What was your first cue?

My first cue was a McDermott knockoff. A cross between the D-25 & D26. I spent about $75 almost 20 years ago. I still have it and it's just as straight and true as the day I bought it. I played with it all those years with respectable results. Last year I bought a "real" McD (M3-3B) and an I2 shaft. I still on occassion break out the wannabe for a few racks.
 
Well lets see now....

At 16 I was given a Cue by my Uncle on my birthday that may or may not be a Palmer, The first cue that I bought / won new ! was a D16 McDermott which I purchased with a $500 gift certificate won in 1986 as MVP in a APA city finals ! after that I went Cue Crazy adding about 3-4 a year to my collection.:D
 
a Willie Mosconi - it was $70 at the bowling alley and I saved up for it :p sounds silly now, but it was gold to me. I finally gave it up because the wrap kept unraveling :eek:
 
My first cue was soooo cheap think it had 3 or 4 sections that screwed together and between those sections were these metal rings that you could add or remove to adjust the weight. My uncle got it for me for 10 or 15 bucks. Oh yeah it had the old "screw on tip"! Can't remember how long i had it but i was very young
 
My 1st cue was an original 1965 Willie Hoppe signature cue. I used to take a shoe shine box and go from bar to bar shining shoes when i was younger for $.25 a pair. (quarter) (A trait that is no longer done). I saved my money from shining shoes for 3 weeks to buy it. Which i still have by the way. I paid $17.95 for it without the customary case that i see people have today that came with it. Anyway, i had alot of fun with that cue and never beat the hell out of it. I guess if you came from the background that i came from you learn to appreciate and take care of things better. I just showed my latest purchase to a friend and after i told him how much i paid for it he told me. I could never pay that much for a cue. After a week of owning it i would need to have it refinished. I just told him that is because you don't take care of things properly....Just my usual ramblings again i guess................mike
 
My first cue was a flea market special. Remember those walking canes that served as a pool cue too? All I had to do is remove the brass ball handle I had a handy place to store the shaft. At the time I thought I was going to be a real hustler with that cane/cue :D
 
My first cue was a black, one-piece graphite cue that I bought from Sears. I was about 13 years old and I saved up $70 for over a month in order to buy it. After about 3 months, it started to get chips in it so I took a black Sharpie to it to cover them up. I didn't have a pool table at my house, so I left it at my Grandparent's house so whenever I went over, I could play. As far as I know, its still over there. One day I'll get around to picking it up; it will probably be good to keep just for memory's sake.
 
ratcues said:
What was your first cue? How much did you pay? How long did you own it? Any good stories about it?
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I used a friend's jointed cue until I bought a custom cue from Tex Zimmerman. It had an ivory joint, horn ferrules on the two shafts, a brown leather wrap, an ivory butt plate, and the butt was solid bird's-eye maple. I paid $65 for it.

I wish I had taken better care of it and hadn't sold it. I bumped it on the floor harder than I should have after a miss and the butt plate exploded (probably from the internal pressure of the rubber rather than the floor hitting the ivory). Tex replaced it for free, as I recall, with plastic. I had it about two years.

I just talked to a friend about his Zimmerman. He sent it off to a cue maker whose name you would probably recognize for a shaft and to be refinished. It came back with Zimmerman's name removed. Bad cue maker, bad!

Since then I've played with Palmer, Mali, Balabushka, Schrager, Schuler, and Predator, and shafts by Stroud and Buss. The Balabushka with two shafts was $175 in 1972 -- I still have it.
 
Not too many people will know what kinda cue this is, unless your from Michigan.

But it was a Curly Cue. He makes a simple but nice playing cue. I got the cue when i was 10yrs old and had it till i was 27.
 
my dad shortened his own life to get cues for my brother and me. It takes a lot of smokes to collect the "camel bucks" to get a couple of cues. Thanks dad. iirc the bolt in the joint broke in about a week.
 
first cues

Sampaia> a decent carved butt cue/ brass joint $28
Then Rich> $25 used
then> I bought my first "custom cue"
a TAD $45 , right from him at his shop. Had it for quite a while.
Then went to Kersenbrock which I still have, among other customs just for the Fun of it!
 
my first Q was on an IBM pcJR, some serious equipment in its time.

It had 512K RAM with the optional boot disk it could double that.

The Q was an ASCII 32-bit binary encryption. They have not phased out that Q but they offer a lot more models, its tough for it to keep that luster it once had in todays market.
 
So there seems to be an ongoing theme here. We saved our money, bought, what we thought, was a good cue, sold it, now regret it and wish we had it back. When will we learn? Newcomers.....pay attention!
 
My first cue was the one I inherited from my Grandpa Joe when he died. It's a mid-1960's Frank Paradise Titlist conversion with a brass joint.

Still have it and the original Brunswick case. Had to get a new shaft made for it, as the old one warped due to storage in the family attic for many years.

I still have the original shaft too, don't worry.

First cue I ever purchased with my own money was a Dufferin Shadow, which I also still own.
 
i was working part time at imperial billiards in downey ca. a hothead lost a couple of bucks and slammed his cue on the table and broke the shaft and bent the pin. he tossed it in the trash. one new pin and a new shaft later i had my first cue. the pin was 2 bucks and at that time you could get a shaft built for $12.00. it was a nylon wrap wilson. chuck
 
My first cue I bought myself was a five-piece job with weighted washers I bought in a Navy Exchange in Great Lakes, IL 1984. It was the worst cue ever made. The first decent cue I bought was an Imperial wrapless with a deep red stain on the butt. Still have it but play with a Lucasi LD-8 and break with a cheap Axiom J/B
 
Still have my first.

I still play with the first real cue I ever bought. It's a Falcon, and I don't know the model number.

But I've never justified trading it, or selling it, or buying another. I like the weight and balance, and I'm used to it. When it breaks(don't see how), I'll look for another just like it.

I did buy a 314-2 shaft recently and LOVE it!!!!!!!!
 
I had quite a few junk cues but got sick of them falling to bits. My first decent cue was a Viking (currently on ebay) then went through a couple more and ended up with my Scruggs which is defiantly a keeper.
 
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