Gina Cues

Sounds to me like Gina cues are going through a similar problem to that of Meucci. The old Meucci shafts were great. Now that they seem to be concentrating on volume and cost, the selection of the wood for the new shafts is proving that 9 out of 10 are warped before they even get shipped.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Gina cue is concentrating more on volume and cost, merely that the wood used in older cues seems to have held up better and stood the test of time, where as the new materials are not yet aged sufficiently to prevent this warpage issue.
 
Happy you agreed. I was concerned for a second or two that my post was going to get a barrage of responses being thrown back at me about how Meucci or Gina Cue don't use sub standard materials and my credibility on this site was about to be flushed down the pan.

That was obviously not my intent.
 
A person can't compare Meucci with a Gina cue. Ernie makes a good cue, but I decided not to buy a new Gina.
 
Tim said:
Ken,

I agree with you 100%.
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Tim,

I like your avatar of Hubert "Daddy Warbucks" Cokes. That looks like it was taken at Johnston City in the early 60's. I'd love to see the entire photo blown up. I probably know some of these sweators. Heck, I might be one of them, a green looking kid with eyes as big as saucers would be me.

First time I ever saw Cokes, he was on the front table in the action room at JC playing One Handed Up In The Air, One Pocket with Ronnie Allen. This old man battling this young hot shot, 200 a game. I couldn't believe my eyes. This old fogey had to be crazy. And you know what, he could really play that way. He gave Ronnie a rough game, finally losing maybe four games after battling for hours.
 
At some point a cuemaker has to let the cue go. If it's straight when it leaves his shop, then it's straight. Where a customer lives, how it's stored etc can/will affect the wood in the cue causing some problems. I doubt Ernie and Meucci are having similar problems. Meucci is all about production numbers in the thousands, I think Ernie makes about 100-150 a year. I beleive in old is better for shafts though. I think how the wood is dried is just as important as how long it was in the shop.

Andy
Never saw a (')Gina I didn't like:)
 
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gina cues

I Own Lots Of Hign End Cues , I Never Played With A Bad Gina Cue.
Having Said That,a Lot Of Cue Makers Today Take Short Cuts In
There Shaft Wood,by Diping Them In A Wood Sealer.
This Is What Is Happening In Todays Cue Making.
Older Ginas Are Better By A Longshot,but The Bottom Line Still Is Wood Moves.

Mr Jack










:) :) [/i][/u][/u]]
 
i own many high end cues, including bushkas, but my playing cue is a gina. My playing cue before that was a gina. In fact, becuase i liked the hit and quality so much, i unloaded a searing, mottey a hunter and a very high dollar
Hercek. I am in the process of selling a szamboti and franklin sw. My point is, I prefer my ginas by a wide margin.

The cues were bought new, delivered perfect and have remained that way. Of course that was until I damaged one. I sent it to ernie, and he bent over backwards to fix it asap. His customer service was
wonderful. In fact, I was so happy with his workmanship and his customer
service, I sent him an extra bonus, dinner on me for he and his wife.

Anyway ken, we both play out of abc. Introduce urself to me and I'd gladly let u hit some balls.

Randy Goldwater
 
My business is across the street from Ginacue. After reading some of the garbage a couple of people wrote about his shafts, I decided to take a walk over and talk to Ernie.

He was in the process of refinishing one of his old cues that is worth $30,000.

I told him what one poster had said about his old shafts being better than his new ones. He laughed and said it is actually the opposite. I asked him if someone bought one of his cues and the shaft was warped what would he do. He said of course they would get a new shaft.

I have had him make me shafts and a lot of my friends and never has there been any problem.

Right now he is using shafts that have been cured for 7 years, he has barrels filled with shafts from every year since then. They are worked on each year and then left in the barrels until needed many years later. He said he throws out anything that is not perfect and a lot well known cue makers buy his shafts and wraps for their cues.

He said he has never had a problem with his shafts and the only 3 that had to be replaced in recent years were due to mishandling by the cue owner.

Wayne
 
Tim said:
I honestly looked at buying a new Ginacue and couldn't find a good straight new cue. The older Ginacues are made much better in my opinion. Both the cues and shafts all had wobbles in them. I called and asked Ernie if he warranties his work on new cues as far as warping and he said "wood moves". I plan on spending my money elsewhere.
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When I told Ernie this he said "Where was the guy looking at his new cues?" He also said he never told anyone "wood moves" and if a new cue had a warped shaft he would replace it of course (but it hasn't happened).

So where were you looking at these Ginacues with all the warped shafts? I am sure Ernie would like to know.

Wayne
 
wayne said:
My business is across the street from Ginacue. After reading some of the garbage a couple of people wrote about his shafts, I decided to take a walk over and talk to Ernie.

He was in the process of refinishing one of his old cues that is worth $30,000.

I told him what one poster had said about his old shafts being better than his new ones. He laughed and said it is actually the opposite. I asked him if someone bought one of his cues and the shaft was warped what would he do. He said of course they would get a new shaft.

I have had him make me shafts and a lot of my friends and never has there been any problem.

Right now he is using shafts that have been cured for 7 years, he has barrels filled with shafts from every year since then. They are worked on each year and then left in the barrels until needed many years later. He said he throws out anything that is not perfect and a lot well known cue makers buy his shafts and wraps for their cues.

He said he has never had a problem with his shafts and the only 3 that had to be replaced in recent years were due to mishandling by the cue owner.

Wayne
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Thanks Wayne for taking the time and the trouble to check into this.
 
Ken Barlow said:
Sounds to me like Gina cues are going through a similar problem to that of Meucci. The old Meucci shafts were great. Now that they seem to be concentrating on volume and cost, the selection of the wood for the new shafts is proving that 9 out of 10 are warped before they even get shipped.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Gina cue is concentrating more on volume and cost, merely that the wood used in older cues seems to have held up better and stood the test of time, where as the new materials are not yet aged sufficiently to prevent this warpage issue.
Click to expand...


Ernie is a one man show, Meucci is a factory its a totally different business, and Ernie isnt going high volume, he has his $$ made, he builds a batch of cues then takes a month off to play with his motorcycles, He has plenty of old shaft wood-I have seen it, he buys new wood to replace what he uses, he uses the oldest first so the wood comming in has years to age, I have had him build me shafts for Szams and my friend does too, none of the shafts have ever had a problem, my friend has been buying new shafts from him for the past 10 years.

It is true wood does move, it moves less over time, and good cue makers like B.Szam, Ernie, SW, Tad have stock piled wood so they are awalys using old wood to make their cues with because new wood does move, kiln dried wood will move too, it takes years for wood to get to the point that it moves very little, its more than just moisture content the sap,pitch resin(for lack of the correct words) in the wood takes along time to get stronger(for lack of a better word), thats why Bushkas for example dont warp as often-i'm sure plenty of them did years ago and they are gone now and the survivors were the ones that stayed the straightest, and thats why they cost 10-20K

if you move from maimi to vegas then sure any cue will warp, some less some more, the older cues less. You can solve the water content in a kiln but you cant age the rest of the stuff in the wood insuring its going to be perfect in the long run, temperature change can have a terrible affect on cues too. Vegas is hell on cues because its so dry there, but SW cues hold up fine because they are made there and the wood is very old and cut slowly, if I emember they take 3-4 weeks between cuts to insure the wood has time to acclimate, if you take off too much at once it will cause the cue to warp-Jerry told me this personally, you cant rush making cues that are going to last thats why they cost alot and kiln dried McD's with their warantee dont cost as much-they just arnt as good, they pitch the lifetime warantee which is a brilliant marketing move but i havent seen a cue break yet that was properly cared for, except the guys who carry a pad to make their shaft smooth, they destroy the shafts cutting them down to pencils.


you cant find any cue maker useing bad wood at Ernies level, he is alot smarter than to dump bad wood on people intentionally, he wouldnt ruin his reputation for that, i know him well enough to say that. sure wood moves and i'm sure he has sold shafts that have went bad, but that aint his gig.
 
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Fatboy said:
Ernie is a one man show, Meucci is a factory its a totally different business, and Ernie isnt going high volume, he has his $$ made, he builds a batch of cues then takes a month off to play with his motorcycles, He has plenty of old shaft wood-I have seen it, he buys new wood to replace what he uses, he uses the oldest first so the wood comming in has years to age, I have had him build me shafts for Szams and my friend does too, none of the shafts have ever had a problem, my friend has been buying new shafts from him for the past 10 years.

It is true wood does move, it moves less over time, and good cue makers like B.Szam, Ernie, SW, Tad have stock piled wood so they are awalys using old wood to make their cues with because new wood does move, kiln dried wood will move too, it takes years for wood to get to the point that it moves very little, its more than just moisture content the sap,pitch resin(for lack of the correct words) in the wood takes along time to get stronger(for lack of a better word), thats why Bushkas for example dont warp as often-i'm sure plenty of them did years ago and they are gone now and the survivors were the ones that stayed the straightest, and thats why they cost 10-20K

if you move from maimi to vegas then sure any cue will warp, some less some more, the older cues less. You can solve the water content in a kiln but you cant age the rest of the stuff in the wood insuring its going to be perfect in the long run, temperature change can have a terrible affect on cues too. Vegas is hell on cues because its so dry there, but SW cues hold up fine because they are made there and the wood is very old and cut slowly, if I emember they take 3-4 weeks between cuts to insure the wood has time to acclimate, if you take off too much at once it will cause the cue to warp-Jerry told me this personally, you cant rush making cues that are going to last thats why they cost alot and kiln dried McD's with their warantee dont cost as much-they just arnt as good, they pitch the lifetime warantee which is a brilliant marketing move but i havent seen a cue break yet that was properly cared for, except the guys who carry a pad to make their shaft smooth, they destroy the shafts cutting them down to pencils.


you cant find any cue maker useing bad wood at Ernies level, he is alot smarter than to dump bad wood on people intentionally, he wouldnt ruin his reputation for that, i know him well enough to say that. sure wood moves and i'm sure he has sold shafts that have went bad, but that aint his gig.
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One good rule of thumb I always go by. Keep your cues at room temperature. Never leave them in a car, or by a window where sunlight comes in. Wood will definitely move (even aged wood) if subjected to any extremes of heat or cold or moisture.

So maybe what Ernie meant to say is, it is up to the buyer to protect his investment.
 
Wayne,

A dealer had a Ginacue I really liked at the Derby City Classic last year. I rolled the cue and shafts and the nose of the cue had daylight underneath it. Since the cue was brand new, I called Ernie to see if this was covered under a warranty. He told me wood moves. I have nothing against his cues, hopefully I can find another one like it in the future.
 
Tim said:
Wayne,

A dealer had a Ginacue I really liked at the Derby City Classic last year. I rolled the cue and shafts and the nose of the cue had daylight underneath it. Since the cue was brand new, I called Ernie to see if this was covered under a warranty. He told me wood moves. I have nothing against his cues, hopefully I can find another one like it in the future.
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Get ur story straight if u want to retain ur credibility on this forum. Your first post said that more than one new gina cue u saw was warped, also implying that u had looked thoroughly and could not find a straight cue. U continued to slam this legend by stating u would spend ur money elsewhere. Now u change ur story saying it was one isolated cue, which by the way was probably due to the dealers improper handling of the cue. What I'd like to know is, where u lying in I'd first post, or ur last?

Rg
 
Tim said:
A person can't compare Meucci with a Gina cue. Ernie makes a good cue, but I decided not to buy a new Gina.
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Just want to clarify that my intent earlier on in the post wasn't to compare Meucci with Gina Cue, more the similar circumstances surrounding new shaft wood v's old shaft wood.

I was just stating what it was sounding like following comments on this post and if I was incorrect then please accept my appologies. No accuzations intended.
 
Tim said:
Wayne,

A dealer had a Ginacue I really liked at the Derby City Classic last year. I rolled the cue and shafts and the nose of the cue had daylight underneath it. Since the cue was brand new, I called Ernie to see if this was covered under a warranty. He told me wood moves. I have nothing against his cues, hopefully I can find another one like it in the future.
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Tim,

You made it sound like you were dealing with Ernie directly, like you actually visited his shop. I don't think he should be responsible for every cue he makes once it has passed thru other peoples hands. Now, if you buy directly from him, that's another story.
 
jay helfert said:
One good rule of thumb I always go by. Keep your cues at room temperature. Never leave them in a car, or by a window where sunlight comes in. Wood will definitely move (even aged wood) if subjected to any extremes of heat or cold or moisture.

So maybe what Ernie meant to say is, it is up to the buyer to protect his investment.
Click to expand...

i keep my bushkas and Szams in the microwave, if I had more space in there I would keep the rest of my cues in the microwave too. I have the turntable so I dont get hot spots, you can never be too careful. I tried to store a Samsara in the fish tank once but it made the water look funny and my fish died, so I dont do that anymore.
 
The only time I have heard about a warped Ginecue shaft was from My friend Tom that passed away a few years ago. RIP

He left his cue in his car for an entire winter in Anchorge, Alaska. The shaft looked like the one W. C. Fields played with.
 
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