Getting my first Custom pool cue made questions

[Still want to shoot]

I am brand new to the forum. I have been doing online research and trying to prepare to get a cue made and this website came up a few times. so i have read a lot of the information from its members. I tried finding the answers im looking for in other topics and forums but couldnt seem to find it, so if what i ask has already been discussed please point me in the right direction.
I am looking for the dos and donts of working with a custom cue maker. I have had a 750$ meucci from 1999 with 2 red dots that i love and saved for back in the day, but im at the point where i would like something original and amazing.
The more i look at cue makers websites,the more overwhelmed i get. and i may be overthinking things. But how prepared do i need to be with all the details.
I am not an expert on types of shafts and tips and wood types,inlays.
I have worked customer service/consulting my whole life so i can understand the frustration of dealing with an ignorant customer.
I know most answers would be that it depends on the cue maker, but i am just looking for some advice and direction.
I know that i want some really interesting wood to be the main focus. i saw a cue made by mike durbin with a golden amboyna burl that you could get lost just looking at the detail. and looked at cooscues, i love how excited he gets about the exotic woods. i feel that.
A good leather wrap,
some points with some minor veneers, maybe with the largest triangle inside the point to be a contrasting colored wood, like rosewood, or something?
Some interesting inlays. i dont know hard it is to do something like celtic knots.
My other question is can you ask the cue maker to experiment and have some fun designing. or does that just annoy people to ask them to do extra work and image designs? do you pay extra for that?
Some direction and help would be much appreciated. or even point me in the right direction of a cue maker that would want to work with a first timer.
Thank you
Dan

 

[a1712]

Joint, balance, woods, wrap/wrapless, style, these are all preferences you should have. Your Cuemaker puts your needs/wants into YOUR cue. Brian.

 

[DeeDeeCues]

Just talk to some, everything you want is doable by some. I would caution about your list being a bit too many elements. It's like shrimp scampi, it takes very few ingredients to be delicious, adding more can detract.

Don't pay upfront, write up some sort of agreement, research the builder.

 

[Still want to shoot]

Joint, balance, woods, wrap/wrapless, style, these are all preferences you should have. Your Cuemaker puts your needs/wants into YOUR cue. Brian.

What do you mean by balance? ive never encountered a player talking about the balance of the cue. is that something that i need to learn about for having a custom cue made?

 

[DeeDeeCues]

What do you mean by balance? ive never encountered a player talking about the balance of the cue. is that something that i need to learn about for having a custom cue made?

Balance is simply referring to the balance point of the cue. Not much to learn, just measure from one end or the other to where you can balance the cue on your finger and tell the cuemaker where you want it and the assembled length of the cue you measured (if you like your Meucci, that is probably a pretty safe place).

Personally, I don't think it matters as much as some think, but I have played with a couple of cues that due to their weight and rear balance made them tiring to play with (just me, I had friends who loved those cues).

You should be able to do a search here and find about a million posts on balance point, if you want to go down that rabbit hole. Some ignorance in this case may make you happier than the knowledge.

If you have a chance to play with a cue by the maker you choose, do it. If you have a chance to play with fifty of his cues, do that also. If you like one, you could like another. If you like fifty, you will like yours.

 

[Still want to shoot]

Just talk to some, everything you want is doable by some. I would caution about your list being a bit too many elements. It's like shrimp scampi, it takes very few ingredients to be delicious, adding more can detract.

Don't pay upfront, write up some sort of agreement, research the builder.

I like the shrimp comment. and yeah ive looked through a lot of examples on cue makers websites. and while i admire and would be proud to play with a lot of the plainjain/ daily player. i'm learning terms as i read these sites. I feel it is too empty without some points. still wrestling with whether id want the veneers in the points. But yeah i agree with you. my main focus is the nice woods. ive lost my skills 25 years ago. but our main table in our living room i built in woods class in high school. a couple thousand dollars of red oak. my concept was a gaming table with a glass top. its big enough that you could take a whole game of monopoly open the drawer and slide the game in and see it from the top. three sliding drawers that go out either side, so two side panels and the drawers get pushed out one side to come out the other end. no mechanical drawer sliders. polished it up so well it slides on its own.

Why do you say don't pay up front? a lot of sites say they require 50% or 30% upfront. are you saying dont agree to that? or do you mean dont pay 100% upfront?

 

[DeeDeeCues]

I like the shrimp comment. and yeah ive looked through a lot of examples on cue makers websites. and while i admire and would be proud to play with a lot of the plainjain/ daily player. i'm learning terms as i read these sites. I feel it is too empty without some points. still wrestling with whether id want the veneers in the points. But yeah i agree with you. my main focus is the nice woods. ive lost my skills 25 years ago. but our main table in our living room i built in woods class in high school. a couple thousand dollars of red oak. my concept was a gaming table with a glass top. its big enough that you could take a whole game of monopoly open the drawer and slide the game in and see it from the top. three sliding drawers that go out either side, so two side panels and the drawers get pushed out one side to come out the other end. no mechanical drawer sliders. polished it up so well it slides on its own.

Why do you say don't pay up front? a lot of sites say they require 50% or 30% upfront. are you saying dont agree to that? or do you mean dont pay 100% upfront?

I'm glad you got the shrimp comment, and I don't intend any disrespect about your comments.

Post a photo of your LR table, many would love to see it.

Paying anything upfront is a risk. Obviously more risk with some makers than others, but there are a lot of stories of makers who have taken waaaay to long to make a cue that was paid for (partial or full), or skipped out completely. It's a tough bet, regardless. I really just want for you to exercise caution and do your due diligence.

If a maker wants a deposit, it isn't definitely a problem. I would try to work with them in a way that you don't put more out than you can afford to lose, and they have progress deadlines. It's the way bespoke products work in the rest of the world, I'm sure you are aware.

Lets face it: the cue you describe is nothing so outlandish that a good cuemaker won't be able to sell it if you backed out of the deal for some reason--there is little risk to the maker, but 100% of any payment you make is easily spent anywhere and tough to get back.

I do want to state that I fully believe there are a lot more honorable cuemakers out there than crooks, but the crooks get all the attention.

 

[West Point 1987]

I like the shrimp comment. and yeah ive looked through a lot of examples on cue makers websites. and while i admire and would be proud to play with a lot of the plainjain/ daily player. i'm learning terms as i read these sites. I feel it is too empty without some points. still wrestling with whether id want the veneers in the points. But yeah i agree with you. my main focus is the nice woods. ive lost my skills 25 years ago. but our main table in our living room i built in woods class in high school. a couple thousand dollars of red oak. my concept was a gaming table with a glass top. its big enough that you could take a whole game of monopoly open the drawer and slide the game in and see it from the top. three sliding drawers that go out either side, so two side panels and the drawers get pushed out one side to come out the other end. no mechanical drawer sliders. polished it up so well it slides on its own.

Why do you say don't pay up front? a lot of sites say they require 50% or 30% upfront. are you saying dont agree to that? or do you mean dont pay 100% upfront?

I've bought 4 custom cues over the last 30 years, two were designed by me, the other two were second-hand. The two I designed and had built one maker took 15% down on order and the other one something like 30%. Both delivered ahead of schedule (3-6 months). On some custom builds, the maker needs to order pricy inlay material that's not of use to him if you back out once he's started, so some up front is understandable. The more exotic you go the more they're likely to ask you to deposit. Neither of these makers are building cues anymore, so my recommendation is worthless in their case. My advice is to settle on a basic design you want and the woods you likely prefer, then discuss it with at least two makers to get some type of quote (and determine what they can/want to do to your design)...then select. It's really helpful to see if you can try one made by a certain maker if you know someone with one--and make sure it's the basic type (four point/no points/half splice/full splice/recut points/wood type, etc.) to get a general idea how they feel to you. Search your prospective makers here on AZB and see what kind of rep for delivery on time they have. There are tons of threads on just about any maker out there, some build legendary cues but have trouble finishing them, others are famous for their customer service.

My other question is can you ask the cue maker to experiment and have some fun designing. or does that just annoy people to ask them to do extra work and image designs? do you pay extra for that?

As to this, most builders are proud of their work, have probably built something similar and have some decent advice for you to take or leave. Giving them some leeway is usually a good idea...what they all universally hate is getting called four or five times a month with changes or for constant status updates. The good ones will give you updates, usually with progress photos.

 

[DeeDeeCues]

I've bought 4 custom cues over the last 30 years, two were designed by me, the other two were second-hand. The two I designed and had built one maker took 15% down on order and the other one something like 30%. Both delivered ahead of schedule (3-6 months). On some custom builds, the maker needs to order pricy inlay material that's not of use to him if you back out once he's started, so some up front is understandable. The more exotic you go the more they're likely to ask you to deposit. Neither of these makers are building cues anymore, so my recommendation is worthless in their case. My advice is to settle on a basic design you want and the woods you likely prefer, then discuss it with at least two makers to get some type of quote (and determine what they can/want to do to your design)...then select. It's really helpful to see if you can try one made by a certain maker if you know someone with one--and make sure it's the basic type (four point/no points/half splice/full splice/recut points/wood type, etc.) to get a general idea how they feel to you. Search your prospective makers here on AZB and see what kind of rep for delivery on time they have. There are tons of threads on just about any maker out there, some build legendary cues but have trouble finishing them, others are famous for their customer service.

As to this, most builders are proud of their work, have probably built something similar and have some decent advice for you to take or leave. Giving them some leeway is usually a good idea...what they all universally hate is getting called four or five times a month with changes or for constant status updates. The good ones will give you updates, usually with progress photos.

Well said.

The best situation is when a maker is excited about a project because it fits his style.

 

[Still want to shoot]

you took the words out of my mouth dee, that was great info west point

 

[Still want to shoot]

what they all universally hate is getting called four or five times a month with changes or for constant status updates.

4-5 times a month would drive anyone nuts. even once a month. nah what i could expect is some time taken before hammering out the design. but once its agreed on and paid for.,., i think id like to believe id just sit back and wait. i fully expect a long wait for something hand made. but i can see what deedee said also. if its agreed for 12-18 months and 3 years go by you would start to get upset.

 

[Still want to shoot]

Post a photo of your LR table, many would love to see it.

I'll try to remember to take some photos and put them up, also made a chess table as my first project. outside edge hasnt held together as well as i would have hoped but i used natural wood color for the squares. no stains. a dark walnut and maple i think. I am still proud of the chest table because the squares are lined up perfectly. that was harder to do than people would think.

 

[Shooter08]

I'll try to remember to take some photos and put them up, also made a chess table as my first project. outside edge hasnt held together as well as i would have hoped but i used natural wood color for the squares. no stains. a dark walnut and maple i think. I am still proud of the chest table because the squares are lined up perfectly. that was harder to do than people would think.

I think you may have found a new calling.

 

[Still want to shoot]

I think you may have found a new calling.

Found? what do you mean? I dont have any machinery for working with wood if thats what you meant. those two tables were 25 years ago. My father has been building with wood my whole life. and most of my uncles are carpenters/home builders, so I'm somewhat familiar.

 

[Shooter08]

Found? what do you mean? I dont have any machinery for working with wood if thats what you meant. those two tables were 25 years ago. My father has been building with wood my whole life. and most of my uncles are carpenters/home builders, so I'm somewhat familiar.

Build it, they will find you.

 

[Shooter08]

If you want a partner, let me know. I have a plan.

 

[Still want to shoot]

Post a photo of your LR table, many would love to see it.

 

[Zerksies]

Dealing with a custom cue, too much info or two little info can be a real pain in the ass. Either way someone isn't happy.

Some people want wall art and others want players.

You should know the basic elements of what you want in a cue. The basics like weight, length, shaft thickness. If you don't know those things maybe bring cues that you like to the cue maker.

The sky is the limit, you just need to speak with the maker and come at an agreement.

 

[boogieman]

It's nice to go to a maker's shop if you have one close and if they're ok with it. I know some of them have cues on hand for sale.

I live close-ish to Pat Diveney and if you go to his shop he generally has a few dozen cues on hand. He's big at sponsoring and having booths at tournaments, I think this is why he usually has some on hand, and he's happy to sell them. It's nice to get a cue without having to wait on it. Now he also can do full customs but then you obviously have to wait for the construction phase. The toughest part is narrowing it down since multiple cues will be calling your name!

 

[Still want to shoot]

It's nice to go to a maker's shop if you have one close and if they're ok with it. I know some of them have cues on hand for sale.

I live close-ish to Pat Diveney and if you go to his shop he generally has a few dozen cues on hand. He's big at sponsoring and having booths at tournaments, I think this is why he usually has some on hand, and he's happy to sell them. It's nice to get a cue without having to wait on it. Now he also can do full customs but then you obviously have to wait for the construction phase. The toughest part is narrowing it down since multiple cues will be calling your name!

If anyone has any suggestions for a cue maker close to me id take em. Im 40 miles west of chicago il. In my search for a custom maker online i havent found many that are in il. but that is a good idea boogieman.