I disagree that Mike Lambros is "beyond repute". In fact, my own experience is the complete opposite of that.
I bought a cue from Lambros. I ordered it directly from the cuemaker cuz that is what I like to do. My initial conversation and contact was fine. WE talked about what I wanted and he quoted me a price. We traded a few emails, ironing out the details and I concluded by saying that I will send a check for the deposit amount that he asked for, then send the final balance upon cue completion. This is where things go sideways.
A couple weeks after I sent the check, I sent a follow up email to Lambros, making sure he had the check and for him to give me a *rough time frame* of when the cue will be done. I was explicit in saying that I am not rushing him, but would like to have an idea of what we are looking at. His response? Well, he didn't address my question and only tersely replied "I got the check. Everything will be done" (or something along those lines). I sent one more email, about 2 weeks later, asking the same thing, this time, I got no response from Lambros. I called and left a message a couple days later-no return call. I stop contacting him from there.
Fast forward...I get an email from Lambros, telling me the cue is completed and that I need to send the final balance. I reply that I will send a check for $xxxx.00, right away. Thing is, I made a mistake of saying that I will send a check for $100.00 more than I actually owed him. I was working off of memory and I remembered the final balance incorrectly. After digging up the old emails between Lambros and I, I found the correct balance and emailed Lambros, saying that I mentioned the wrong owed balance and am sending a check for the correct balance. I call him a few days later to see if he got the check. Mike says "Yeah I got the check, but you still owe me $100". I remind Mike that we agreed on $xxx.00 price for the cue and that my first check was for $xx.00 amount, therefore, I owe $xxx.00. Mike arrogantly and heatedly tells me that I am wrong, I owe him and he is not releasing the cue. At that point, I ask him that I still have the emails and the cancelled check copy, if he needs a memory jogger. Long story, longer...he relents and agrees with me. So, instead of shipping the cue, what does Mike Lambros say??
"You owe me $50 for shipping of your cue."
At that point, I am flabbergasted. As far as I know, every cue maker includes the cost of shipping with their initial price quote. For that matter, it doesn't cost $50. to ship a cue from Maryland to me. I was so pissed, that I told him to not ship it and luckily, I had a friend that lives nearby Lambros, who picked the cue up and shipped it to me. It was the principal of the thing; I was not gonna give Lambros another dime.
Oh, almost forgot-one of the ivory inlays has a broken point, which Lambros filled with black epoxy!! Nice job.
So, in the end, I will NEVER buy another Lambros and cannot recommend him to ANYONE.
I will say that the cue does play well, but then again, there are other cuemakers that make great playing cues too. I hear that Murray Tucker/ TCW is making cues again...
http://www.murraytucker.com/old site/iii/index.html or
http://www.murraytucker.com/
Eric