Gus was ahead of his time. He used all Sears tools.
Gus had a passion to make his cues play good that was #1, $$$$ wasnt his motivation, sure he had a large family that liked to eat alot
, but Gus wanted to make sure his customers got exctactly what they wanted. Ray Martin had to have a specific nylon wrap so Gus went out and bought a huge roll of it for Ray's cue-Barry tells me the spool is monster huge and has never been used again. Gus was close to his customers. He listened to them. All of his cues play a bit different, some are front heavy, others are ass heavy, fat, skinny. every thing different lengths as well.
There wasnt near as many cue makers back then and cues were tools to play pool with, now there is a sub-culture of cue collectors, some play others dont. Gus had many origonal designs, used alot of different woods, took the time to buy the right wood and cut it down slowly to de-stress it. He used the best materials and worked hard at learning to build better and better cues over time. When you know alot about his work you can tell kinda the date range a cue was made in. They are all great cues.
There will never be another Gus, too many cue makers, too many tools in thier shop, were in a different era now. Its cool to watch this evolution, Gus can be credited with a few others(Bushka etc) as the founders of where we are today in cues. He was a better man than Cue maker-I have been told by more people than just his son. I had my chance to talk to him and I was too shy,young and short sited. I will awalys regret that.
Also Gus's cues played alot better than any one elses cues did back(on the whole) then so thats another reason he stood alone at the top, his cues today are still among the best playing cues, but you have to find one you like cause they vary from cue to cue. In contrast in todays world there are a number of great cue makers who's cues play great, Gus is part of why that is, the aspiration of greatness. Cue makers take alot of pride in their work, Gus sure did and perhaps that influenced alot of the "New school" cue makers. Patience is what Barry Szamboti told me is required to build a cue, Barry much like his dad is very humble.
The history of who Gus worked with, sold blanks to, shared ideas with also is what makes his cues very deseriable. At this stage of the "game" Gus cues are vintage cues, and like in the watch biz the history adds more value to a watch than diamonds. Gus was a huge piece of the history of our current cues his influence. In any vintage market the prices awalys go up, watches, cars, etc. The fact that Gus was held in such high regard by many champions adds to the story as well. Its more than just a cue now a Gus is a piece of important history-and you can use it too!
Gus is one of my hero's in life, he raised a great family and made the best of the best and supported his family and passion all at the same time. How strong is that? Hell I havent achieved 20% of that in my life, very few people can, and he was a humble man.
Hope that helps,
eric
Wow, I have been working on my writing skills alot the past couple years, I think Gus brought about my best work. I didnt make very many spelling errors, I added a paragraph when I edited it-that was a single pass post-no spell check nothing. 
