Tony Zinzola****hot Off The Lathe

[patrickjuhlin]

That’s it.... We are all just going to have to meet Tikkler in person so we can
all inspect this cue with our own eyes and then form our opinions. J/K

All I needed to see in this whole thread is that Tikkler had a great experience in ordering and receiving this cue due to great communication and hard work on Tony’s behalf.
There is however something to say about letting a cue with these types of flaws leave shop but in retrospect this example of a uniquely designed cue from someone that has a hell of a lot of potential to improve and put out some masterpieces in the future.
Look at it this way: “The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate. “ and not saying that this cue is a failure at all. Tony use all of this criticism to motivate you to build even finer and more precise cues in the future.

 

[PunchOut]

piloted radial pin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i wanna try this cue out sooooooo bad!!!!!!!!!!!!

another nice one tikkler!

 

[Kevin Lindstrom]

Steve and Tony - I am happy with my cues as well.

I currently own 3 of Tony's cue and I am very pleased with all three of my cues. In addition I have all intentions of ordering at least 2 or 3 more as soon as I decide on my next color scheme and inlay design. Her are some examples of 2 of my 3 cues to date.

 

[ShootingArts]

You are right but it depends who is looking

i think that with the haley it is a cause where blowing something up that small that big will reveal flaws but even the flaws, at this size, are very hard to see.

i do not believe the claim that the flaws in mr. zinzola's cue is not visible to the naked eye. even in the other photos at a bit of distance you can easily see that the bar isn't lined up with the ball ends.

No question that a knowledgeable person considering buying the cue would see flaws in the Zinzola. On the other hand as this thread has shown, someone taking a casual look at even the magnified images might not notice problems. When someone is handing me their new cue to admire, I look it over and say the usual nice things. Looking at the same cue to buy, I may see several things that would keep me from owning it.

Hu

 

[jasonlaus]

Tony is the first to critique his work and has refused to sell several cues because he was not happy with them.

Mike

How bad must these have been? There is no way he couldn't see the flaws in this cue. Don't call yourself a master if you aren't.
Overall a nice look, with more attention to detail one day he may be a master, but to look at the photos then claim there is nothing wrong... well....Take the criticism and use it to your advantage. If everybody says great cue, monster cue, perfection, without the truth, then all the highend guys will never become buyers and his name will never reach the status of Szamboti, Balabushka, gina, Searing, Showman...........

 

[FAST_N_LOOSE]

Anybody Wanna Learn About My Std From The Silent Film Era?

 

[hangemhigh]

9.99999999999?

A very nice cue but even this one image at high magnification reveals flaws. The black around the silver bars is almost certainly very fine bits of silver trapped under the finish. The tiny bits are silver colored and impossible to see when finish sanding the cue. Even after careful cleaning some are trapped. When the silver bits oxidize you get the black. Also the smaller mother of pearl round isn't perfectly centered on the bar. Not to say that the Zinzola doesn't have far more serious flaws but to point out that there is some merit to his claims that blowing up something twenty times or so on a computer monitor will reveal flaws that even a loop won't.

Funny thing about handwork though, when you get too perfect few are willing to believe it is done by hand!

Hu

I don't know Hu, this one is pretty strong.

 

[ShootingArts]

yes it is!

I don't know Hu, this one is pretty strong.

That is a fine looking cue. As far as I am concerned everything on the cue that can be seen in the image is perfect. If I was challenged to find flaws in the cue I would shoot a super macro of it with a camera that would let me blow the image up to the size of a pool table. At that magnification few things built by man are perfect. Playing with super macro's I was amazed to find a chrome surface that looked like a mirror was very rough and pitted and there are lots of things you don't want to look at like that!

Hu

 

[Tony Zinzola]

Since people like Sam feel the need to keep bumping this thread, I will address it one final time.

I have spoken to Steve on the phone several times since he has received the cue and he has assured me that he is happy with the cue.

Last week, I emailed him and asked him to return the cue to me and I would fix anything wrong with it or rebuild it if I can't. I received the following response from Steve:

Tony, this whole ordeal has been very upsetting to me. I should never have posted those close shots. I never expected the reaction of some of those people.

Most importantly....I dont want you to think for a second that I was doing anything deliberate. Working with you on this cue was the best experience I have ever had with anybody on any cue I ever bought. I thank you for that. But I feel terrible about this whole mess.

I will do whatever you want....I will send it back. I love the entire design of the cue, and I still want it. If you feel you cant fix it and want to make a new one that is fine, but I would like the exact same design.

I also still want that box cue we talked about

I will call you later

Steve
​

I received the cue a couple of days ago. Yesterday I opened it up and was expecting to see a complete disaster. That was not the case at all.

The mess around some of the inlays is not visible to the human eye. They are not overuse of filler, in fact, there is virtually no filler used in the cue at all. It is more a lack of filler that caused those odd looking pockets. These issues will be easily corrected. I may have to replace one or two inlays, but I doubt it will even be that many.

There are a few issues with a couple of barbells in the rings. As for the gap, that is almost undetectable with the human eye, but it is there. The misalignment has been an issue since I created these rings a year ago (I believe it happens on 2 pieces in this cue, maybe 3). It happens on the lower rings with the longer barbells, but rarely on the shorter ones. To eliminate this problem in the future, I will no longer be doing the rings with 4 ivory circles, but will use 8 for all of them from now on. This makes them easier to keep aligned. I was originally going to replace all of the rings in this cue, but instead, I am just going to correct the couple of spots that have problems.

You cannot see a single scratch on the cue. However, after looking at the photos, I do not disagree that there are far too many (which is the main reason that I asked Steve to return the cue in the first place). I have gotten help from a few makers on how to eliminate them and hopefully this will not happen again in the future. A few cues have been held up leaving my shop this week until I get a few tools to help me along.

I'd also like to thank Steve for posting the close up shots. There is no doubt it will help me in the future. I was very excited about this cue. It was without a doubt the hardest one I had done and couldn't wait to get it out the door. That will not happen again.

As for the people that think that Steve posted these to start trouble, I seriously doubt that is the case. I think he was just as excited to use his new camera as I was to get this cue to him. I think he just took the photos and posted them up.

If anybody else has any questions, feel free to email me or call me. I will not be posting in this thread.

Thanks

 

[brianna187]

just the other day talking with a friend that also visits AZ we were dicussing Tony and how far he has come in such a short time, his work for just doing this a short time is outstanding you mark my words Tonys Z is going places i salute you tony..............Lee