Was George Balabushka any good?

Burns

Burns

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just wondering, you here his cues are the best players and so on but was he a good player himself? I heard from some random ejit that he was a decent golfer but I wouldnt think so. Any stories?
 
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If I had the chance to own one of his cues, I wouldn't care if he couldn't make a ball.
Steve
 
I don't think he was a great player...but a great woodworker/cuemaker. He played good enough to construct a cue that every great player would want...and he knew wood. That is for sure.
 
Matt_24 said:
but a great woodworker/cuemaker. He played good enough to construct a cue that every great player would want...and he knew wood. That is for sure.
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Being he was part owner in a pool room, one probably could say he was atleast a good player, but not a great player. You bring up something I read somewhere else in another thread about George not making his own blanks and therefore could not be the greatest of cue makers. But like everyone knows and you mentioned, he was a master above masters with wood, even before cues, so I highly doubt it was an inability but more or less time. Already an established cue maker, I feel (and only my opinion) he preferred just to buy blanks for quicker turn arounds. I mean he did have a family to support.
In my eyes, there is no better cue maker. His designs and innovations are still strived for today more than ANY cue (and yes even MORE than Szamboti).
 
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flyvirginiaguy said:
Being he was part owner in a pool room, one probably could say he was atleast a good player, but not a great player. You bring up something I read somewhere else in another thread about George not making his own blanks and therefore could not be the greatest of cue makers. But like everyone knows and you mentioned, he was a master above masters with wood, even before cues, so I highly doubt it was an inability but more or less time. Already an established cue maker, I feel (and only my opinion) he preferred just to buy blanks for quicker turn arounds. I mean he did have a family to support.
In my eyes, there is no better cue maker. His designs and innovations are still strived for today more than ANY cue (and yes even MORE than your Szamboti).
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One of the Major reasons George bought blanks was because he did not have the space in Garage for all the additional equipment to build them. I would seriously doubt that if George had set his mind to building his own blanks they would have been anything less then fantastic just like the rest of things he did.

George was certainly an innovator, and also ahead of time with the designs he was using. Many things have made Balabushka cues collectible today, and I totally think they should be, however, let us not forget that their were others who also helped shape and change what is expected from a cue today.

Just my thoughts
 
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flyvirginiaguy said:
Being he was part owner in a pool room, one probably could say he was atleast a good player, but not a great player. You bring up something I read somewhere else in another thread about George not making his own blanks and therefore could not be the greatest of cue makers. But like everyone knows and you mentioned, he was a master above masters with wood, even before cues, so I highly doubt it was an inability but more or less time. Already an established cue maker, I feel (and only my opinion) he preferred just to buy blanks for quicker turn arounds. I mean he did have a family to support.
In my eyes, there is no better cue maker. His designs and innovations are still strived for today more than ANY cue (and yes even MORE than Szamboti).
Click to expand...
I never heard he owned a pool room. I knew him only from the phone we talked quite a few times but I never met him in person but I know a lot of people who knew him. What pool room did he own?
 
He was said to be capable of running a hundred balls, Burns 420, but in his era in New York, that capability would barely have drawn a second glance. As for his REAL artistry, he was clearly the finest cuemaker of his time, but he was limited by the technology of the '60s. It's been said that if you could get 50 of his cues together at the same time for some kind of "blind feel test", no more than 15 would feel similar to one another, and his cues could be quite noisy. At his best, he was incomparable till Gus Szamboti came along. GF
 
Sorry for the somewhat off-topic post, but George's cue designs are still very appealing. From the previous posts, it sounds like his cues were full-splice ones, is that correct?

Can anyone recommend a relatively inexpensive Balabushka style knock-off?

Thanks,

Flex
 
As for Balabushka not using his own blanks what manwon said is dead-on. Also, it is important to note who he bought his blanks from?? Burton Spain and Gus Szamboti! The two best in their times and if you take a look at today's top blank makers Davis and Hercek were his (Burton's) students and learnt everything from Burton himself. (Of course there are others building perfect full splice blanks and cues - at first it's Travis Niklich coming to mind)
The idea of George using blanks for quicker turn around sounds logical but Burton sent only a dozen blanks to Balabushka each month from 1966 to 1970. Gus Szamboti sent even less blanks to George from around 1972-73 until George's death in 1975 - about half a dozen or maybe a little more a month.

Balabushka built about 1100 cues during sixteen years so he wasn't building fast even considering that times machinery.

Flex: his cues were built on a full splice blank - these will show you what a blank looks like in case you're unfamiliar with it. The statement that Balabushka's cues were full-spliced cues is not perfectly true as he would use a phenolic ring in the handle area.

What would truly cut off a full splice blank is putting rings above the handle area - I believe that the cues on which you may see rings above the handle are not full spliced cues anymore.

It would be nice to hear some confirmation about what I have said, I really don't want to say something inappropriate.
 
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