$100 for an 8-piece laminated ash shaft? It may be far from traditional but considering that in the pool world you cannot get a laminated shaft at that price, much less an entire cue, I figured it was worth the money to experiment with it.
One gripe: I knew I'd probably whip this cue out to shoot pool as often or more often than snooker so I didn't want a cue under 17oz. I ordered the "Heavy" weight which was supposed to be 17.5-18.5oz. I put it on a digital scale and it's a whopping 19.4oz. Probably the seller's fault, they likely listed the weights wrong.
Moving on. The weight means it isn't as lively as some of the other cues I've hit but gives good speed control with softer shots at range. Taper is quite a bit thicker than I like, likely thicker than what a serious player would ask for if building from scratch.
Styling The looks will probably offend traditionalists. That said, it fits in well with my sporty-looking American cues, and if I use a glove to shoot it doesn't look as strange as with my traditional hand-spliced snooker/blackball cues.
The butt has a matte finish that stays dry no matter what. Still, I feel it's a hair thicker than necessary but some of that may be the lack of a flat paddle surface. Because the shaft is spliced from 8 pieces of ash, you don't have the chevron grain pattern like in a traditional cue.
Hit
This definitely hits with a different feel and sound than other snooker cues. I have to say it has a surprisingly muted hit for ash, I wonder what wood is actually beneath the paint job on the butt. Some of it may be the fact the shaft is laminated and some of it may be that the ferrule is steel instead of brass, so there is no characteristic ash-and-brass 'ping' that other snooker cues hit with. Action and speed control with snooker balls is great, although I'd definitely prefer it be at least an ounce lighter. With American pool balls, this things just doesn't seem to want to put action on the ball as well as my 8mm blackball cue does, it may just be a bad combination of stiffness and weight for the heavier balls but for snooker it keeps pace pretty well with my other cues.
No screw-on extensions I'll have to get a push-on extension for this. Riley makes other cues that come with this shaft (the L8) that do accept screw-on extensions, so if the shaft technology interests you, you could look at one of their pricier options. Or if you already have a Riley cue (or other with the same joint) picking up this cue just for the shaft is still a great buy.
All-in-all I'm perfectly happy with this considering the outrageously low price. Yes my blackball cue has a much better feeling hit and taper, and I actually get much better action on snooker balls with an 11.5mm American pool cue... but then again I have Kamui blacks on both of those. If I put a Kamui tip on this at some point in the future I'll update, but the cue does work out the best for speed control.
Last edited: