A few weeks ago I got a playing cue and a jump/break cue from Kevin Varney at Varney Cues. I have held off writing about them until I got a little more playing time to see if my initial enthusiasm was justified. It was.
The playing cue is a nearly plain SP with a flat faced, phenolic collared wood to wood joint with 3/8-10 brass screw which goes directly into the shaft wood with no insert. I got the cue with a Tiger Sniper tip to try after regularly being a Moori user. I have made the transition from my other playing cue with no major problems. I would describe the hit of this cue as stiff but soft with great feedback of the feel to the hand. It really is a pleasue to play with. One comment - I am still not sure about the Sniper tip vs Moori. I've had no problems with it and it performs well, but it is different.
The J/B cue is a nearly matching SP design but with a slightly different taper, stiffer shaft, canvas/ phenolic one piece tip and ferrule with flat faced wood to wood phenolic collared joints with stainless screws into the wood.
My breaking performance has improved dramatically since getting this cue. I am not an extremely powerful breaker like the pros, but with some practice with this cue, I am able to make balls on the break, from the box, in 8 ball over 50% of the time usually controlling the cue to the center of the table. In 9 ball, from the rail, I am making ball(s) on the break about 80% of time with good cue control also. This is a huge improvement for me and with more experience, I am sure it will only get better.
I've never been much of a "jumper", but took a 30 minute free lesson the other day and at the end of that time was jumping over balls anywhere from 8 inches - 2 feet away with fairly regular consistency. The cue seems to be very easy to learn to jump with and now I need practice to develop control and technique. With the break butt removed, the jump cue is approx 44 1/2 inches long.
In summary. I am more than pleased with this purchase. Kevin was a pleasure to deal with and everything in the transaction went very smoothly.
The playing cue is a nearly plain SP with a flat faced, phenolic collared wood to wood joint with 3/8-10 brass screw which goes directly into the shaft wood with no insert. I got the cue with a Tiger Sniper tip to try after regularly being a Moori user. I have made the transition from my other playing cue with no major problems. I would describe the hit of this cue as stiff but soft with great feedback of the feel to the hand. It really is a pleasue to play with. One comment - I am still not sure about the Sniper tip vs Moori. I've had no problems with it and it performs well, but it is different.
The J/B cue is a nearly matching SP design but with a slightly different taper, stiffer shaft, canvas/ phenolic one piece tip and ferrule with flat faced wood to wood phenolic collared joints with stainless screws into the wood.
My breaking performance has improved dramatically since getting this cue. I am not an extremely powerful breaker like the pros, but with some practice with this cue, I am able to make balls on the break, from the box, in 8 ball over 50% of the time usually controlling the cue to the center of the table. In 9 ball, from the rail, I am making ball(s) on the break about 80% of time with good cue control also. This is a huge improvement for me and with more experience, I am sure it will only get better.
I've never been much of a "jumper", but took a 30 minute free lesson the other day and at the end of that time was jumping over balls anywhere from 8 inches - 2 feet away with fairly regular consistency. The cue seems to be very easy to learn to jump with and now I need practice to develop control and technique. With the break butt removed, the jump cue is approx 44 1/2 inches long.
In summary. I am more than pleased with this purchase. Kevin was a pleasure to deal with and everything in the transaction went very smoothly.
