Did going from a low-end cue to high-end improve your game?

I believe it's like most things. Cheap sucks and I mean cheap, not inexpensive. Once you get to a certain level of quality, everything else is just personal preference and artwork.

If you are playing with a cheap warped cue with screw on or slip on tips, then yes, a new expensive cue will help your game. If you are playing with a $150 Schmelke and get a $2k or higher custom, you probably won't play substantially better.

I seriously doubt many people believe buying a custom will make them a better player. I suck equally with all my cues and they range from $300 to $2k. I can still name a long list of customs I would buy if I was worth more. Has nothing to do with playing better.

I once bought a drag car. I did not think it made me Don Garlits.
 
I've owned a bunch of nice cues but the best $$$-maker i had was a pos early C'tec with that coated shaft. Kept it in a 5dollar case in my car year round. All the action in this area has been in bars robbing morons and that cue was the nuts. I could play just as well with it as any hi-dollar custom i've ever owned. Nice cues are fun but NO guarantee of good play.
 
The key to better pool is consistency. So going from a cue that is hanging on the wall to youur own cue. You will improve because of familarity. There are things that a $1000 cue has versus something you buy at the sporting goods store. More solid construction, better balance and tunability, better wood that will not likely warp.

In the short turn will a better quality cue make you better NO, in the long run it will.
 
Zerksies said:
... In the short turn will a better quality cue make you better NO, in the long run it will.
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Well, yes, but some of the members here change cue sticks as often as they change their underwear, so they have no long run.

Nearly all of the playing quality of the cue is in the shaft. Some very high-end cues I've tried have lousy shafts -- for me.

Some cues off the wall play better -- for me -- than most high end cues. Sorry, guys, a joint in a cue is inherently a defect; the best joints play as if no joint is there.
 
Look good, feel good, play good.

It's why I wear dress shoes, button down shirts and a fedora to dive bars. It's how I'm comfortable and feel like I look a good as possible. My cues are part of that.

Should it matter? No, but the mental side of competition is a huge factor.
 
iusedtoberich said:
0.

I actually went from a used McDermott to a brand new cocobolo Tim Scruggs in 1999. I played worse with it. It was my first cue with ivory ferrules. I ended up trying a 314 on it a few months later and have been with predator shafts since.
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Sometimes I wish I hadn’t sold my Scruggs, but the deflection was pretty extreme with the ivory ferrules. I like regular shafts typically, but in my recollection those were higher deflection than others I have had.
 
VTEC John said:
Just cues, let's leave aside shaft/deflection discussion. I don't mean to commit a sacrilege here, but... If you're playing with, say, a Schmelke with a nice Kamui tip added, I don't see that a more expensive cue is going to help you stroke straighter. As regards other presumed benefits of high end cues (hit?, balance?), on a scale of 1 to 10, how much has an expensive cue improved your runout percentage?
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The funny part about this question is that I bet you'd be amazed at how many "high end" full splice cues start as Schmelke blanks.
 
Would go from playing some piece of shit you bought at Walmart to a decent cue help your game … sure. Will going from like a McDermott to a ln expensive cue help. Personally I don’t think so 🤷
 
Give me a a piece of shit house cue that is straight, a little sandpaper & a tip shaper. I'm probably good to go.

Anything that resembles the above in a two piece cue I will play just fine.

Doesn't have to be "high end" for me.
 
There is a psychological impact to playing with new equipment. There have been several studies focused on baseball players and new bats and how the hitting performance has a small uptick immediately after switching to a new bat.

But this is driven by the player and how they perceive the bat and that perception has a impact on their swing and timing.

The interesting thing is the performance bump is short lived and they always return to the lower baseline after a few games.

My personal experience has been that when I would switch to one of my high-end cues I would see a small performance bump but just like the baseball players I too would return to baseline.

After the death of my wife I could not win a game, I lost every match for weeks, I changed to custom low-end cue that was significantly lighter than the high-end custom I was playing with which slowed down my speed and stroke mechanics and I have not lost a match since.

So to answer your question, NEW equipment no matter cheap or more expensive will have a short impact on your overall performance. But what has a more lasting impact is actually diagnosing a problem in your game and then using equipment best designed to address that problem.

I was playing too fast and hitting too hard so I switched to a lighter cue and spent more time looking at the table between shots and experienced real improvement.

Still miss my wife though...
 
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