Turning down work on "Big Name" cues

Tony Zinzola said:
I have no idea who the customer or the cue maker is, but I don't blame the them for not bringing you any more work. I doubt you expressed your feelings about the cue, while he was standing in front of you, as eloquently as you did here.

How would you feel if you brought the cue in that you just received only to have somebody who doesn't even build cues tell you it's a piece of junk?

Coming on here and bashing another cue maker makes it seem like you are jealous of him in my opinion. If he's truly a "big name" cue maker, as you put it, I doubt he got there by accident. If you're so much better than he is, then why aren't you making cues?

Not every cue is going to be perfect. An off center pin doesn't make the entire cue a piece of kindling.

When I first started building cues, I used to look at cues by some cue makers and wonder why they are getting the money they are getting. I thought to myself that my cues were just as good as theirs. Now I look at the same cue makers cues and understand why they're getting the money they are. Their cues were better then mine back then and they still are today. They deserve the money they are getting. They've worked hard to get to where they are.
Click to expand...

Hi,

There is a lot to be said on this topic and Tony's comments are right in most cases.

I have been doing a fair amount of cue repair for the last 8 years and here is the exception to the rule that I have seen:

There is a well known custom cue making company that sell their cues for and lot of money and has the backlog waiting list. Over the years I have seen a large percent of these cues in my shop that have warped butts. It is to the point that every time someone comes in with one of these I almost expect to see some kind of bump or warp.

I pointed out this to a few of the owners and they reacted in a disappointed way. I never told them it was junk or anything. When you pay over $ 2,000.00 for a cue and someone tells you it is warped, that does not make your day.

I don't mind putting on a wrap or refinishing a warped cue for someone, but when the butt does not roll right on a table I am not going to make a shaft for that cue.

My observation is that there are big name people getting big dollars for products with a low quality process control systems. What is funny is that even when the owner finds out many times they still think the cue is great. This is an example of the power of branding and name recognition.

When you can produce the great product that stands up over time and you get big bucks for the cue, that is the ideal.

Like the Sho Lin priest said to grasshopper in Kung Fu: "When you can walk on the rice paper and not leave a trace, then you shall have learned"


Cue making is a lot like that as there a so many nuances and details to master. Warped butts is a very bad thing.

Rick G
 
Tony Zinzola said:
You make it sound like the entire cue is a piece of crap when all it has is a pin that is a little off center. It's not a complicated fix.
Click to expand...

Your right!

Tony Zinzola said:
I do agree that the cue should go back to the maker, especially since it was just sent out that way.
Click to expand...

At least we agree on something...

Tony Zinzola said:
As for whether I would let a cue like that leave my shop, in an ideal world, the answer would be no. Have I ever let cues out of my shop that had issues? Of course I have. Probably every cue maker out there has a few that they hope never come back to haunt them. Perhaps the cue maker didn't even know that his pin was off center. Maybe the pin was centered when he installed it, but his mandrels are off, so the issue occurred when he sanded the cue down.
Click to expand...

It doesn't really matter how it happened. It is just surprising as I have been dealing with custom cues for 20 years now. As an owner, selling others cues for about 5 years, and doing minor repairs at a friends pool hall and now on my own, I had never seen anything this bad.

Tony Zinzola said:
As for not giving the name or your location, I do have issues with that. You want to remain anonymous so that you can come on here and badmouth other people in the same line of work as yourself, but they put their name and reputation on the line with everything they send out.
Click to expand...

I am a retail store manager not a cue maker. I do cue repair and F' around with making cues because I enjoy it and there was nobody else around to do it.

Tony Zinzola said:
I was asked on the phone last night if that was one of my cues because I sold a cue last week for the exact price you mentioned. I said it can't be. I'm not a "big name" and that cue is still sitting here because we're changing a few things on it. My pins are also straight. At least I think they are. If they aren't and it's my cue, I wouldn't know because instead of picking up the phone or emailing me, you decided a public lynching was more appropriate.
Click to expand...

I can assure everyone that the cue was not produced by you.
 
My point wasn't whether or not the cue was made by me. I was trying to suggest that maybe in the future a call or email to the cue maker would be a better way to handle it then bashing the guy in public. Like I said, he might not even know that the pin is off center.

Would you have posted the same thing if the cue was made by somebody who has only built 3 or 4 cues?
 
Tony Zinzola said:
My point wasn't whether or not the cue was made by me. I was trying to suggest that maybe in the future a call or email to the cue maker would be a better way to handle it then bashing the guy in public. Like I said, he might not even know that the pin is off center.
Click to expand...

I apologize to the unknown unnamed cue maker for bashing him/her in public. After all that was my intent and I am bad, bad, bad. What was I thinkn'. Oh yeah, I was asking what would you do?

Tony Zinzola said:
Would you have posted the same thing if the cue was made by somebody who has only built 3 or 4 cues?
Click to expand...

No. Do you have the same level of expectation from a novice as a 25+ year veteran in any profession?
 
I give up. I don't know why I let your post get to me. When you have the balls to step up and sign your name, I'll have more respect for what you have to say. Until then I will stay out of your threads.
 
ChampionsRepair said:
Thanks. I am just really pissed about it. Most importantly someone is successfully selling kindling for more than a grand. Although I am not a cue maker and have never claimed to be one, I have made cues. I have only sold 4 of the 12 cues that I've made. I play with one of my cues and the other 7 were either cut up to keep the world from knowing they ever existed or sit on my wall to remind me of what I did wrong. Why would anyone let something like that leave their shop, let alone someone that is well known.
Click to expand...

I would imagine he was a bit defensive on being sold a $1750 cue that was built that way and you getting the wrath of it.
 
jbravo2984 said:
Really? I'm pretty sure you absolutely refused to refinish a Meucci originals cue for a friend of mine and called it junk because the butt was warped. You said there was "no way to refinish that cue" because of a warp at the a joint.
When asked if the a-joint could be repaired because the customers cue held a lot of sentimental value, you said you weren't going to "waste your time with that piece of junk".
Maybe you've changed your position since then. It was almost a whole half year ago...
Click to expand...

Hi,

I stand corrected. That cue was a piece of junk and the bump was outrageous. Spraying a cue like that is no problem but have you ever tried to sand, apply epoxy, or put a wrap a cue between centers with a 1/2 bump.

"To have control over an endeavor, one first must understand it"

Thanks for reminding me of that Joe.

As you wish to point out to me over and again, I must be losing my mind and cognition. Or maybe some people have selective listening! Who knows?

Thanks,

Rick
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top