poorly made cue that plays well ?

chuckg

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
About 20 years ago I bought an Audrick cue from a maker in the PI , The cue looked great..nice woods with ivory inlays , joint and butt cap , 2 shafts with ivory . In less than a year one shaft warped so bad it was unplayable ,then the butt cap cracked . I did a cheapo repair and replaced the butt cap with a piece of pvc painted black . Put ii in the closet and forgot about it .

My pal was talking about getting a new lighter cue so I brought this one in for him to try . With the pvc in place of the ivory the cue is very light . I shot with it for an hour or so and was surprised with how well I played with it , has a 20 year old Moori medium on it .

Any of you have similar experiences ?

Chuckg
 
My total life's experience with cues ( 50+ years) tells me that if a cue has a fairly straight shaft, decent cue tip, and weighs between 18 and 21 ounces- you will never know how it plays until you play it- own a $20 Imperial ( bought for a 12 year old in 2000) that plays just great for 25 years and is still straight, and have seen $1500 cues that do not play too well at all.
Anybody with extensive cue experience will know that there is always a one off -- either positive or negative--- in every category of man made and/ or assembled cues consisting of natural materials such as wood.
 
I have 3 Audrick cues. Ivory inlays. All straight, all play nice. Have heard of warping and inlays popping or cracking. I may have just got lucky?

Cheaper cues with lesser materials and construction methods are less consistent, less reliable, but some can play really well.

The fancier they are, the less reliable they are. That's why a cheap old sneaky with a good shaft is so often so good.

That's how I see it anyway.
 
I used to keep a plain-jane pos Cuetec with the glass-over-wood shaft in my car. Kept in the car year round and that mofo never warped a mm. Played great too. Think i had like 30bux in both it and a total pos zipper soft case. Cue don't matter folks. As long as its fairly straight and the tip is decent you can get out with it.
 
I've got a $ 69 GW, the ginger wizard, Drew Pearson. I bought it for my grandson when he was about 8 years old. I had a medium moori put on it and it plays good,it lays on my table all the time so it gets used quite a bit.
 
As Almost no correlation between how much a cue costs or how "well made" it is and how well it will play, IMO.
I gotta disagree with your post, although you are correct that price does not correlate to performance.
A $10k cue can play awful if it’s heavier than what you like or the shafts were too thick, ex.,13mm vs.12.5.

However, I submit that if a cue maker can command that much for a cue, it will, or should be, well made.
Buyers don’t pony up mega bucks for a cue if the cue maker isn’t recognized for excellent workmanship.

As I’ve acknowledged, big bucks doesn’t mean a cue will play better than any other much less expensive
pool cue. A cue maker’s reputation does not guarantee satisfaction but customarily the build quality is fine.

IMO, any pool cue that has been built that closely coincides with your favorite specifications for a cue will
play much better than a cue that misses the mark, ex., joint, ferrule, tip, shaft taper, butt & shaft weights, etc.

When you can consistently play with a cue that coincides with what you would like in a pool cue, your overall
playing performance will become more consistent. Pro golfers changing equipment take an entire season and
sometimes several, before they are comfortable with their new clubs and start playing better but it takes time.
 
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