Hawaiian Eye is right…..fancy smancy as used to be said years ago……the look has nothing to do with liking it.
If you are lucky to stumble upon a cue that feels good, doesn’t matter how you acquired the cue nor how much
you paid. As long as it fulfills your expectations and pleases you, then you’ve achieved what some spend a whole
lifetime pursuing. Those are the folks that pick cues by trial and error. They like a particular cue until they get to try
someone else’s and then that’s what they want until they try another. And then there’s also the “I don’t care” crowd.
Just hand them a cue, doesn’t matter what the shaft size is or the weight; a cue is a cue & that’s all they need to know.
But could they or would they play any better if they had a cue that felt different, more subtle balance or shaft wood that
was different than what they’ve used even down to the taper length? I dunno but I do know that they don’t know either.
The challenge is having a cue built to your specs is you first have to know what you prefer and why or else just get a
19 oz. cue that you can always sell or trade. The solution is taking the time to try different cues & ask about the specs.
Don’t be surprised to learn more players than not don’t know what their cue’s specs are and they often answer using
the term “around”, ex. around 19 ozs or around 13 mm shafts. But they really don’t know, like how heavy is the weight
bolt in your cue? They have no idea but to those that subscribe to the “ I don’t care” club, I suppose it doesn’t matter.
The beauty of having a cue built to the specifications you want is there’s a uniqueness to the balance and feel. Get in
touch with a pool cue’s anatomy and just like a wood worker has the choices of many different types of wood and the
design, so does a cue maker but on a miniature scale. He has to stage construction of all the components that have been separately milled to assemble a seamless completion of the original design while being mindful of the final weight.
I asked Bob Owen to build a cue with a butt weight of 14.5 ozs. and the butt had fancy rings (32 inlays ea.) as did the
joint collar. There was just a lot of inlays to the cue and I did not want any weight bolt used but I wanted the butt cored
to accept headless bolts in case I ever wanted to add weight. The joint was a big pin flat ivory. Bob had to consider this
when he was building my cue design and before he started, I told him I could live with 5-7 grams difference either way
since there was a lot to do. His reaction was that’s great but I don’t think it will be necessary & you should be pleased.
When I cue arrived, I was dazzled by how it turned out. It has a high wow number but how heavy was it? The cue butt
weighed 14.55 ozs. I was very impressed since the weight was dead on and the appearance was all I wanted it to be.
He built the cue shafts using the taper & shaft sizes & weight I wanted (>4 ozs.). It was masterfully completed. Now to
the “I don’t care” audience none of that matters in the slightest. But most players that try my cues ask about the weight
and how much different it felt which they enjoyed. I had the cues built alike so that I can just choose any cue. It made
it so simple that way and besides, the specs work well for my tastes. I think everyone at some point should have a cue
they can say….this is it……wouldn’t change a thing……and I’m blessed to be able to say I have several, except for one
cue. It plays like rolling thunder. Wow, what a delightful cue and boy, I really screwed the pooch over designing that cue.
It is my ugly duckling pool cue and OMG, fancy too which only worsens the experience. But it does play so great I can’t
resist using it despite that I have so many other great cues. I use it around friends otherwise I’ll just pick a different cue.
Ask other players about their cues & be prepared for a wide range of answers, including unsurprisingly “I don’t know.”
