Like, you don't have to be a High Diver to know that hitting the water at a bad angle is like slamming your face into concrete.
And you don't have to be able to rope a steer to know the quality of leather that you put into your cases.
J/K.
As you mentioned, there are makers that will build you what you want and there are others that won't allow a person to deviate too far, if any at all further than what they consider goes into their cue line.
Some will tell you, "this is how I build a cue, if you don't like it, pick another maker.
If a maker has a reputation for building a cue that has certain desirable characteristics and that is what he known for, he isn't going to let you tell him how to build your cue, lest your ideas gets you a dog of a cue and the eventual rep falls on the maker.
Thats fair, right?
If you are lucky enuff to get to the front of the list for a Searing, he builds you your cue.
Beyond choosing some wood, veneer colors etc, that is about all the input you will probably be allowed. Maybe I am far off on that one.
But, the question remains. Is CueMaker 03 a maker of pool cues.
You would have to have been following the saga of Tony of Gwerra Cues in the Cue Maker Forums.
Eric, (Sugar Tree) was very helpful to me. He wouldn't come right out, and I wouldn't want him to anyway, and tell me exactly how he builds his cues.
He would tell me certain things and leave certain things out. If I wanted to know and had the desire, I would do a bit of research on my own and figure out the missing pieces. Eric left a small puzzle for me to work on. Trial and error and I would surely blow up a lot of decent pieces of wood figuring it out. He wasn't going to hold my hand that tight.
Now, he did the same for Tony Benfica previously. That is until the rumors started going around that Tony now builds cue just like Eric Crisp does.
One of the things that Eric asked me not to do is relay his info on and pretend that it is mine. Pretty fair I think.
There is also a long list of makers that will absolutely not answer their phone if they see Tony's number come up.
Hmmm, must be a good reason for that.