Playability: Production Cues vs Custom Cues

[Bavafongoul]

9ballr......the hit and feel is subjective which you already understand........that McD cue .....was it a wood joint? What were the specs for each cue.......size of any weight bolts........there were bound to be differences between the cues and those differences can up to a big difference in feel between the cues.

All things equal, I still submit that the vast majority of custom cues would be preferred versus their production cue counterparts.......remember a shaft can weigh 3.3 ounces or 4.3 ounces.......some have brass and some do not.......there's way too variables I can identify that affect the difference in feel in a cue.....and I recognize there's a difference in cue-maker skills also so the cue-maker is very important......years of experience, etc.

Nonetheless, order a production cue from any firm you want......make it easy.... a cue of 19 ozs.......and then compare it to the same cue made by Murrell, Drexler, Klein or how about stepping up to a Tascarella, Mobley, Black Boar, James White, et al. If you played with any production cue for an hour and then played with a custom cues made by one of these cue-makers, I think you'd concur that the majority of the custom cues tend to play better, again depending on the cue-maker. That difference is amplified when the cue specs change to lighter weight cues which I think of as cues weighing between 17.8 and 18.8 ounces .....it's because of generally relying upon a weight bolt in most production cues, or substituting lighter weight shafts to compensate for a cue butt that turned heavier than expected. Nope, I think it's just like custom furniture or other fine items like watches or art.........you tend to get what you pay for.

 

[ElCorazonFrio]

This is such a bs topic. The cue makes exactly as much difference as you let it. Put a decent shaft (I don't care if it weighs 2.6oz or 5.0oz) on a Budweiser butt and you'll be able to play as well as if you put that same shaft on one of Bava's ivory towers...unless you let yourself believe otherwise.

In case anybody wants to take Bava seriously, I can dig up two threads in which he states that ivory is the best joint and that wood is a better joint than ivory. Now he's claiming that it all comes down to the weight bolt? What's next, the finish is the most important component? I'm sure he believes that the pearl scales on the gun in his avatar make it more accurate.

He is absolutely right on one count, you get what you pay for. In cues you get a lot more decoration, higher quality inlay and ring materials, better fit and finish of those inlays. You get attention to detail and collectability. All of those things are worth something and I understand paying for them, but no evidence other than ramblings of some players points to any correlation between better feel and money spent.

BTW, Bava...your watches statement...fine watches...the most expensive of which are automatics, probably tourbillion's...how many of them keep time as well as a $40 timex? The answer is precisely zero. How many of them keep time better than a Casio G-shock and will take a multi-g impact and keep working perfectly? Precisely zero. How many of them look better than either of those? All of them.

 

[cuesblues]

I nominate this thread for the 'worst info ever' award.

I pity the poor newbie who googles for advice about cues and is directed to this drivel.

The moderators should delete this thread for the Greater Good.
I'm not concerned about myself, but I worry for my kids



:smile:

 

[macguy]

Of course all cues are different but lets speak generally:

If you take two average cues of the same value, one custom and one production which would play better?

I know custom cues are worth a lot more because they are unique and usually better looking but I'm not sure about playability.

It seems that a production cue which has been manufactured perfectly would play much better. Plus it seems like most pros use production cues and they are more focused on playability than looks.

What do you think?

The problem with a production cue is, quality is a crap shoot. It is hard enough for a cue maker to find good shaft wood for 50 cues a year. Imagine what you are getting when a company produces 5000 cues a year. It is pure chance.

I have worked on cues for a long time and even on higher quality production cues I find wood that if I had it it would have been thrown out. A small cue maker can just have much better quality control when it comes to materials and probably fit and finish in general.

 

[LAlouie]

Of course all cues are different but lets speak generally:

If you take two average cues of the same value, one custom and one production which would play better?

I know custom cues are worth a lot more because they are unique and usually better looking but I'm not sure about playability.

It seems that a production cue which has been manufactured perfectly would play much better. Plus it seems like most pros use production cues and they are more focused on playability than looks.

What do you think?

You hold either the same way,,,you stroke either the same way, they are both "playable". I would not depend on anyone's opinion if I were you.

 

[SWN99]

I've played with most of the known production cues, Schon being the best. Many play similar McDermott and pechauer very close, Meucci not so great, Adams and helmstetter, joss all similar. But customs tend to be a thing all their own. I am biased but Scruggs by far plays better than anything else I have used, more solid but still subtle. I've said it before but playing with a Scruggs is like the using hand of god.