JOSS actually isn't a very large shop. They employed automation for such things as cutting shafts etc some years ago (I believe). AFAIK they had/have large machines that cut tens of shafts at a time which saves manual labor at the lathes. Probably the final operations are still done by individuals at the lathes but you can imagine if you have a machine that can turn thirty shafts or butts down how much employee time that might save without compromising the final product if the final operations still have human hands on them. This is what I have put together from reading various different sources on the matter including interviews with Janes among other things. I don't know how accurate it is, it is what I surmise from my extensive reading on anything I could find on the matter.
Personally I don't see Schon as the "highest end" production maker, just the most expensive. The two are not the same in my book. I don't actually see them as any "higher" than JOSS and in some ways lower actually.
You can still get sharp point cues from JOSS while Schon couldn't even be compelled to do it for their recent small run of Balabushka "tribute" cues. They had CNC inlaid points.
Dan Janes is a Hall of Fame cue maker and a pioneer in the industry. He moved to CNC early, began coring of all his cues early, made dedicated jump and break cues as early as the mid 1980's if not earlier, made laminated shafts years ago and since moved away from it. He was making cues for ten years before Schon ever even started. I remember the early Schon cues. Very JOSS-like in my opinion. They are absolutely excellent cues but I have always seen them as JOSS wannabe cues. In the end they out-performed JOSS in pricing, but I don't believe they have ever out-performed JOSS as a cue. Yes, I know, they have a very loyal following and a lot of people like them and how they play. These are just my own opinions and admittedly are biased by my own long term relationship with my own JOSS.
JOSS continues to lead and innovate but not with loud flashy marketing, not with unrealistic claims of crushing victories or technology that will win pool games instead of a player's skill. They move steadily forward in dignified fashion.
One can absolutely spend more for a player than the asking price for a JOSS...but the question one must ask is "why?". Not that they can't be out-done by "customs" built to the discriminating and capable player's specifications...but when/if one reaches that level JOSS can and will build that for you too.
If you have money to burn or invest in art work, that's a different story. If you are just hooked on cues like a lot of us are, that's another story. I can't argue with somebody that owns, shoots with, or wants, a Scruggs/Gina/Szam/Hececk/etc. Heck, I desperately want a Mottey myself. But if one wants a killer player for smallish money, it's hard to beat a JOSS. In fact I say you really can't. Just wait and watch and you can find a JOSS in nice shape for $100-$150...just be ready to pounce because it will sell right away. I have four JOSS cues....and I paid $35 for the best one (seventies cue), $90 for my JOSS jumper brand new in about 1992, and $65 and $95 for the other two (the one for $95 came with a case and a Dufferin).
High end production cue? I say JOSS beats the rest. But then, I am biased and still stuck in a time when Varner and Sigel were beating everybody and their mother with JOSS cues.
