i'm not defending Meucci in any way just relating a few observations. first, when i first started playing,Bob was the ONLY guy talking deflection.this was 1980. second, a veritable who's who of top players played with a Meucci. i watched Buddy at the heighth of his powers and folks if you never sweated him in top gear, well, you missed something. granted, he could have used any cue, but he was a Meucci guy for a long time. lastly, there are a lot of true artists at work building the cues we now use. literally, museum grade quality. but ol' Bob's funky,whippy stix sure got the job done.