"Pool cue junkie" --- Candidly, I fall somewhere between this category and the next. I guess I'm of the opinion that a person can NEVER have too many cues (just don't tell my wife I said that!). I am always searching for the next "great cue", and the next "great cue maker", and I truly enjoy playing with each and every cue that I personally own (well, OK, maybe I'm FIRMLY planted in this bucket!). Each cue from a specific manufacturers product line has a unique quality about it and that is especially true when it comes to small-volume cue makers. I personally prefer the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between small-volume cue makers and I really enjoy how much of their "heart" they put into the cues that they make. Most of these cue makers could probably make more money as machinists working for someone else making things other than cues, yet they don't. For a lot of them, it's all about the passion first, and paying the bills second (although in today's economy, paying the bills is becoming more important to them than it once was).
a. Searching for the "Holy Grail" --- When you recognize that you're a pool cue junkie you realize that you are forever on a quest for the ultimate cue that will lead to the ultimate pool playing experience (I'm sure that the same applies to carom and snooker cue junkies with respect to their games of choice as well). We look at cues as "functional art", but not quite the same way a collector or a "next cue" person looks at it. We are perpetual experimenters and are drawn to our next acquisition not only by it's playability, but by it's beauty and elegance as well. We differ from pure collectors because we cannot stand having a cue sit idle and not be used the way the cue maker intended. We know that every time we take it to a pool hall there is a potential of adding a dent or a ding to it and thus diminish it's resale value, but we can't help ourselves from using them....that's actually the REASON that we bought them in the first place!
Most of us "junkies" have cues from several different cue makers with a variety of weights and balance points as well as joint configurations and shaft tapers...that's what the experimentation side of it is all about. Since this addiction usually lasts a long time, you will begin to develop some biases as you're arsenal (not collection!) grows. You will probably begin to hone in on a narrower range of weights and balances and begin to focus more on the tonal quality of the woods, the joints and ferrules, and of course the shaft lengths and tapers. You will certainly zero in on the range of "hit and feel" that you like in a cue (although you may, like me, enjoy a variety of different "hits and feels" depending on the game you're playing or the type of table you're playing on). If you don't have unlimited funds or space, you will over time begin to cull the early or unsuccessful experiments from the arsenal that you've built (of course it's rare for a true cue junkie to give one up without substituting a new one in it's place).
