My first and very likely last real custom cue

[hang-the-9]

In all my 30+ years of playing I have never had a cue built just for me with details I picked out, till now. Although I have owned plenty of "custom" cues, they were all already built when I bought them. Joe Callaluca from NH built me a good one, I picked the wood (spalted maple and african ebony with some grain), ring design I liked that Joe does and the natural brown linen buttcap and joint which I have always liked in cues and had Joe doe the inlay design that he felt was good for the cue. Double rings at the joint to look proper with a black collar shaft since my son and I have collected a good number of those to swap around on our cues.

It blows anything I owned before out of the water as far as presence and comments about the designs, at least in the 3 days I have had it

Sorry cue companies, but you lost my business after this one I don't see ever having an itch to have another one built, unless Joe does a matching breaker LOL Or if I can talk Mike Webb into building something since he is another local cue building buddy of mine.

Stole the pics from Joe's post here, I wanted to share in the main forum as my first actual custom, felt just the cue and case gallery was not enough LOL

https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/2-cues-i-fiished-recently.539890/

Mine is the wood handled ebony one.

 

[terpdad]

Very nice. Love the handle.

 

[dirtvictim]

Looks great. Love the brown linen, old school look.

 

[mdavis228]

Looks great! Enjoy it

 

[Tooler]

Love spalted Maple.... very nice

 

[Korsakoff]

Very nice. Plus, you'll pull it out to play in 10 years, and you'll smile and feel just like you did the day you got it.

Congratulations!

 

[philly]

Very nice.
Enjoy it.
Nothing like having a stick made for yourself.

 

[wakuljr]

Good looking cue, congratulations!!! Careful though, ordering customs cues can be addicting. Just saying

 

[axejunkie]

Good looking cue, congrats. I like the inlay work. I'm jealous of the snow too, hit 80 degrees here yesterday...

 

[u12armresl]

Don't like the one with wrap. The one without the wrap and black color looks awesome and would get looks for sure.

 

[TrxR]

I like both.

I really like the look of a no wrap cue when the right wood is used but I prefer to play with a linen wrap and don't like leather wraps at all.

Like everything thing else it's a personal preference.

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Beautiful.

 

[hang-the-9]

Good looking cue, congratulations!!! Careful though, ordering customs cues can be addicting. Just saying

It's OK, my bank account has a lot of say in my cue ordering LOL

 

[Sealegs50]

Congratulations! Joe is a great guy and he builds a fine pool cue.

 

[MmmSharp]

This is how it starts. Just one custom, one time. Then you think "it was a good experience, no harm in another" .. then 5 years later you have more cues than you know to do with, your bank account is dry, people are having interventions for you and you end in cue addicts anonymous.

And the cue looks great you should get another.

 

[Gdub1717]

Beautiful cues. Thanks for sharing. I’ve owned nothing but cheaper production cues. They play well and I reallly like them but nothing beats custom by a quality cue maker. If I ever start making consistent good money playing billiards I’ll look into going custom

 

[GoldCrown]

Beautiful. Take care of them and they'll last a lifetime. Enjoy the pride of ownership.

 

[Wolven]

Looking at your cues, I'm feeling a chill. Let those puppies acclimatize. Nice cues.

 

[Bavafongoul]

Yup…..2004……got my first ivory joint cue……was sure at that time I found what I wanted.
And I did right up until I tried a cue that played even better and looked nicer and cost more.

And then after that cue got added, I traded the first one & got another so now I had two cues.
Well, I have 4 children & I didn’t want to see them quarreling over cues so I got a couple more.

And then a grandson came along so that meant I needed one for him too. It finally dawned on
me there’s really no such thing as owning too many cues. Thank God the CA ivory ban happened.

 

[hang-the-9]

This is how it starts. Just one custom, one time. Then you think "it was a good experience, no harm in another" .. then 5 years later you have more cues than you know to do with, your bank account is dry, people are having interventions for you and you end in cue addicts anonymous.

And the cue looks great you should get another.

Well I do have several other cues that are "custom", and had, Ned Morris, the Arthur in my signature, Lomax, several others from Joe Callaluca before this one, just never one actually made for me. If I order another one I may hurt this one's feeling hehe.