It's Not A Stradivarius It's A Stick

Clapton uses a Fender Stratocaster to play and back when I followed guitar gear and stuffs Fender guitars from Japan are quite desirable by guitar players over the now standard Made in Mexico Fenders. :thumbup:

Another interesting fact, his stratocaster "Blackie" (with cigarette burns, chipped paint, rusted tuning pegs) sold for almost a million dollars! A year or two ago Fender had taken Blackie and made a limited amount of replicas (complete with burn marks, rust, and scratches). http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2011/03/09/759001.aspx

Anyways as for cues (cars/guitars/whatever products provide the same service with a huge range of prices), I agree with Johnnyt. Ultimately I believe it's up to what the person wants and can afford.
 
Johnnyt said:
You can have a $5000 cue that hits a ton:rolleyes:, the right glue on the tip, a 10th generation LDS, a super duper 27 layered tip, and any other of the bells and whistles on it/ in it and if you don't have a good smooth straight stroke it won't matter one bit. Some of the best feeling cues for me came off the poolroom wall. I just had to get that out. I feel better now. Thank you. Johnnyt
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Some of these $5,000+ cues are flawless and more on the line of art. In order to make them, it requires a very skilled craftsman.

Here is an idea, try and make a simple cue. You will find out even a sneaky pete is a fair amount of work to produce. Now after you make the cue, take a close look at a $5,000 cue & you might start to appreciate what is involved in making a cue at this level.
 
You have a winding twisting road. You now have a Chevy and a Ferrari. They both will get you to the end but the Ferrari will get you there easier.
Rick
 
Your game depends hugely on your confidence and comfort when executing...if pulling a high end cue out of your case and ceremoniously screwing it together gives you satisfaction, all to the better. I buy cues that are first and foremost well built and within my prefered specs. A close second is how it looks and how well constructed it is. Third is the reputation of the maker/company. It's all in my head, but it's important there, and translates to me potting balls. How many times have you noticed a ding on your cue or realized the tip or wrap had some separation or whatever and it screwed your game? The mind is the most difficult terrain to navigate in the game, long before you start worrying about patterns, etc. I can run racks with a house cue, too, but I have a lot more fun doing it with my Schon...

When someone asks me about my cue, where I got it, how old is it, what does it cost, etc., I tell him. It's not not meant to rub anyone's nose in anything...they usually ask because they really want to know. When I was starting out I asked players that had flashy cues about them, trying to learn more about the various equipment options, etc. and deciding with time what I would hope to get someday.

On a related note, I'm personally more impressed by a guy using a Szam in a tournament than someone who keeps it in a storage case for years, afraid to let sunlight touch it...Stadivarius violins are made to make music, and they can't do it sitting in a climate controlled safe. Although I love drooling over nice cues here on AZ Billiards, it's a lot more fun to watch them in action!
 
BTW my older bro has a 76 Pinto. Looks kinda stock. The T'Bird mags and hood pins are a give away tho'. It's got a 4 barrel 302 hooked to a worked over C-5. Stop light to stop light you are going to have to spend a pile of money to beat it. So stop pickin' on Pinto's will yas!

I am only shooting a year and some. I open my leather 3x7 Instroke and pull out a custom Josie Sneaky and choose 1 of 2 shafts. The break cue is an original Gulyassie Sledgehammer. And the spare cue is either a nice wrapless Rat or a customized Pechauer JP-4. I'm an APA 3 and I have good equipment. I loose only because I don't equal my equipment. All my cues are wrapless. I don't give a damn, the arrow makes a difference. If it didn't matter SVB, Efferin ect would all be using 1 piece bar cues.

Mark Shuman
 
all i say is who cares what everyone else has........if the player sucks and goes and buys a 10k BB then GOOD FOR HIM/HER.........if the player is a world beater and plays with a cuetek then GOOD FOR HIM/HER

high dollar collector cues do not cost the price they do because of "THE HIT"......its the art and the massive quantity of work involved in producing such a work.

I still don't know why people have gripes about this.........

If you don't want a pretty girl and are fine with an ugly one the cool.....vice versa the same........as the ugly girls are usually cheap....but the fine ones very expensive.......spend your money you earn as YOU SEE FIT.



-Grey Ghost-
 
Well said ghost.

My favorite cue is a cheap 70$ piece of junk with a broken buttcap.
I have fancy cues like the one in my avatar as well.
The people that are most outspoken and talk about the Indian and not the arrow cannot afford the good arrow.
Even funnier, most of them cannot shoot anyway.
Cues like people have limitations.
Anyway a nice piece of cue is a great thing to grab. :)
 
greyghost said:
If you don't want a pretty girl and are fine with an ugly one the cool.....vice versa the same........as the ugly girls are usually cheap....but the fine ones very expensive.


-Grey Ghost-
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Beauty is only a 6-pack and a light switch away.
 
BrokeStroke said:
Beauty is only a 6-pack and a light switch away.
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TRUE DAT! lol

Like they say its in the eye of the beholder.........every man and woman has differient tastes so who are we to air it off just because the cue, woman, car....whatever isn't to our liking either by looks, feel or what have you.

what ever floats your boat is OK by me

I told a guy the other day that his import cue had a lose something somewhere as it had a bad buzz/vibration...........i said hey nothing really wrong with it except that.....If you like it then use the dam thing....if not try some of these that I have. Only one big thing to remember, If at first touch it don't feel right to you then its no good for ya. It should feel good and then you can grow into it more, as WE can change but the cue really doesn't for the most part.

-Grey Ghost-
 
qbilder said:
IMO, the house cue and cheap cue argument is a masculinity thing more actual practicality. People want to feel manly & want folks to think they are special in some way because they can run racks with house cues. They use that as a means to belittle those who spend the cash on something nice. Either you can't or won't afford a nice cue so you instead try to diminish the significance of high quality cues. You do it with, "it's the indian not the arrow", or "i can run out with a house cue". The only reason to say things like that is to belittle those who buy nice stuff, and make them feel stupid for it. Why else say it? It's classic psychology 101.

Fact is, if it didn't bother folks that they didn't have nice cues, then they wouldn't preach the insignificance of it so strongly. If they didn't have insecurities about it then they wouldn't make up one liners to justify their point. Guys who buy & like nice cues don't spend time making fun of guys who don't have cues, or spend time trying to justify why they spend the money. No. They just live & let live. They are secure with themselves & the choices they make. Why try belittling them for talking about cues & cue related topics? They aren't bugging you or saying anything to make fun of you because you have trash cues or no cue at all. They leave you alone to do your own thing while they do theirs. Why is it so tough to give the same respect, if not for having the urge to justify why you don't have nice cues? Nobody asked you to justify it. Nobody asked you to explain why you don't have cues. Nobody said you suck because you don't have a nice cue. Not at all. See the difference here?
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Ever hear the expression "all gear, no idea"?
 
Maniac said:
Back in "the day" the blues musicians used to poke holes in their amplifiers speaker paper with pocket knives to achieve what they call a "dirty" sound. Imagine doin' that today with a $5,000 Marshall stack :yikes:???

Just sayin'.

Maniac
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Ha, I did that when I was 17 playing the guitar, that was the poor man's fuzz box. :thumbup:
 
Good players can play with anything they choose to. I knew an older guy who, several years after I started playing, took a cue off the wall and ran 80 balls with it, something he never did with his customs.
That said, I've talked to several good players in the last 15 years or so who changed cues. They all changed because they found a cue that they could more effectively execute certain shots than what they were previously playing with. I've personally owned a lot of cues because I'm always looking for something better, it's just the way I am. I've had my current cue for 17 years because I have yet to find something I like a whole lot better.
It may be the Indian to a large percentage but not totally, by any means.
 
I find that the taper of the shaft is the most important thing to me. If it does not feel right sliding thru my fingers it does not matter much if the cue is $100 or $5000. I am not very sensitive to how cues hit. I can get used to a soft-firm-hard hit.
I have a Lucasi and a Pechauer and I could play with either forever.
 
Stick

Johnnyt said:
You can have a $5000 cue that hits a ton:rolleyes:, the right glue on the tip, a 10th generation LDS, a super duper 27 layered tip, and any other of the bells and whistles on it/ in it and if you don't have a good smooth straight stroke it won't matter one bit. Some of the best feeling cues for me came off the poolroom wall. I just had to get that out. I feel better now. Thank you. Johnnyt
Click to expand...

When will you learn...It is how you look when playing, not how you play.:D
 
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