I know most people wouldn't take the time to read a review this long, but if you are thinking about getting a cue from Joey, it is worth the time!
I've gone through a couple of cues in the 3.5 years that I've been playing pool. I've always brought these cues with me, but when I get to the pool hall, the first thing I do is to look around for a house cue that has a good tip and a shaft that isn't sticky and won't give me splinters. Sometimes I don't even unpack my own cue. I will play for four hours straight with the house cue. This is because I really like the solid feel of a one piece house cue and I didn't think it was possible to replicate that feel with a two piece cue... That was before I got my Joey Bautista toilet plunger.
Pictures are here:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=129938&highlight=joey+bautista+sneaky
At first, I almost didn't write this review for three reasons:
1) I have nothing bad to say and I didn't want this review to sound like I was just praising Joey and the ground that he walks on.
2) I'm planning on ordering a new cue from him when I have the money and I don't want his wait list to get any longer.
3) Its finals week and I have papers to write, and classes to study for.
But after thinking about it, I decided that I shouldn't be selfish and that Joey does deserve all the business that he can get.
The Review:
Being a poor college student, I cannot afford every cue that I want to buy. Because of this, I did a lot of research before making my decision. Thanks to AZBilliards, I found Joey and contacted him by PM. He invited me over to his house and let me try one of his bocote sneakies. Right away, I knew I wanted one.
Joey brought out a couple of blanks that he had and let me choose the exact one that I wanted. He also took down all my specs and gave me an estimated wait time along with the price.
I waited impatiently and kept on asking Joey for updates. Joey always replied very promptly and not only did he explain what he was doing with the cue, but he explained why. I liked this because he gave me reasons behind all the methods that he used, while explaining what methods others might use (in a positive and informative way). He was able to make logical sense of everything and I felt like I learned about cues during the waiting period.
While he was letting the wood sit between passes, the wood turned on him. So he had to chop off a couple inches of bocote from the bottom of the cue and add a maple section. When Joey first contacted me to let me know what had happened, I was a little disappointed but it was nobody's fault. It happens to everyone who works with woods. I thought that the 2.5 inch maple section would look ugly because it would be too small. He assured me that it would look good and invited me over to his house again to show me how it would look in person. After I saw it, I was really relieved because it looked even better than what I originally wanted! Not only that, but the cue had finished all of its passes and the points were almost dead even (the best I could ask for in a sneaky blank)!
I picked up the completed cue about week and half ago. I was planning on shooting with it for about a month before posting a review but the cue hit so good, I actually went out of my way to play a month's worth of pool in one week.
MATERIALS: One of the reasons I decided to choose Joey to make my cue is because of his attention to detail. One little detail that really impressed me, but might not impress others, is the buckhorn that he uses. It is very white, but still had that little bit of grey and a hint of yellow to give it its character. The blank that he used also had very good grain patterns. I know a lot of people who don't like bocote, and some of them are my friends. When my friends saw this cue, they said that the bocote actually looked pretty good!
FINISH: I've had wrapless cues with a beautiful glassy finish. They were some of the best looking cues I have ever owned, but when I played with it, they always made my hands clammy and I'm not even a sweaty guy. Whenever I take this cue out, the first thing that people say about it is that they like the finish. It looks good, and feels very nice.
CONSTRUCTION: The taper on this cue is perfect in my hands. The handle area is a consistent size throughout the cue so it feels the same everywhere I hold it. The pin was installed perfectly straight. And lastly, the ringwork lines up perfectly and has no signs of glue lines! Everyone who sees this cue complements the finish first, then the ringwork second. I saw the ringwork in separate pieces before Joey put it onto the cue and it looks like a pretty complicated thing to make. He executed it perfectly.
FEEL: I don't know if it's the butt taper, or the buckhorn joint collar, or a combination of everything, but this cue really hits like a once piece cue! (Reading what I just wrote, it still seems impossible to me that a two piece cue can hit like this) Also, the melamine ferrule and triangle tip combination made a really nice ping every time it made contact with the cue ball. This provided a lot of good auditory feedback.
Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer then the best that I can.
I've gone through a couple of cues in the 3.5 years that I've been playing pool. I've always brought these cues with me, but when I get to the pool hall, the first thing I do is to look around for a house cue that has a good tip and a shaft that isn't sticky and won't give me splinters. Sometimes I don't even unpack my own cue. I will play for four hours straight with the house cue. This is because I really like the solid feel of a one piece house cue and I didn't think it was possible to replicate that feel with a two piece cue... That was before I got my Joey Bautista toilet plunger.
Pictures are here:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=129938&highlight=joey+bautista+sneaky
At first, I almost didn't write this review for three reasons:
1) I have nothing bad to say and I didn't want this review to sound like I was just praising Joey and the ground that he walks on.
2) I'm planning on ordering a new cue from him when I have the money and I don't want his wait list to get any longer.
3) Its finals week and I have papers to write, and classes to study for.
But after thinking about it, I decided that I shouldn't be selfish and that Joey does deserve all the business that he can get.
The Review:
Being a poor college student, I cannot afford every cue that I want to buy. Because of this, I did a lot of research before making my decision. Thanks to AZBilliards, I found Joey and contacted him by PM. He invited me over to his house and let me try one of his bocote sneakies. Right away, I knew I wanted one.
Joey brought out a couple of blanks that he had and let me choose the exact one that I wanted. He also took down all my specs and gave me an estimated wait time along with the price.
I waited impatiently and kept on asking Joey for updates. Joey always replied very promptly and not only did he explain what he was doing with the cue, but he explained why. I liked this because he gave me reasons behind all the methods that he used, while explaining what methods others might use (in a positive and informative way). He was able to make logical sense of everything and I felt like I learned about cues during the waiting period.
While he was letting the wood sit between passes, the wood turned on him. So he had to chop off a couple inches of bocote from the bottom of the cue and add a maple section. When Joey first contacted me to let me know what had happened, I was a little disappointed but it was nobody's fault. It happens to everyone who works with woods. I thought that the 2.5 inch maple section would look ugly because it would be too small. He assured me that it would look good and invited me over to his house again to show me how it would look in person. After I saw it, I was really relieved because it looked even better than what I originally wanted! Not only that, but the cue had finished all of its passes and the points were almost dead even (the best I could ask for in a sneaky blank)!
I picked up the completed cue about week and half ago. I was planning on shooting with it for about a month before posting a review but the cue hit so good, I actually went out of my way to play a month's worth of pool in one week.
MATERIALS: One of the reasons I decided to choose Joey to make my cue is because of his attention to detail. One little detail that really impressed me, but might not impress others, is the buckhorn that he uses. It is very white, but still had that little bit of grey and a hint of yellow to give it its character. The blank that he used also had very good grain patterns. I know a lot of people who don't like bocote, and some of them are my friends. When my friends saw this cue, they said that the bocote actually looked pretty good!
FINISH: I've had wrapless cues with a beautiful glassy finish. They were some of the best looking cues I have ever owned, but when I played with it, they always made my hands clammy and I'm not even a sweaty guy. Whenever I take this cue out, the first thing that people say about it is that they like the finish. It looks good, and feels very nice.
CONSTRUCTION: The taper on this cue is perfect in my hands. The handle area is a consistent size throughout the cue so it feels the same everywhere I hold it. The pin was installed perfectly straight. And lastly, the ringwork lines up perfectly and has no signs of glue lines! Everyone who sees this cue complements the finish first, then the ringwork second. I saw the ringwork in separate pieces before Joey put it onto the cue and it looks like a pretty complicated thing to make. He executed it perfectly.
FEEL: I don't know if it's the butt taper, or the buckhorn joint collar, or a combination of everything, but this cue really hits like a once piece cue! (Reading what I just wrote, it still seems impossible to me that a two piece cue can hit like this) Also, the melamine ferrule and triangle tip combination made a really nice ping every time it made contact with the cue ball. This provided a lot of good auditory feedback.
Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer then the best that I can.
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Just waiting for it to be completed and hopefully soon. Right Joey? 
