Want to start playing snooker

SupaFoo

SupaFoo

Starving Law Student
Silver Member
Hello AzB snooker players!

I'm thinking about picking up snooker and posted a thread in the wanted/for sale section of the forums last night looking for snooker cues.

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some additional info about snooker cues? I know the difference in the game and the rest of the equipments, but the only things I know about the cues are that they have smaller tip diameters and brass ferrules.

If you can help, I'd like to know:
-Why the ferrules are brass
-Why part of the butt is flat
-What the range of weights commonly used by players is
-What terms like 3/4 refers to (shaft length = 3/4 of cue length?)
-What brands are good (please include good intermediate level brands b/c that's what I'm looking to buy)
-What are the extra pieces in 3 and 4 piece snooker cues (beyond butt and shaft)
?and any other info you'd like to share with me.

All help (and offers) are welcome! :D

-Alan
 
1) brass ferrule? Not quite sure, I'm sure somebody can answer that one here. That's how it's historically been done, so they keep the eastatics. Also the tip is truely glued to the wood for better transmission (feel) of the vibrations
2) to keep the same side of the tip pointing up. Historically you could use it to put it flat on the bed of the table and shooting a ball by pulling the cue towards you.
3) snooker cues are typically lighter than pool cues, 16-19 oz, but they are not rated by weight, they are what they are based on the density of the wood. I play with a 18.7 Oz cue and bought a 21Oz for a pool playing friend of mine who couldn't handle the lighter weights
4) it refers to the location of the joint. 1/2 joint is in the middle allowing a normal case to transport your cue. 3/4 means the joint is 1/4 in from the butt giving you much better feel (the joint stops the transfer of the natural vibration) but requires a longer case for your cue
5) John Parris is regarded as the best. Any cue you buy on line is hit or miss. If you have a store near you, go play with all the cues they have and pick the one you like best.
6) Those extra pieces are extensions. Usually a mini butt, to give you that extra 4 inches of reach and a telescopic extenstion that would allow you to reach any shot on the table, without having to resort to the three quarter butt (long tackle)
7) I'm gonna repeat the point made in 5 and that the only way to pick a cue is to play with a selection of them. Go to a store, pick all the cues in your price range, ask for a couple of balls and play with each cue.
 
As an American who grew up playing pool, switched to playing 3 cushion only for several years, and is now playing just snooker and English billiards, let me tell you - be very wary of picking up a 3/4 length cue expecting to adjust at all quickly, or even normally for that matter, to something so different.

Now I know that the great players out there of any discipline can play with a broomstick - a tree branch - take any old cue off the wall and shoot the lights out - whatever. I'd love to be one of those folks but I am not. I gotta say, I bought a 3/4 cue because I wanted the full ash cue, flat butt, brass ferrule snooker experience and I have *gotten* it. It's been months and my game is still not even back to scratch. These things are so forward-balanced I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it.

Blast me, ridicule me, flame me for being too equipment-dependent, I don't care! But from here on out it's only 1/2 cues for me.

All that being said I've really enjoyed having an ash cue, and I've really enjoyed having a brass joint. I bought something totally new to me for the experience and it's been worth it.
 
homebrewer: sorry to hear about your poor transition to a new cue. My suggestion is to really just get another one. The balance is actually typically further back with the 3/4 joint than the 1/2 joint. However, some of the 1/2 joint actually have a lead weight in the butt (underneath the rubber door stop thingy) which then pushes the balance backwards. It is really important to get a cue with a balance that matches your timing. Once you do, you'll all of a sudden see great improvements in control and touch (with the right practice drills of course)
I actually play with a 1/2 cue and have had it for more than a decade. I wouldn't dream of getting a new cue. But if it got damaged somehow, I would be getting a 3/4, but only one that matches the weight and balance of my current cue so I might have to try dozens of cues before I get the right one, but it'll be worth it in the end.
 
drsnooker,

Thanks for the advice. I've measured the balance point and it's about 500mm up from the butt, or approximately where circled in the attached picture. Would that balance seem strange at all to you? Unfortunately, my three-cushion cues are back in the US so I don't have anything here to measure by way of comparison.

Perhaps this cue is just anomolous. I can certainly understand the logic behind a 3/4 jointed cue having the balanced point actually pushed back, but this one just seems to feel so opposite. Oh well.

And for the record, I've floated your advice to buy a new cue past my wife and she disagrees :(

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Homebrewer, yep it actually does seem a little strange and way forward. On my 1/2 cue the balance point is at 42cm while my buds' 3/4 cue has it at 40cm. So yes, your cue seems to have its balance point very far forward. My guess you're cue is also really light (14Oz perhaps???)

I also noticed from the picture that you also have a rubber door stop thingy in the back end. I guess an alternative to buying a new cue, is to pull the rubber plug out (it'll have a hole underneath and is usually not even glued) and take a regular wood screw and screw that in the hole. This will change the balance and the weight. You can try different size screws to find something that works for you. Even a change in the balance of 2cm will make an enormous difference to how to cue feels to you. Hope that helps!
 
17" from the base of the butt is generally regarded as being the ideal balancing point for a snooker cue but it's all down to personal preference.

The wedge on the butt actually came about for victorian ladies who were reluctant to stretch for the long shots and simply turned the cue around and struck holding the tip one handed. Flattenning it that bit stopped the cue rolling to the side. Today though it's merely traditional and stays there mainly because cuemakers want somewhere to place their badge.

John Parris may be the best known cuemaker and he is a good one but no way are his cues the best it's all part of the marketing ploy. Okay more pros use his cues than any other makers but when the guy offers them for free to pros few are going to say no thanks.

Any of these below (not in any perticular order)are capable of making a top notch cue. Some are expensive some ae quite cheap but price really has nothing to do with a good playing cue as its all about the wood used the intracasy and the craftmanship.

Mike Wooldridge
Trevor White
dave coutts
robin cook
robert osbourne
craftsman cues
tony glover
mastercraft
o'min
master cue
unique cues
andy bream
stamford cuemakers
tony ions
northwest cues
tony wilshaw
 
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drsnooker said:
Homebrewer, yep it actually does seem a little strange and way forward. On my 1/2 cue the balance point is at 42cm while my buds' 3/4 cue has it at 40cm. So yes, your cue seems to have its balance point very far forward. My guess you're cue is also really light (14Oz perhaps???)

I also noticed from the picture that you also have a rubber door stop thingy in the back end. I guess an alternative to buying a new cue, is to pull the rubber plug out (it'll have a hole underneath and is usually not even glued) and take a regular wood screw and screw that in the hole. This will change the balance and the weight. You can try different size screws to find something that works for you. Even a change in the balance of 2cm will make an enormous difference to how to cue feels to you. Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

drsnooker,

Thanks for the spot-on advice. Although the cue is within the range of normal weight (17.5 ounces) I've just put a 3/8 inch grub screw into the butt where the mini extension should go and it now feels worlds better. Only thing left to do is get it seated so I can't feel or hear it on the harder shots (I don't want to use anything so permanent as LockTite). Any suggestions?

Many thanks!
 
I'm not familiar with the term "grub screw" (I'm not a carpenter or whatever). Does the hole in the butt end have threading in it (as it would for a mini extension) or is it just a drilled out hole? Either way, I think cotton balls and masking tape oughta do the trick. Just jam stuff in there until it stops moving!
 
Yes, the hole is threaded to receive the mini extension, which has an identical screw to the one of the butt itself.

Sorry, got caught up in the Aussie slang. They call these set screws 'grub' screws here:

http://www.funrcboats.com/images/products/setscrew_md.jpg

Anyway, all set now, thanks. If I need more specific recommendations on how best to stop any vibration from that set screw in the butt I'll be asking in the cuemaker forum.
 
Thanks for the lessing in lingo. With those set screws, you could probably put two or three in the butt end and tweak it until you really have a cue that feels great to you.
 
snooker cues

Hope your liking the craftsman, once you get settled and know more of what you want from a cue, I can suggest two excellent cue makers in the USA, Chris Deroo makes great ones, and also, John Spitz out of Chicago has made me a couple of them that I played in the US Open with and they hit wonderfully, wouldnt trade the current one for a Parris.
 
Is the John Spitz cue a "snooker cue"? Just wondering, I am currently waiting on a Trevor White, but would be a bit upset if I could have drove down to Chris's or some where closer to have one made.

Mike
 
spitz

for all intents and purposes yes...
it has a slimmer butt, an ash shaft with a beautiful conical taper, brass ferril, and it hits great. He hasn't done many, but he did one for myself and Tom Kollins. John is a great cuemaker to deal with, he is very timely, not outrageously expensive, and is a great mixture of classic design with superb playability. I owned his first cue, and had to sell it because I liked a back weighted cue, and now I wish I never let it out of my sight.

I'll get a picture up in the next couple days
 
SupaFoo said:
All help (and offers) are welcome! :D

-Alan
Click to expand...

Alan, are you in Urbana or Boston? I went to school in the former, and now live in the latter.

The Union used to have a 5 x 10 but they sold it after they relocated the pool room to the bowling alley. (Is Mary still working there?)

Have you found another place to play snooker in the U-C area? I'm getting ready to put online a list of U.S. pool halls with snooker tables, and I have no listings for U-C, though I have 9 listings overall for Illinois.
 
sounds like you got some great answers for your questions, but i'll take a shot at the brass ferrule one. the ferrules are brass rather than say ivory, plastic, etc. on pool cues because the cue is much thinner and you need something thin yet strong, hence the choice to go with metal back in the day. today you do have advanced polymers and materials that are quite strong, so you could forgo the brass if you really wanted to today. a lot of the canadian snooker cues use phenolic which is also very strong and will give you less deflection, being lighter than brass. you also need a harder hitting ferrule in snooker as the balls are so much lighter than pool balls and a soft tip is used (elkmaster, blue diamond), so to get good feedback from the cue you need a hard material like brass.

i have a 1/2 jointed mastercue and a 3/4 jointed mastercraft, both cues are great values for the money. i don't have a super preference for one joint type or the other, but i guess i lean slightly towards my 3/4. either can be good, it just depends on how well the cuemaker balances it. 1/2 is a lot easier to carry around though, that's for sure!
 
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