Hi Donnie. First of all, did you get my reply to your pm? I've pm'd both you and Danny Harriman and have yet to get a reply. Sort of wondering if I did something wrong with the pm process.
Yes, I know (or I should say I knew) Andy Gilbert. Years ago, I went out to his house and saw the garage area where he was making his cues. One thing that truly impressed me was the time he took with the making of shafts - the very slow, long dry time, shallow cut method so it took months to turn out a quality shaft. In those days his entire work area was about 1/2 of a single car garage. My guess is that he has expanded a bit since then.
I played for a couple of years with a nice cue that Andy built. Really a beautiful cue with 13.2mm shafts and it played great. That cue set in my closet for years until I got a call from a fellow from Ash Grove. He wanted my cue.
Thinking I was probably never going to play again, I sold it to him for exactly what I had paid for the cue. Definitely should have kept it. Not only was it a great cue but my wife reminds me now and again..."See, I told you not to sell that cue!". :grin:
Donnie, do you remember "Hat". I kept trying and finally remembered the fellows name that I went out to Gilbert's with that day.
Water under the bridge and just one of many cues I've sold waaaaay too cheap. I probably sold that Gilbert for about $700 less than it was worth on the market even then.
Cue resembled this one except mine had a stainless joint and a bit more inlay.
http://www.indyq.com/custom/gilbert/P1010007_small.JPG
Merry Christmas!