who created the jump cue?
- Thread starter trinacria
- Start date
Don't think you're ever gonna a definitive answer on this. IIRC they started showing up in the early 2000's. I bought a J&J in that period with a phenolic tip and they were touting it as the next great thing. Still have it but i put a WDUlta on it. Phenolic sucks imo.
Pat Fleming created the jump cue. First guys to use a phenolic tip was our very own John Barton with the Bunjee Jumper cues, made by Instroke at the time.
Very cool. Good to know.
Jump cues came around in the mid 1990's. Check rec.sport.billiards. There were a lot of variants at the time. Phenolic tips around the same time. Saw a post by Kilby before 2000 regarding phenolic jump tips.
FYI, there's a TON of reading pre-AZB. Many of us were contributing to RSB long before AZB.
-td
FYI, there's a TON of reading pre-AZB. Many of us were contributing to RSB long before AZB.
-td
is that true or are you bring sarcastic, bc I feel like barton would claim he invented the wheel.
Mace were the first ones I remember.
I have an Espiritu jump-break from May '93.
I have an Espiritu jump-break from May '93.
I think Shawn has it right, but before the jump cue, players started unscrewing their shaft and using it for jumps, dart style. Guess someone got the idea from that. I do recall John Barton was involved in the phenolic tip for jumpers. Probably a cue maker came up with the idea, then it was adapted to production.
John did come up with a lot of innovations. He also was not afraid to use what he saw as good ideas or good crafting. That's one of the reasons why his products are so good.
John did come up with a lot of innovations. He also was not afraid to use what he saw as good ideas or good crafting. That's one of the reasons why his products are so good.
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In one of Robert Byrne's book, he covers Pat Fleming and the jump cue. To disguise the source of his new jumping ability, he added a balsa wood butt so it appears full length.
First jump cue was Sammy Jones, married to Lorrie Jon at the time. He simply used a shaft to jump the cue ball.
First phenolic tip on a break cue? Mike Gulassay. There may have been some some attempts before, but his Sledghammer was the first available production break cue, as far as I know.
All the best,
WW
First phenolic tip on a break cue? Mike Gulassay. There may have been some some attempts before, but his Sledghammer was the first available production break cue, as far as I know.
All the best,
WW
best break cues ever made.
I don't know when that was but I remember a guy in the late 1980s that could jump a ball a credit card width away and jump the width of the table with enough draw to come back and scratch. It was just a shaft and he threw it like a dart, then he knocked the tip off one day and shot a few with just the ferrule and it was even easier to jump straight up!
It must have been about 1988.
I bought my house in the city, in 1987, so I know it was right around that time frame.
Some people think Earl invented the jump shot , including him , but my mentor was jumping a full ball and pocketing a ball in the corner and drawing the full table back before 1967. Earl wasn't born until 1961. He wasn't a known player because he was one of the best card mechanics in the country and only played pool to relax.
I once asked him why he didn't play pool for money and he said "I couldn't stand the cut in pay"!
He wasn't the best player I ever saw , but he had a tremendous stroke and was a stone cold killer when gambling , he just enjoyed spinning the cueball a bit too much, but he would have tortured a player anywhere near Howard Vickery's speed.
Yup, that's who I remember too. Sammy was using a jump cue in the mid 80s.
I knew Pat back when he was experimenting with the first jump cues and even played against him while he experimented with some really strange looking jump cues he himself had devised. The truth is, however, that the jump cue, it can be argued, goes back quite a bit further than that.
The late, and well respected, poster Hemicudas related that the first jump cue was in fact, a bumper pool cue. Here's a post he made in 2004.
RIP, Hemicudas.
The late, and well respected, poster Hemicudas related that the first jump cue was in fact, a bumper pool cue. Here's a post he made in 2004.
RIP, Hemicudas.
I can't find the name, but there was a man demonstrating motion dynamics (in spherical geometry?) somewhere around the time of 1900 that demonstrated physical effects like jumping and masse on a 3 cushion table, he used a stick 100cm long. I've liked pool before college, so when I read it in a course book that stuck with me even though it was just a blurb and not part of the course.
I thought I remember Pat Fleming talking about a 58” cue, butt section balsa wood, to make a jumper.
windKnott
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Don’t know exactly who or when but, in mid to late ‘80’s (‘87-‘88?) during the time I was training with Ray Martin, Ray had a Break / Jump Cue built for me. I had been jumping with my playing Joss. Don’t know who made it but I still use it to this day. I did put a Taom tip on it. Great Cue & many thanks to Ray 
As for phenolic tips, they should be outlawed. They damage the cue ball.