I do not think that Enzo Ferrari, Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, or Wilhem Maybach have built any cars recently. Neither has Ferdinand Porsche. Nor has Louis Chevrolet.
When a product is finished it stands on it's own regardless of whether one person or one hundred people had a hand in making it.
At the moment where it is finished it lives outside of it's creator and how well it impresses those who intreact with it, how well it services them, how long it lasts, all those things are the outside the control of the creator. It exists on it's own.
Success in any field is admired and belittled. Is there a South West mystique? Certainly there is. Is their reputation deserved? Most people who own one or more seem to think so. But the point is that whether it's deserved or not they exist, a waiting list exists, and the cues are well made and in short supply. No matter what there is a finite supply of South West cues in existence. So the cost to acquire one is what it is, and that is either wait your turn, buy someone else's spot or buy one from the secondary market.
Jerry Franklin isn't here any more to bless the cues with some holy wood dust as they come off the lathe but the cues which are coming out of his shop are no less than if he were still with us.
Often this isn't the case. Sometimes when the founder dies the magic ingredient goes with him. But not with South West. It might be fair to say that Jerry would have continued to push boundaries and do things that he felt improved on his methods even more similar to what Dennis Searing does. But we will never know that. The fact is that SouthWest cue were great then and they are great now and they don't need any improvement. So if time has stood still in the South West shop then that's also as it should be for them.
Jerry's hand is still on the lathe.
