What's the big deal with Custom Cues???

Flex said:
That comparison to suits is quite a bit off. It's quite possible to obtain really excellent off-the-rack suits if you're willing to spend the money, and they aren't cheap, nor can you get them at Sears. However, a custom made suit that is really made well is a different animal. The fit and feel is different, and so are the looks. To make the comparison relatively valid, a Sears would stack up against a good custom made suit the way one of those 4 piece cues, with the washers in between the joints that go for $9.95 at KMart or wherever, would compare to a high-performance custom cue.

Flex
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Well my reference to a Custom Suit will stand as to me a Custom Suit MEAN you start with Measurements, Pick Fabric, or Cloth, Style like (single breasted, or double breasted), Pant with or with out BELT Loops, cuffs, YEs or No, and than there is a First Fitting, and a final fitting. When you get the Custom Suit it Fit like it was made for just you, and no one else.

But you could be right about what is available “off the Rack” today, as I have not worn or owned a Suit or Sport coat in over 20+++++ YEARS.:D
 
skins said:
no disrespect to the cuemaker but how would he know for sure the cue had "nice wood"? he didn't choose these woods nor make the cue. besides the construction of the butt and shafts, along with the wood types used, play a great role in the consistent hit and feel of a cue. the only consistent hitting "conversions" i've ever played with were titelist fronts that had been compleetly redone, new handle, sleeve and all. i'm not saying you can't pick an old cue and fix it up , make new shafts for it and make it play good i'm saying if you have no controll over the initial building of the main parts of the cue you can't gaurantee a successful result. you only get a "consistently" good result when you start from scratch.
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Maybe so. However, his conversions are pretty sweet. He has hand picked the old house cues, makes sure there's enough wood to allow all the necessary work to make it a top notch player.

Although I'm not exactly in the market for a new cue, as I'm very happy with what I have, if I were to look for a customised sneaky made from an old house cue, I'd certainly give him my first look.

Flex
 
pete lafond said:
Mike Webb built a cue for a player in our room. I'm trying to get the player to post a picture of it here though I'm not sure the picture will do it justice. This is the most beautiful cue I have ever seen. And I mean ever seen. The finish is immaculate. I understand that Mike has a new method for finishing the butt which clearly is so different than before (not that before was bad either).
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I don't doubt it Pete. I have quite a few floating around my home room that I would stack up against anyone's work.
One buddy has a cue that Mike did recut points on and it is absolutely stunning.
 
skins said:
i'm reffering to the statement you made that "Most of a cue's performance comes from the SHAFT". that is just dead wrong period. the word "may" is not in that phrase. i know where your going with this but your basis on this part of the sublect is flawed. most can't teach you the fine points of well made custom cues and the reality is most of the time you have to spend allot of money to find out the answers to this subject for yourself. it's like anything in life finding the best always cost money and most will never experience the "best" because they never have enough or think the game, or whatever their intereset, important enough to them to spend the money. you can try others cues untill you find one you "think" you like then have to play with it for a while to make sure you feel comfortable with it and then of course the more you play with it you will start to notice things like the shaft taper, balance point, butt thickness, wrap feel, weight ect.... that's when you say to yourself "i think i'm going to give the cuemaker a call and have him make me the same type cue only made to my specs". that's where having the money comes in. now the majority of poeple that play pool don't notice the differeces that can make the cue play better and ultimately make them feel more comfortable and become better players. some just don't want to spend the money. IMHO most that question the superior playability of a custom cue can't afford them.
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I think we might be talking about different things here. Performance to me does not include feel. Any cue with a 314, in my experience, has the same performance. It takes the same effort to move the balls around the table with a 314+SW Butt or a 314+Lucasi Butt. The deflection felt the same. That's the experience I've had. However, the 314+SW butt cue does play better simply because it provided better feel. The shots felt more solid. Hell, I can't even be sure that the SW butt really does outperform the lucasi butt in feel. I think subconciously I already equate 'better feel' with the SW. However, I generally think custom cues (or hand crafted cues to be more exact), has a higher chance of hitting better than production cues. That's from my experience playing with both handcrafted cues and production cues. I now use a Coker as my main player, and has a Josey that I play with sometimes. I haven't played with a production cue that has the same kind of 'magical' hit that a really good handcrafted cue has. It's something indiscribible.
 
pete lafond said:
Is it possible that what is being said is the order of importance is the;

1. Tip
2. Shaft
3. Butt

rather than a blanket statement about all cues play the same?
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tip....shaft....joint
 
custom shafts

I bought a used cue with a bent pin with 2 custom gilbert shafts that were stripped for 60 bucks.The cue played phenomenol even after I had to put glue in them to keep them tight!A S/W with a meucci shaft is going to play like a mushi!
 
Snapshot9 said:
Why pick out a woman to be a girlfriend when ANY woman would do ... lol

and many times, it is a high dollar woman, for various reasons ... <grin>
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Excellent analogy.
 
Koop said:
....

I have also found that I really love a HARD tip. I was playing with Triangles until recently when I tried a Hercules Hard. This thing makes a Triangle feel like an Elkmaster.
...
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Koop, next time I see you, remind me to let me you try my Samsara with the Stratos extra-hard tip.
 
catscradle said:
Koop, next time I see you, remind me to let me you try my Samsara with the Stratos extra-hard tip.
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Don't you worry. I'll pester you until you do :D
 
to say it plainly, cheaper cues may play as well as a custom cue, but if the custom maker is good and reputable he is going to be using the best materials, the ones that dont have defects, woods without sap, cured correctly so it dosen't warp, discolor, etc. It may hit the same as a lesser cue but surely will outlast it as with most retail items you buy in life. There is a lot of glitter in custom cues, but who wants to dress in rags if ya can wear fashion!! Nice to also have something that you can trade, sell, etc. and still get what you put into it and more. :)
 
As for me....

My two favorite Cues are McDermotts ! I own some very expensive beautiful Cues like Samsara and a few others but I play with only 3 the two McDermotts and a Jacoby IMO I like the wood to wood feel of these and the hit ! I have put a I-2 shaft on one and it is an improvement in playability ! anything above $300 is in my opinion really for the look and if you are a pool lover you also love your cue since it is the connection between you and the balls ! :)
 
A friend of mine once approached me and asked me to build a local up and coming lady player a nice cue with her birth stones in it and he was giving it to her as a gift. He really wanted me to make that cue play good for her style of play. He told me the budget and it was more than the cue should cost. He then told me since I was treating him that well on that cue that his budget was now several thousand dollars and he wanted a ebony cue loaded with ivory, rubies and abalone with ringtail lizard wrap. So I built him the two cues and was given a $500 tip as he felt I did not charge enough. You know what he did next? He had me build him a $575 wrapless cue with some nice inlays to play with. I felt that cue played as good if not better than the several thousand dollar cue did. He wanted the high dollar cue as an investment and to be able to pull it out and say "look at this." He really enjoyed hearing the "wows" and so on. But he wanted the lower dollar cue to play everyday with. People like nice things. People appreciate cue art. Some are willing to spend for it. If you really like playing with that Meucci by all means keep playing with it. Many people just do not get the feel out of a production cue that they want and the smaller cuemakers have developed cues that hit like they want them to and created a following of people who like their hit. There are people out there who say my cues hit better than anyone elses. Others are not that impressed. So it is personal preference. But to answer your other question. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get a custom cue unless you are picking one from a small handful of cuemakers. That $575 cue played great and he could use his ivory ferruled shafts from his high dollar cue on it also.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
A custom cue has some value concerning its playability. For me it is owning something that others do not have. Also pride in ownership is a high prioity with customs. I also have custom guns. Do they shoot better than some of the over the counter guns - yes and no. But its mine and it is a custom built gun and it is built to my spec's. No different with a cue, or anything else that is custom built.
 
Huge difference in my mind

I have kept my cue purchases over the years to used customs from plain Jane playing cues on up to somewhat fancy $2K-3K customs (retail value). I have also owned and played with all of the standard production label Meucci, McDermott, Viking, Schon, Players, Lucasi, etc etc etc. Other than one old Original Meucci I owned, I can't remember any production cue as having a spectacular hit or balance worth noting. Not so for the customs I have owned and played with. Of course there have been some customs I downright disliked for some playability reason or another and couldn't wait to unload at whatever price I got for them.

What I have observed in my world:

If you buy a new production cue for $400, you're lucky if you can to sell it for $150 used in 2-5 years. If you buy a used production cue for $150, you might be able to sell it for $150-200 in the future if you bought it right. Old Meucci Originals and McDermott C & D series are an exception.

Buy a used custom cue at whatever price. You get a cue that may have cost you more up front, but if you did your homework, you got a decent deal, and now have a cue that is tried and true, isn't warped like many old production cues I have seen, plays and balances great possibly giving you more confidence in your stroke, and is easier to resell for more than you paid for it day one. Also, like it or not, you get total strangers walking up to you from across the room complimenting your cue and asking to look at it.


Here is just a few examples of "Strictly Hypothetical" cue turns one could have achieved in the past.

Mottey - standard 4 point veneered leather wrap purchase for $860 sell for $1000 1 yr later.
Mottey ivory joint amboyna point lizard wrap - pay $1350 sell for $1875 6 months later.
Dishaw 4 shafts - pay $1000 - sell for $1675 6 months later
3 Cognoscenti plain janes - pay $600, $750, $800 sell for $900, $1000, $1000 4 months later

New Runde 2000 Pay $1125 sell for $1750 6 months later
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I never found a production cue that hit anything played or felt like any one of the cues mentioned in the hypothetical example.


I personally lost money selling used production cues and if the hypothetical list of transactions above were possible, I see no reason to waste my money buying a production cue. I did sink more into my Les Blevins than what I would have liked to, but this baby hits better than any of those listed above, so I don't see it going anywhere for a long time. Meucci? No Way.
 
RRfireblade said:
Holy Thread Resurractions Batman.

:)
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A double resurrection Robin ! .... May of this year and now December ... somebody has been diggin' deep into the post-cave :eek:

Dave
 
My reason

I have a custom cue made by a LOCAL cue maker. Total cost was $376 which included custom joining an OB-1 shaft to it. I figured that if I was willing to spend around $400 for a new cue, then why not keep the money here in town and support my local cue builder.

Vinnie
 
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