Identify cue

Rosewood

Active member
Can anyone help ID this cue?
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That’s an interesting cue stick. Normally, since the joint pin is in the shaft, I would suspect that the Q was made in Asia. However, the construction and materials used do not suggest this in my opinion. The reason the joint pin may be in the shaft is because it came loose from cues butt and stuck in the shaft. Can you supply better photos of the joint? Also, if I were you, I would try to see if the pin will unscrew from the shaft. Also, is that a 5/16-18 pin?
 
So I have a couple of Vikings with Wico points and they don't look anything like that...View attachment 849660
The color pattern is different. But they look like a synthetic (vinyl) stack to me. You can even see the edge of the orange layer where either it has swelled or the butt cap has shrunk.

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And then there's this.


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In fact, with some modification in wrap and joint, it looks like a number of Burton Spain cues, especially his number 3 in his first picture.

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Have a B. Spain question: why did he go the pin-in-shaft route? Was he the originator of the 'you gotta buy your damn shaft from me' guy? When i first started in '78-'79 i ordered brochures from just about every maker(wish i still had 'em) and i was surprised that Burton made his stuff this way. Did he think it played better? Was it a balance deal? Just curious.
 
Have a B. Spain question: why did he go the pin-in-shaft route? Was he the originator of the 'you gotta buy your damn shaft from me' guy? When i first started in '78-'79 i ordered brochures from just about every maker(wish i still had 'em) and i was surprised that Burton made his stuff this way. Did he think it played better? Was it a balance deal? Just curious.
I never asked him myself even though I knew him. But he was not doing anything really new. The pin in the butt was the newer way of doing things when he started in the 60's. Burton did not care too much about what was popular, he did things the way he liked them. There are several benefits to the pin being in the shaft. # 1 it keeps the butt with bumper and shaft closer to the same lengths. #2 Since the shaft is tapering down thinner the shaft having the pin in the shaft and insert in the butt would be slightly stronger. #3 it allows for more forward balance if desired. Now when Joel took over after Burton died he pretty much immediately switched to the pin in the butt. The top cuemakers like Bushka, Paradise, Palmer and Brunswick had already switched to the pin in the Butt a decade or so before Burton started building cues, but he stayed old school with his own twist on how the joint was made. He kept on with full splice when almost everyone else had started going V-Groove points with a forearm joint. But even with that he spliced them up differently from anyone else I know of. He was a genius and he knew the market wanted the pin the other way, but he stuck with what he thought was best. I respected him for that.
 
I never asked him myself even though I knew him. But he was not doing anything really new. The pin in the butt was the newer way of doing things when he started in the 60's. Burton did not care too much about what was popular, he did things the way he liked them. There are several benefits to the pin being in the shaft. # 1 it keeps the butt with bumper and shaft closer to the same lengths. #2 Since the shaft is tapering down thinner the shaft having the pin in the shaft and insert in the butt would be slightly stronger. #3 it allows for more forward balance if desired. Now when Joel took over after Burton died he pretty much immediately switched to the pin in the butt. The top cuemakers like Bushka, Paradise, Palmer and Brunswick had already switched to the pin in the Butt a decade or so before Burton started building cues, but he stayed old school with his own twist on how the joint was made. He kept on with full splice when almost everyone else had started going V-Groove points with a forearm joint. But even with that he spliced them up differently from anyone else I know of. He was a genius and he knew the market wanted the pin the other way, but he stuck with what he thought was best. I respected him for that.
I did a lil dig and found where he thought his joint design, the WHOLE joint not just the pin location, played better. Thanks for the info. I shoulda bought one back then, they weren't all that expensive. Hell, none of them were. My first JOSS with 2shafts(ivory ferrules) was only around 170bux.
 
I did a lil dig and found where he thought his joint design, the WHOLE joint not just the pin location, played better. Thanks for the info. I shoulda bought one back then, they weren't all that expensive. Hell, none of them were. My first JOSS with 2shafts(ivory ferrules) was only around 170bux.
His cues were very reasonably priced for sure. It is hard to get even a plain Jane Spain for under $1000 now.
 
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