Custom Cue HORROR STORIES

dsoriano

dsoriano

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Unfortunately I'm sure we all have a horror story regarding some of our most prized possessions. The other day I was talking to a friend about how he left his cue in his car over a cold rainy night. He said he woke up in the middle of the night, ran out in 40 deg rain to grab his cue out of the cold. I got a good chuckle once he told me his wife’s reaction. Of course Im thinking “well what else would you do?”

Well that reminded me of the time I had just ordered a new Schon cue. I was an SL-4 with ivory rings. A few weeks before I was to receive it I ordered a new case. Well the first day I got the cue I slid it into the case. As soon as I put it in I knew something was terribly wrong. I removed the cue to find a long deep scratch (CUT) in the wrap almost cutting the threads in half. As I put my finger into the tube I felt a sharp piece of metal about 3 inches down. I freaked! I immediately called the on-line store I ordered it from and had it replaced. I sent the cue back to Schon and had the wrap redone. Fortunately it didn’t gouge the finish of the cue. This happened a few years back and I happened to find pictures.

Like I said, I’m sure we all have horror stories. Feel free to share.
 

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glad your story had a happy ending:grin:
try sterling wave cases
they are the best for the money
imho
 
Closest similar horror story I have is when I was playing a tourney and had my cues out of the case, standing in the little grooves at the edge of the player's side table.

But I left the top of the 2x4 case open. And a local idiot walked past my stuff, turned a little half turn to avoid my standing cues, and dropped a full 20 oz pepsi with ice down into my open cue case.

Lucky it was empty, lucky he missed knocking over my standing cues, but there was no cleaning that case of sticky soda, and I had to throw it away.

I was poor, and I wrapped my cues in a thick bath towel with rubber bands for a couple months until I could find a decent and affordable 2x4 case.
 
three years ago it was raining something fierce in miami and Im getting out of my car trying to grab my case and run into the room. The top of my case is open and my Szamboti flies out of the case and into a puddle 4-5 inches deep. The cue was completely underwater. I just about had a heart attack. I took the cue to a good local cuemaker who dried it out and luckily the cue suffered no damage and is still straight as an arrow.

last year I was at apa playing 9ball and we are at this bar that the teams capt owned. My cues are up against the wall in the room that held two bar tables. i had the cues put together and both of em slid into my justis and they were up against the wall with the shafts going through one of those rubber cue holders that you set on a shelf. So along comes this girl with a full coke and sets it down there on the shelf. 5 min later she knocks the full drink off the shelf and it tumbles into my case. I pulled my cues out and again the Szamboti went to Ted Harris who cleaned the wrap. I remember I turned over my case and like half this big gulp sized coke came out of my case. The lady who did it was mortified. She kept apologizing until she found out that the Gus was worth a small fortune. Then she got hot at me and said WHAT? This is ALL YOUR FAULT! Why would u ever bring something that expensive into a bar like this!!

I laugh about it all now but it was no funny matter at the time. I thought the top of my head was gonna explode I got so hot. To get coke out of a justis is no easily matter too. You have to take it all apart. Good thing Jack helped me resolve that too.
 
uwate said:
three years ago it was raining something fierce in miami and Im getting out of my car trying to grab my case and run into the room. The top of my case is open and my Szamboti flies out of the case and into a puddle 4-5 inches deep. The cue was completely underwater. I just about had a heart attack. I took the cue to a good local cuemaker who dried it out and luckily the cue suffered no damage and is still straight as an arrow.

last year I was at apa playing 9ball and we are at this bar that the teams capt owned. My cues are up against the wall in the room that held two bar tables. i had the cues put together and both of em slid into my justis and they were up against the wall with the shafts going through one of those rubber cue holders that you set on a shelf. So along comes this girl with a full coke and sets it down there on the shelf. 5 min later she knocks the full drink off the shelf and it tumbles into my case. I pulled my cues out and again the Szamboti went to Ted Harris who cleaned the wrap. I remember I turned over my case and like half this big gulp sized coke came out of my case. The lady who did it was mortified. She kept apologizing until she found out that the Gus was worth a small fortune. Then she got hot at me and said WHAT? This is ALL YOUR FAULT! Why would u ever bring something that expensive into a bar like this!!I laugh about it all now but it was no funny matter at the time. I thought the top of my head was gonna explode I got so hot. To get coke out of a justis is no easily matter too. You have to take it all apart. Good thing Jack helped me resolve that too.
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She was right. I was thinking the same thing.
 
uwate said:
So along comes this girl with a full coke and sets it down there on the shelf. 5 min later she knocks the full drink off the shelf and it tumbles into my case. I pulled my cues out and again the Szamboti went to Ted Harris who cleaned the wrap. I remember I turned over my case and like half this big gulp sized coke came out of my case. The lady who did it was mortified. She kept apologizing until she found out that the Gus was worth a small fortune. Then she got hot at me and said WHAT? This is ALL YOUR FAULT! Why would u ever bring something that expensive into a bar like this!!
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What? you paid to get it cleaned? You already knew it was water proof, you should have just dunked it under 3" of water again. JK:grin:
 
I dont usually go out to dive bars to play taking all my regular equipment but the team capt owned this bar. It was the teams homefield and admittedly I got comfortable in there too much. The funny thing is I very rarely leave my cues like that. I always usually break them down and then keep my case with me. This one occasion i had stepped 10 ft away to the bar to get a drink and i turned around to see this happen. ugh

yeah Ted Harris was like geez Dave. My cue has alot of war wounds. Its no closet queen thats for sure.
 
I really don't see the point of closet queens, unused fine china, good silverware...

I might not bring my bestest cue to the absolute worstest place, but I'll bring it just about everywhere else.

Life is short, we should use and enjoy what we have.
 
blah blah said:
Closest similar horror story I have is when I was playing a tourney and had my cues out of the case, standing in the little grooves at the edge of the player's side table.

But I left the top of the 2x4 case open. And a local idiot walked past my stuff, turned a little half turn to avoid my standing cues, and dropped a full 20 oz pepsi with ice down into my open cue case.

Lucky it was empty, lucky he missed knocking over my standing cues, but there was no cleaning that case of sticky soda, and I had to throw it away.

I was poor, and I wrapped my cues in a thick bath towel with rubber bands for a couple months until I could find a decent and affordable 2x4 case.
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Now you gone and blown the towel hustle. Switch to sheets of newspaper-and twitch a lot.;)
 
blah blah said:
I might not bring my bestest cue to the absolute worstest place, but I'll bring it just about everywhere else.

Life is short, we should use and enjoy what we have.
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Oh yeah. :D


Well.....

I don't have a Szam, but one time I had my old JOSS at thew pool hall in the student union when I was in undergrad. I guess this was about 1988 and I was playing/practicing there every day. I had just racked, there was a wall behind me where I had leaned my cue, when I walked away I forgot the cue against the wall. As I sat down I realized the cue was still against the wall but my buddy was about to break and I didn't want to walk down the end of the table through his line of sight so I figured I would let him break and then grab my cue.

Well, the cb jumped the table and wouldn't you know it smacked directly into the middle of the forearm of my JOSS. The cue bounced straight back off the wall and slammed into the floor. To this day I still look for a dent or nick from that incident and can't find a thing....but sometimes I still look....I can't help it.
 
I've posted this before,but is worth repeating.

Everyone that knows me knows I've played with the same one-off Schon since '91. This isn't the best pic ever,but you'll see :thumbup:.

On the morning of my family's house fire in '98,I went from the middle of the street to my front porch with NO recollection of how I got there,because I tried to run into a still-smoking house after it and my other 2 cues,which were a 2nd Gen Joss SP,and a Bill McDaniel jump cue that looks like the front end of a Schon.

Because of the Porper case they were in,the only damage was smoke dust on the leather,the cues were simply wiped down,with no discernable difference. Tommy D.
 

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Chopdoc said:
Oh yeah. :D
Well, the cb jumped the table and wouldn't you know it smacked directly into the middle of the forearm of my JOSS. The cue bounced straight back off the wall and slammed into the floor. To this day I still look for a dent or nick from that incident and can't find a thing....but sometimes I still look....I can't help it.
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Chopdoc, Sounds like a subconscious reoccurring nightmare your having from experiencing a traumatizing event in your life. Like I said Horror Story.:sorry:
 
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Played in a biker bar Wed night.

I set my cues up and left them in the case with the case leaning against a chair. Part way thru the night, a table opened up closer to the table we were playing on. One of my team mates took it upon himself to move my case closer. He didn't set my case up and it fell on the floor.

My turn at the table, I plugged, went to get my cue and it was gone. I wandered around and finally someone found the case on the floor.

Nothing serious happened but my heart was beating so fast, I went into serious panic mode for a couple of minutes.

I lost my first game. It was probably his fault.
 
Got a Layani in the mail. Was received by people who handle packages EVERY DAY. For some reason they cut it open with a box cutter in such a way as to cut through the packaging and put a deep gash down the forearm.

Was taking my custom Joss to be refinished and I put it in a Vincintore case, a brand new unused one, and the bottom fell out of it and the cue slid through a ring of nails leaving scratches from the butt cap up the wrap and into the forearm.

And of course the one the started me on making cases; I left my expensive leather case on the table while I was unpacking it and turned away to talk to someone and another person squeezed by me and knocked the case off the table. My $1400 Schon came out and broke the buttcap. So while the cue was in the shop I decided to rebuild that case and put padding in the tubes and the rest as they say is history...
 
Hopefully, you sent the bill to the company who mailed you the defective case.
 
Horror is in the eye of the beholder, have any of you been disappointed with your custom stick when you got it? I am getting an LTD McDermott tomorrow which is based on a D17 splice, (note my sig and understand why I wanted it), and I am hoping it lives up to my expectations. Do even points matter? Would uneven points be a disaster?
 
My wife left her $1,400 Predator (mint condition) at the local room last Monday on league night. She was mortified. I gave this cue to her for Christmas a few years back and it's one of her most prized possessions.

I was playing league there last night when I got the news. I decided to ask the bartender if anyone had turned in a cue. She said she hadn't seen one but a young guy walked by and said a cue was leaning against the wall in the kitchen area. She went back there, brought it out, and miraculously, it was the Predator. Brought back some of my faith in fellow pool players.

As soon as I find out who turned the cue in, I'm giving a nice reward. :cool:
 
Back in the 80s I bought a Scruggs cue from a billiards store in East St. Louis. There was a pool room right next door if anyone remembers it. The shafts were not the same size. One was a little thicker. 12.9mm vs 13mm about. I did not have the means to accurately measure them back in those days. I did not mind. I really liked the taper of the thick one Paid $650 for it. That was an awful lot of money to pay back then.

I took it next door and gave it a good workout for a few hours then I put it into a hard case I had and went home to Springfield, Ill. I was due to fly to Dallas, Tx on business for a week so I put the cue in the closet. When I got home I couldn't wait to get down to the pool room with it. When I was racking I rolled it out of the way and I noticed it looked funny when it rolled. I checked it closer and the butt had a little warp in it. Now I know I checked that cue thoroughly in St. Louis, in the store and the pool room. I chalked it up to my mistake and vowed to be more careful in the future.

Over the next two weeks that thing continued to warp until you didn't even need to roll it to see it. I know there was no way I missed that. There was also no way it had been exposed to any harsh conditions. It was in the house or in the pool room. Never left in the car or anywhere else that could have caused this.

I was pretty unhappy about this so I called the store. They told me that it wasn't their problem and I would have to call the cue maker. They gave me his number. I got some guy on the phone and ask him about the warranty. I don't remember his name but I clearly remember what he said. "We do not warranty our cues against anything for any reason." That was the end of the conversation as far as his attitude. He did not want to hear anything about it. Screw you buddy, it's your problem.

The wood in the handle under the wrap of that cue was not cured properly and I am not likely to be convinced otherwise. So, I had me a $650 banana and that sums up my opinion of anything with Scruggs name on it.
 
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