Best playing IMPORT, production cue... NON-LD

nineballsafety8

nineballsafety8

6ft 5" 285, hits 'em hard
Silver Member
Just curious what some opinions were on import cues and playability. I know that consistency is often a problem with imports, so I am not saying X brand is going to play better than Y brand.

What I am asking is, in your past of playing with cheap import cues, which one have you had that played the best?

I had an Elite, Players... that played GREAT, and had the bastard radial pin in it.
 
nineballsafety8 said:
Just curious what some opinions were on import cues and playability. I know that consistency is often a problem with imports, so I am not saying X brand is going to play better than Y brand.

What I am asking is, in your past of playing with cheap import cues, which one have you had that played the best?

I had an Elite, Players... that played GREAT, and had the bastard radial pin in it.
Click to expand...

Mezz reg shaft!!!
 
Bought one of the MR cues the other day for $89. Came with 2 shafts and joint protectors. Can't quit playing with it. Plays outstanding. May make it my main player. The one thing I don't like about the cheap imports is the feel of the wrap (but I am more of a wrapless kinda guy). I slipped one of the rubber sleeves over it. Shafts feel bare down to about 4-5 inches from joint. I sealed these and put some wax on them. It has the southwest type pin. I got the ebony and redwood one. They have one on ebay priced at $1,000 right now. Think someone may have made a mistake on the pricing on that one.
 
Manoman2444 said:
Bought one of the MR cues the other day for $89. Came with 2 shafts and joint protectors. Can't quit playing with it. Plays outstanding. May make it my main player. The one thing I don't like about the cheap imports is the feel of the wrap (but I am more of a wrapless kinda guy). I slipped one of the rubber sleeves over it. Shafts feel bare down to about 4-5 inches from joint. I sealed these and put some wax on them. It has the southwest type pin. I got the ebony and redwood one. They have one on ebay priced at $1,000 right now. Think someone may have made a mistake on the pricing on that one.
Click to expand...

I like his stuff. His cues generally come from the Jian Ying company. My experience with this has been mostly good, although I have purchased directly from Jian Ying and have received some real crap, but everything from Weng (MR) has been excellent. The interesting thing about buying Jian Ying cues is you can buy one of their cues today, and several months from now you'll have to pay several time what you just paid because that same cue will come out either in the Poison line or the Predator Line. I have a theory that Jian Ying is the huge billiard company in Asia for production material and if you look hard enough you'll find that they now own all of the American billiard companies that moved to Asia. Just look at their stuff:
http://www.jy147.com/en/products.asp?Big_Class=9&Small_Class=11
They do it all, tables, cues, cases, game room furniture, the facility must be massive. In my experience the cues are real "hit or miss", but if you get a good one it's a real deal
 
nineballsafety8 said:
I have one, and love it. I actually used it as my every day player for almost 6 months
I also started a thread about it here: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=4354691#post4354691
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I enjoyed reading the post you provided a link for ... a lot of truth in that post.

I just ordered this for my 15 year old nephew. He has been playing with a Sneaky I gave him that is over 30 years old and shows it's age ... He is going to be in Heaven.

http://www.mcdermottcue.com/l18.php

My nephew thanks you for starting this thread. :D
 
Manoman2444 said:
Bought one of the MR cues the other day for $89. Came with 2 shafts and joint protectors. Can't quit playing with it. Plays outstanding. May make it my main player. The one thing I don't like about the cheap imports is the feel of the wrap (but I am more of a wrapless kinda guy). I slipped one of the rubber sleeves over it. Shafts feel bare down to about 4-5 inches from joint. I sealed these and put some wax on them. It has the southwest type pin. I got the ebony and redwood one. They have one on ebay priced at $1,000 right now. Think someone may have made a mistake on the pricing on that one.
Click to expand...

I have one of these that was made with a 3/8 x 10 pin that I got with 2 shafts with layered tips on them for only $39. This was before they were printing "MR" on the butt plate. They sell the same cue now, but without the points and it has a SW style pin now. I figured I would use the shafts as cheap McDermott backups.

That cue hits extremely well, especially since I had the shafts turned down to 12.25mm instead of the 13mm they came as.

Since getting the cue, though... something happened and the joint screw went a bit crooked. I don't know if that had to do with unseasoned wood or if my 5-year old messed with it, but I've since invested $40 to have the pin re-seated and now it is back to being perfectly straight.

Seriously, this cue plays as good as any similarly spec'd cue you put it up against. No joke.

Oh, and the shafts have very tight and straight grain, and shorter than average ferrules (but not small like the ones on McD G-Core) and I don't feel like they deflect much at all.

By all rights, if someone told me it was a $300 or $400 cue, I'd believe them if I didn't already know better.

Worth a risk as far as I'm concerned.

The cue in question is the brown/white one on the far right in my Avatar...

And here is the current one similar to mine, but with 3/8 x 11 pin and minus the 8 light colored points in the forearm & butt, shipped to the US for an all-in price of $69: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MR-Stunning...804?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a3d79ad34
 
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Celophanewrap said:
I like his stuff. His cues generally come from the Jian Ying company. My experience with this has been mostly good, although I have purchased directly from Jian Ying and have received some real crap, but everything from Weng (MR) has been excellent. The interesting thing about buying Jian Ying cues is you can buy one of their cues today, and several months from now you'll have to pay several time what you just paid because that same cue will come out either in the Poison line or the Predator Line. I have a theory that Jian Ying is the huge billiard company in Asia for production material and if you look hard enough you'll find that they now own all of the American billiard companies that moved to Asia. Just look at their stuff:
http://xxx.XXXXX.xxx/en/products.asp?Big_Class=9&Small_Class=11
They do it all, tables, cues, cases, game room furniture, the facility must be massive. In my experience the cues are real "hit or miss", but if you get a good one it's a real deal
Click to expand...

Just a heads up for anyone who may, or may have clicked on the link in this post. BitDefender blocked the site as having malware. Proceed at your own risk.
 
ScottK said:
Just a heads up for anyone who may, or may have clicked on the link in this post. BitDefender blocked the site as having malware. Proceed at your own risk.
Click to expand...

Interesting.....
Not sure why the link Scott gave is full of X's, the one I provided is to a billiard company:

as listed in Google
 

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I posted these pics some time ago in a different thread, but I too like these MR cues. What more can you ask for. I bought all four of these things with 8 shafts, joint protectors, and free shipping, all for less than 350 bucks total.

I did re taper the shafts myself to a much longer pro taper of my liking and replaced the tips (although to be honest, the tips are fine layered tips) to the Tiger Emerald which I like, and I had the wraps redone to a more stylish look that the all black that came with them for an extra 40 bucks each.

The deal is so good I even bought one of those zebrawood cues with no points for 65 bucks just to get two more shafts for a total of 10 shafts. What a deal. :killingme: And they feel just fine!!!
 

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