Question of the day.

[ARROWCRUSHER]

I can honestly say I love nice cue's and nice things in general but I love anything to do with pool and billiards. I am addicted to just seeing nice , quality cue's. I see these post on here were people post there cue's up for sale or just showing in the gallery section and I just gotta look. I guess cue's are to me like drugs are to a drug addict.. At least my wife says that to me. She tells me all the time I have a problem, she even makes jokes of it in front of people saying that she guesses things could be worse cause I have a addicted personality and she is glad it's only with pool cue's instead of drugs or gambleing. But till she finds out what I spent, then she says ( You spent that much on a freakin peice of wood ) . LOL. .. <<<ED

 

[manwon]

I am putting this in this forum, I might in a month or 2 ask it in the main forum. I know this is a biased audience and thats why I'm asking the question.

I'm only going to put down 2 choices, I could add vendor, builder, etc but that would dilute the question.


Are you a......?

I never vote in my polls, however I'm 100% more interested in pool than cues. I have to have a great cue to play with and am awalys looking to learn much as I can about cues, any thing about cue. But interest in playing is still my first love, cues came second. Its a close second, but cues are a second choice to me. I love to meet new collectors and share conversations with them. Or old collectors and argue with them


However cues are a tool to play pool with. I like to feel the different cues, and ask myself what was the cue maker thinking when he built the cue. Fast $$$, passion to make the best playing cue possible-or a little of both.

I love to look at the woods in cues, i'm forever facinated with ageing process of wood and how it effects the hit of a cue, or the sound of a piano or other insterments. No matter how technoical the world becomes, cues will be the still made out of wood (for the most part) and not change like so many other things have.


All the things that goes into cue making all leads up to one thing, how good does it work. Some players can play woith anything and play the same speed-Bugs played off the wall forever. I'm at the other end of that, I have to have the right cue to bring the best out in me. Perhaps because I wasnt born with a huge talent to play great. I play good enough to know alot ahout the hit of a cue and all related things.

A couple years ago when I started growing my collection, I was going to pick a player cue that brought out the best in me., So I tried different cues from 2-6 months at a tile until I got to one that brought out the best in me, I didnt let any sentemental fellings efffect my decision. I excluded Gus and Bushkas because if I lost one travelling, i would be sick. All the other cues were fair game, no sentmental, or what it cost, looks didnt effect my decision. Just how I played. It dosent matter who made it. I'll leave it at that.

I'm a player who loves cues-in that order. Thats my story, I have been collecting cues since 85, in 06 and 07 I expanded my collection. the fact that I dont play with my favorite cue makers cue is irrevlant-Gus is my #1 choice, that wont change. My admiration of Barry to carry on his legacy is unsurpassed by any family in pool. Ernesto and Oscar are right up there too. There are others I'm sure, but I dont know of them off hand.


sorry for the long post, just practicing my writing again today,

best
eric

Eric my first exposure to pool was during the 1960's when I was 6 or 7 years old. My father tended bar sometimes in the evenings and my mother worked nights so my father would take me to the bar with him. During that time frame in St.Louis parents could take their children into a bar with them if they wanted too. Well there wasn't much to do for a young child, but for some reason I could sit for hour's and watch people play pool. The bar had three pool tables that were always being used and the different games that were played fascinated me.

As I grew my exposure to pool and billiards continued and it became a passion. I still clearly remember buying my first two piece cue, I purchased it from Paul Heubler and it cost me something like $70 the year was 1975. I loved that cue like no other, not only the way it played and felt, but also the design and the beautiful woods used to build it, which was Cocobolo and Birdseye Maple and this became a turning point for me. While I certainly loved playing pool and I was getting pretty dam good at both pockets billiards and 3-cushion billiards for some reason I really also wanted to build my own cue. This was not because I was not satisfied with what I bought, I think I wanted to create something with my own hands.

Then 1977 rolled around and decided to join the US Army so that I could see the world for myself. What started out as wanting to travel ended with me retiring form the Military in 2003. During my time in the military I was pretty busy and had little time to play pool, however, I never lost the desire. When I settled down here in Washington State, near Ft. Lewis where I retired from, I decided to open my own pool room, and within it I included a retail store, and over the last 6 years I taught myself how to build and properly repair cues. Somewhere during this transition my passion for playing pool changed into a passion for building cue sticks. For me when you build a cue stick for someone you are giving that person a part of yourself, and if the cue is well built it can certainly last far longer than the builder. This kinda gives the builder a little piece of immortality, and if that persons cues are respected for what they are and appreciated for what they are, the builders mark may be left forever.

Merry Christmas fatboy!!!!!

 

[Kobachi]

Great post Eric,

I love playing, especially competitively in my local leagues. And I love the cues I've collected over the years. Hard part for me is balancing the playing with the collecting, or rather, justifying having the cues that I do, and not shooting a ball with some of them for months (or years) on end. It really makes me wonder what is more important to me, why I am hanging on to these cues in the first place. Did my therapist put you up to posting this??? Good post, and I'm enjoying the responses :smile:

 

[BlowFish]

I love looking at really nice cues. I like playing pool as much as I can. One can't exist without the other (that's how I look at it).

Let me revisit this thread 5yrs from now and see if my thinking has changed.

 

[deanoc]

Eric please read my note to you in thread about old cues

this thread is a good stroke,lots of interesting responses,funny how we all tend to respond to a slightly different question than the one you wrote,its still fun,you have struck a chord

Dean

 

[Fatboy]

i would rather have a big collection and suck at pool...considering i allready suck at pool and have realized that i will never be more than a league player...in my situation my daughter and work come first so i will never be a champion plus i dont want to live that life...never home late nights and fading all the bs that goes with the hustling lifestyle but i do enjoy watching it...but at the end of the day i can go home to my wife and kid and job and live a boring life...i think that it is really cool for people that choose that life and maybe if i didnt have any connections or strings attached to me...and this is really going out there and i hate to say it...but what do you end up with at the end of your life other than stories about the road and the money lost and one and what a great trip it was...if you have a monster collection you end up passing it on or selling it to take care of your family...not meant to be bad either way just my thoughts...thanks mickey carroll ps would i rather HAVE SHANE V B TALENT OR TIKKLERS CUES........TIKKLER ALL THE WAY FOR ME...

I'd give up all but a couple of my cues to play like JA. I just have a few cues that are family and I wouldnt give up, and they really arnt expensive(one is the rosewood GSB), I am a player and while I love cues playing great is my first priority.


I bought a Gold Crown before I owned and custom cues back in 89, Paying pool time when I was on short $$$ was more important than saving up for another cue. Now that I can buy a cue and still have $$$ for a table or time-its great having the best of it like that.

When I cant play at all in a few years then, Cues will be #1 for me.



Thanks for all the great posts on this thread, we need more threads like this here, were a great group of guys/girls here.