I have used Arthur and Josey, I had a real nice Josey full splice, 4 point, 5 veneer ebony into ebony, but it came with 2 predator shafts which kinda killed it for me... I would love to have seen what that played like with some nice old growth shafts.
I have had 4 Arthur cues and only one played well, the other three felt dead. I have a real problem with their build quality, not from an aesthetic point of view, Marcus' inlays are amazing, and he is an artist, but from a playability perspective.
If I was ranking my cues, then I would say:
Mobley & Black Boar
then Vollmer
Then Southwest, Sugartree, Bluegrass and a Showman Titleist (rather similar to Poolrod's