging around. It may not be mass production, but it is low mass production ( call it mini production). This is just logical business and production technique. It is a way of maximizing efficiency and quality.
Oh well, this is getting too long to be interesting. I would like to hear people thought on any of this. How does everybody else feel?
I have been reading this thread, and have had this conversation many times ( though usually with people who are not very knowledgeable about cues).
While I have been trying to come up with a valid working definition that would appease most ( cause none would appease all), something occured to me. Why do people care so much about defining a cue/cuemaker as custom versus production? When you look over people responses to this question you can see that people are emotionally involved in the classification as it pertains to them, or their favorites. It was said that Evan from Schon was offended to be referred to as a production cue maker. Why?
I guess the answer is percieved quality. It is an assumption that by saying a cue is a custom cue that more care was taken in its maufacture. This is why people cue owners and cue makers will take offense to being labeled as "production". This is why anyone who makes or sells or buys cues has an interest in being referred to as custom. I think that this is where the actual problems arise. This is why the term "custom cue" gets thrown around so loosely by everyone.
If you have a production cue, and I have a custom cue it is assumed that mine is somehow better or more special than yours. I think it also comes from a time when there were only maybe 10-12 cuemakers actually doing custom cue work. You either had a brunswick or a house cue, and then a select few actually had custom cues made for them. There really was not much in the middle. The market for custom cues just did mot exist, and so not many people could afford to make cues full time. Nowadays, MOST cuemakers would fall somewhere in the middle of being a pure custom or pure custom maker.
People feel that by admitting a cue a to be a production model is saying it is not the best quality available. If we can get past this way of thinking, we may be able to take a morer objective look at the definitions. It is kind of ironis because Henry ford was one of the first to pioneer mass production, and one of the reasons was to IMPROVE quality.
I think quality control is an issue with both custom and production cues. If your name or brand is known for excellent quality control you will be highly regarded no matter how many cues you produce.
A lot of the appeal in a custom cue is pride of ownership. Strictly speaking, a custom cue can only truly be custom for the original owner, though the percieved quality can be transferred to another. Not to mention that the same combinations of specs will most likely be desired by many different players. I mean cue length, taper, weight and balance can vary quite a bit, but I got to say that most of these things do stay in a fairly small range MOST OF THE TIME.
Think about why the original poster started this thread. He already has a schon cue which he is very happy with. Somehow the cue's percieved quality will be more if the general concensus is that it is a custom cue and not a production cue. The cue will not change depending on this classication, only the perception. I am not meaning anything negetive to the poster, I am glad you started this. I am just pointing out how we (all of us) think about these things. Some production cues ARE better than some custom cues. Some cuemakers quality ranges a great deal more from cue to cue than other makers. Even custom cuemakers make cues in batches. I do not know of any cuemaker that takes an order starts the cue, and works on only that cue from start to finish, then starts another cue. It is still something that can resemble an assembly line. They almost always have shaft wood in batches at different stages of completeion hanging around. It may not be mass production, but it is low mass production ( call it mini production). This is just logical business and production technique. It is a way of maximizing efficiency and quality.
Oh well, this is getting too long to be interesting. I would like to hear people thought on any of this. How does everybody else feel?
