Joss cues - could you consider them more custom or production

I like Joss cues. In 1973-1974, the best player I knew personally played with a Joss birds eye maple plain jane. It was a beautiful, solid, cue. I never saw him lose. I also never saw him lose playing with a sawed off broom handle either.
 
Donkeybutt said:
is the hit from the Joss similar to that of a custom cue? That would be the true test I think.
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This all depends on who is doing the shooting and what they like. Something that is total personal preference like the hit feel, or even how much a shaft deflects has no "better" unless you are comparing things like the super cheap cues like the the aluminum shaft ones or some ramen shaft built that are almost universally hated.

Between two well made cues or shafts there is really no way to just say "this was made by Joe so it's better, and if you disagree you are wrong". I played with a few high end cues and did not like many of them. I specifically remember trying some AE cues, a few of them, and being amazed they cost so much since I liked the hit and feel or my $300 cue much better. Same thing for the Arthur cue I owned that is my avatar pic, it was ivory joint and ferrule and I did not like the hit much on that once I used it for a while. The shaft was just too tough to deal with, had no action on the cueball unless you really amped up the stroke, yet that also was a "higher end" cue than what I was using.
 
Sealegs50 said:
My take is that most Joss cues are custom built from a limited number (10-20) of cataloged designs that changed periodically. That was fairly common practice among cuemakers who are never questioned about custom vs, production.

My Joss is 36 years old. I was the person who ordered it. In those days, if you wanted a Mali, you bought one of the cues in the showcase. If you wanted a Joss, you ordered it built to your specs (style, weight, shaft thickness, and a few other options). A few years back, I took my Joss to SBE just to show Dan that the care he put into building a solid cue was worth the effort. Mine is still dead straight and plays like it did in 1985 (as best as I can recall).
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My Joss was ordered the same way. In the early/mid '70s that's how it was done. You either called or wrote with what you wanted. If the cuemaker had a suggestion he called you back. There were very, very few brochures out then. Wish I still had that Joss. Dan has been on AZ from time to time and I imagine still my be.
 
Neptune Joe Frady was a real good player and a New Jersey legend played with a Joss in the mid 80's.
He got a brand new Gus Szamboti cue (paid $385 for it) and didn't like it.
He said his Joss felt better.
I never had a Gus cue but got to hit balls with few and I found the cues to be way too stiff for me.
 
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