Custom is custom and a very good player friend told me his Custom Cue is worth 1.5-2.0 BALL ADVANTAGE in any game of One Pocket.
Custom is custom and a very good player friend told me his Custom Cue is worth 1.5-2.0 BALL ADVANTAGE in any game of One Pocket.
Custom is custom and a very good player friend told me his Custom Cue is worth 1.5-2.0 BALL ADVANTAGE in any game of One Pocket.
This is almost laughable. As I've said in two previous threads, if I could find a production cue that played like any of my custom cues I've had over the years, I'd buy it and play with it! If you don't care for custom cues, so be it. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!
Also, again for the record, I've never bought a cue based on the cue maker or the hype surrounding it. I buy purely on playability alone. And that includes the two Southwests I've owned, a Joss, Scruggs, Murray Tucker, Andy Gilbert, Gulyassy, Dishaw, and any I may have left out.
ya know, he's right.
Same thing with cars - both a Bugatti and a SmartCar are made from the same basic materials - various types of metals, woods, carbon fibers, aluminum, plastics, glass, rubber, etc.
So I just can't imagine why someone would want a finely-tuned exotic sports car when they can buy a much less expensive Kia or Suzuki.
Why buy that BMW or Benz when a Ford Taurus was made from the same materials??
After all, they'll both get you to your destination........
-von
Consider this angle, since you want to bring up what the Pro's use. Today, do the all Pro's use custom cues? They don't. Most don't.
ya know, he's right.
Same thing with cars - both a Bugatti and a SmartCar are made from the same basic materials - various types of metals, woods, carbon fibers, aluminum, plastics, glass, rubber, etc.
So I just can't imagine why someone would want a finely-tuned exotic sports car when they can buy a much less expensive Kia or Suzuki.
Why buy that BMW or Benz when a Ford Taurus was made from the same materials??
After all, they'll both get you to your destination........
-von
I understand what you are saying, a custom cue doesn't guarantee playability. Having agreed with that, I'll ask you this:
If you were playing a match for $100,000 dollars and you had your choice of playing with a cue you had never hit a ball with before, one a Scruggs and the other a Chinese Wal-mart special, which would you play with?
I guess my point is your odds are better that a custom cue will be better than an off brand production cue.
There are also different levels of custom cues and production cues. I play with an old Schon SL-5. Many people think Schon has more exacting standards than other production cues. There are custom cuemakers who can't get the points to line up straight.
I am not gonna argue about the who makes a better cue kinda thing cause I have already been there. However, I must say I don't agree with this last statement. The way I understand manufacturing is that there is a whole economy around choosing the appropriate machine on your production line. Set the price of the cue, decide the overhead you can carry while selling these cues to make a profit, and buy your machines. End the end, the tolerances these machines are capable of reaching seems to be the result of how much one is willing to spend on the machine itself.
I posit that a factory that is not worried about profit, could make the tightest tolerance cue any one has ever seen. And make them over and over again. I also think that when it comes to consistency, a machine has a human beat 6 days out of seven. IMO...
Chris
We're not talking defective cues here.
As was stated earlier, there are production cues that are inconsistent. As well as production cues that aren't straight either.
The discussion here is about a custom cue, that isn't defective and which is consistent vs. a production cue, that isn't defective and is consistent. Does the custom perform better? Does it play better? They don't. It's up to the player to play better.
All a cue can do is react to the impact against the cue ball in the same manner each time. That's all you can expect from a cue. A good cue, regardless of custom or production should do that.
Balance, weight, thickness of grip etcetera are all personal preferences. Someone mentioned that pros have preferences and that having them set they way they like makes them play better. OK, but that also applies to a production cue. Assume another pro is perfectly satisfied with the balance and grip of a production cue - that pro is playing at his/her peak as it fits their preference. However, does that cue play better or worse because it is a production cue? It doesn't.
And, not to single anyone out, but I think this post helped bolo's point by accident:
You purchased 8-10 custom cues, that sounds like a collector to me. Hell, collector is the wrong word, maybe 'addict'How fast do you go through them? If you're all about the playability, why didn't you find one that played perfect and stick with it for 20 years? Did the first 7 customs not hit balls good enough, or fall apart, so you just had to go buy that 8th?! Surely it can't help your consistency to keep switching every few years.
I think a lot of people buy customs because they like to shop around for, pick out, customize and buy things. No shame in that, just be honest about it.
I'm going to have to side with the OP on this one and suggest that you change your highlighted line from "Played like" to "felt like" because that's all there is to it. Your Scruggs, SouthWest, Joss etc... etc... don't PLAY or make balls better than a 50 dollar bar cue. Now, those cues will FEEL a helluva lot better and have higher quality wood and most likely better balance, but the cue doesn't make the balls, that is all up to you. Hey, I'm not jabbing you, man. I have a James White, Tim Scruggs, 2 Paul Mottey's and a Thomas Wayne so I'm just as guilty as the next person as far as buying high end cues goes. But, I'm well aware that those cues don't make me play better. I went a number of years where I was in my "Earl Strickland" mode and I shot with a plain white Cuetec like he used to shoot with back in the day. I won a lot of tournaments playing with that cue. I still have that cue and use it every once in a while. My main player is the Jim White though. I just like the way it feels. Plus, it was custom made for me by Jim and he made it 59 inches so it fits me better, I'm tall.
MULLY
There's nothing special about custom cues when it comes to playability.
It's all in people's head. There are materials, and then there is the application and design using those materials. There's no real scientific basis for why someone's custom brand "plays better"...assuming that refers to performance of the cue.
Custom cue makers are not implementing any kind of unique or special technology in construction/design that improves playability. Nor are they using special materials that do so.
What they use isn't much different than what is used in production cues. One difference is custom cue makers can source very high end premium cuts of wood. This only equates to a difference in aesthetic quality. That's about it.
I used to drink the custom cue kool aid, but not any longer. They aren't (from a playability standpoint) any better than a quality mass produced cue. But in some cases worse than production shafts.
That said, what constitutes good playability has nothing to do with the origin or brand of the cue. It all has to do with consistency and a few other criteria. There are many custom cue shafts that aren't consistent.
People who think their custom cue plays better than decent quality production cue suffer from Excalibur Syndrome. Because it was made by the hands of some cue maker they worship in some little shop some where, and because there's hype the cue is great - doesn't mean it makes you make balls. Don't believe me? Then hand your magic custom cue to some APA SL3 and they'll show you how great it plays.
When you put a new cue in your hands and then play great initially with it, you're experiencing what is known as the Placebo Effect. You think the cue is making you play better when it's really all in your head.
However, this effect predictably and eventually wears off. At which point the individual searches out the next great magic cue that will take them to the next level. Hence, the never ending search for the Excalibur cue that will make their game great.
A step toward improving one's game is to unsubscribe from such equipment based thinking and focus on the true source of one's game - themselves. That whole line of thinking is a major burden to carry around in your development as a player. It's unnecessary and harmful baggage.
Yeah, but cars are something that people choose by ego rather than usefulness. You were being sarcastic about both cars getting you from A to B but in all reality that is exactly true and there are plenty of people out there that think like that. My mom is one of them. She is financially well enough that she could afford to buy a nice new car, instead she goes for used cars with low mileage that don't cost a whole lot. Her reasoning, exactly what you said, "I only need to go from here to there so why should I waste money on an expensive car?"
Same with watches. A 20 dollar Timex tells the same time as my 2,000 dollar Breitling. But it surely doesn't look as good.:thumbup:
MULLY
There's nothing special about custom cues when it comes to playability.
It's all in people's head. There are materials, and then there is the application and design using those materials. There's no real scientific basis for why someone's custom brand "plays better"...assuming that refers to performance of the cue.
Custom cue makers are not implementing any kind of unique or special technology in construction/design that improves playability. Nor are they using special materials that do so.
What they use isn't much different than what is used in production cues. One difference is custom cue makers can source very high end premium cuts of wood. This only equates to a difference in aesthetic quality. That's about it.
I used to drink the custom cue kool aid, but not any longer. They aren't (from a playability standpoint) any better than a quality mass produced cue. But in some cases worse than production shafts.
That said, what constitutes good playability has nothing to do with the origin or brand of the cue. It all has to do with consistency and a few other criteria. There are many custom cue shafts that aren't consistent.
People who think their custom cue plays better than decent quality production cue suffer from Excalibur Syndrome. Because it was made by the hands of some cue maker they worship in some little shop some where, and because there's hype the cue is great - doesn't mean it makes you make balls. Don't believe me? Then hand your magic custom cue to some APA SL3 and they'll show you how great it plays.
When you put a new cue in your hands and then play great initially with it, you're experiencing what is known as the Placebo Effect. You think the cue is making you play better when it's really all in your head.
However, this effect predictably and eventually wears off. At which point the individual searches out the next great magic cue that will take them to the next level. Hence, the never ending search for the Excalibur cue that will make their game great.
A step toward improving one's game is to unsubscribe from such equipment based thinking and focus on the true source of one's game - themselves. That whole line of thinking is a major burden to carry around in your development as a player. It's unnecessary and harmful baggage.
There's nothing special about custom cues when it comes to playability.
It's all in people's head. There are materials, and then there is the application and design using those materials. There's no real scientific basis for why someone's custom brand "plays better"...assuming that refers to performance of the cue.
Custom cue makers are not implementing any kind of unique or special technology in construction/design that improves playability. Nor are they using special materials that do so.
What they use isn't much different than what is used in production cues. One difference is custom cue makers can source very high end premium cuts of wood. This only equates to a difference in aesthetic quality. That's about it.
I used to drink the custom cue kool aid, but not any longer. They aren't (from a playability standpoint) any better than a quality mass produced cue. But in some cases worse than production shafts.
That said, what constitutes good playability has nothing to do with the origin or brand of the cue. It all has to do with consistency and a few other criteria. There are many custom cue shafts that aren't consistent.
People who think their custom cue plays better than decent quality production cue suffer from Excalibur Syndrome. Because it was made by the hands of some cue maker they worship in some little shop some where, and because there's hype the cue is great - doesn't mean it makes you make balls. Don't believe me? Then hand your magic custom cue to some APA SL3 and they'll show you how great it plays.
When you put a new cue in your hands and then play great initially with it, you're experiencing what is known as the Placebo Effect. You think the cue is making you play better when it's really all in your head.
However, this effect predictably and eventually wears off. At which point the individual searches out the next great magic cue that will take them to the next level. Hence, the never ending search for the Excalibur cue that will make their game great.
A step toward improving one's game is to unsubscribe from such equipment based thinking and focus on the true source of one's game - themselves. That whole line of thinking is a major burden to carry around in your development as a player. It's unnecessary and harmful baggage.