Who is really the best?
- Thread starter Monstermash
- Start date
most bang for the buck
I think the op is asking if you only had xxx amount of dollars to spend, whose cue might give the better performance and desireability. Not necessarily most popular at the moment or whose cue is hyped the most. Lets use 1000 for example. Thats all you have to spend. Which cuemaker do you choose to give you quality of constuction, eye appeal, and the great hit we are all looking for. Like the title says, most bang for the buck. Not talking whose cue you can flip the fastest. Assuming for 1000 you want the cue for your own personal enjoyment. Jerry R, Jeff olney, Josey and Gilbert would be my top choices.
I think the op is asking if you only had xxx amount of dollars to spend, whose cue might give the better performance and desireability. Not necessarily most popular at the moment or whose cue is hyped the most. Lets use 1000 for example. Thats all you have to spend. Which cuemaker do you choose to give you quality of constuction, eye appeal, and the great hit we are all looking for. Like the title says, most bang for the buck. Not talking whose cue you can flip the fastest. Assuming for 1000 you want the cue for your own personal enjoyment. Jerry R, Jeff olney, Josey and Gilbert would be my top choices.
Supply and demand have little meaning when the values are artifically manipulated. (also doesn't factor in people with more money than brains)
JV
I disagree with you on this. If that was the OPs question, he would have phrased it that way. What the op is stating is that HE thinks plain/not fancy cues selling for up to/over $1000 are not worth the price regardless of who builds them. Read post #8 for more insight.
Funny and very true.Playability depends on the persons style,from finesse to power there just isn't one.If a cue is built solid with a good tip it really doesn't matter who's name is on the bottom of it except if your reselling it.
Filibogado
Registered
I'm as green as they come so my opinion doesn't really matter much. What I'm having a problem comprehending though is, being a pianist first and a pool player second, why would a pool cue sometimes cost more than my Yamaha grand concert piano when the thing doesn't have any moving parts, weighs and occupies space much less than 1 thousandths that of a piano, does not produce any pleasing sound, and whose function can be replicated using a bamboo pole. Is ego (of the buyer) or reputation (of the maker) the major selling point? How then would a cost accountant report this to the IRS if he were audited and have to produce an assessed valuation based on cost of materials, labor, equipment, depreciation, etc.
Just sayin'
Fil
That's a HUGE factor. But largely on the second hand market. And Monster clearly doesn't factor in resale VALUE when determining a cue's value. :scratchhead:
There are a few of those 'more money than brains' guys out there buying cues based on little more than the cue maker's name or the abundance of ivory in the cue. And they're playing a BIG part in setting the market VALUE for these cues. Once that happens, its not uncommon to see cuemakers revisiting their own costs direct to the customer.
Maybe cue "playing" value is what he meant ?
For example, if you were going into a competition and had up to $1000-$1,500 to spend on any cue to play with in the competition, what cue would you buy ?
Maybe this is a totally different question better asked in a new thread.
For example, if you were going into a competition and had up to $1000-$1,500 to spend on any cue to play with in the competition, what cue would you buy ?
Maybe this is a totally different question better asked in a new thread.
The 1st cue I ever played with was a 1-piece Tiltist. I remember it having an awesome hit. Very solid and you could feel everything the cue would do in your grip. Over the years I've own many Titlist and have found that once you short-splice a cue, it loses it's "feel". Therefore, I have gone back to full-splice wrapless Sneakys with wood to wood joints. These cues almost feel like an extension of my arm. Value? Get a full-splice Sneaky from one of the best cuemakers...there is just NO better value than that! If you can get one with a John Davis blank, you're shooting the best (you could buy the blanks yourself and have your cuemaker of choice do the rest)! Everything else on a cue is simply artistic expressions that ultimately affect the "feel" of the cue.
My choices for a full-splice Sneaky:
Paul Drexler
Paul Dayton
Madison Bob (Griffin)
David Jacoby
Jon Spitz
My choices for a full-splice Sneaky:
Paul Drexler
Paul Dayton
Madison Bob (Griffin)
David Jacoby
Jon Spitz
There are plenty of good cue makers out there. I have played with some great cues I had commissioned for me, Gus, Barry,Schick,Bender,Searing,Perry Weston,Kikel, and some of the lesser know makers. For the names mentioned above you will pay some serious money for. I have a cue by a gentleman named John Bender that is a sweet cue. It is the second cue I have from John the first one I purchased was a cue that he had pre built and I was impressed with it enough to sell it and commission a cue from John. John has made about 75 cues to date that is a guess but he does all the work by hand and on equipment he has made he does not do inlays at least the last I talked with him but he does make sweet playing cue and for the money spent you are getting a quality well playing cue. I don't think it will be a cue that will appreciate as some but I think they will always be worth what you paid for them.
Attachments
Ernie Martinez. The best. Best hit, best looks, best fit and finish, best balance, best taper, best value. Any questions?
McDermott
Joss
Viking
Jacoby
Pechauer
and any number of imported cues under dozens of names.
Joss
Viking
Jacoby
Pechauer
and any number of imported cues under dozens of names.
I own a variety of cues from different makers and I have to say bang for the buck and playability has to be Jon Spitz. I love the way his cues are balanced and the hit is perfect for me. The prices are great for the amount of cue that you get. It has become my new main shooter since I have picked it up.
I guess it'll boil down to personal preferences.
I'll go with Pete Tonkin.
Freddie <~~~ for no particular reason
Would have been great if the thread had been started without an agenda. But four or five posts in it became clear.
When you get above a certain point "value" is not a factor any more as desirability trumps it. This is the intangible factor that drives prices. Value is then the feeling one gets from ownership, respect from one's peers and the fact that owning something rare is a small club.
When you factor in actual construction and precision then there is a certain amount of appreciation that true students of the craft learn to recognize and feel. Thus there is a different class of cue makers who revel in building cues with super tight tolerances and amazing balance and a superb hit. A hit that they know is superb because they themselves are great players who understand from a player's perspective how a cue should feel.
Some cue makers are like professional decorators who can dress up any cue into a work of art. So there will always be the debate between those who think that decoration trumps construction.
Only a few cue makers can blend both. Those are the ones who provide the best value in my opinion. Who they are is known to the people who can afford them in the upper end of the market.
Best absolute value? Cuetec of course. Decent hit with more professional titles, stays dead straight and can be had for under $300 most places.
The fact of it is that when it comes to primary equipment pool players have the absolute widest range of choices on the market. As far as I can tell there are more custom and production cue makers than there are makers of equipment in any other sport. If some one wants to prove me go ahead and I will be happy to learn. But at last count I believe we have something like 700ish ACTIVE cue makers in the USA alone. Combined with brands of cues out there there are over a thousand to choose from.
So the best value is the cue making industry itself. It's hard to buy a bad cue these days and with all the information available it's easier than ever to make a good choice as to where to spend your money to get the most bang for the buck.
When you get above a certain point "value" is not a factor any more as desirability trumps it. This is the intangible factor that drives prices. Value is then the feeling one gets from ownership, respect from one's peers and the fact that owning something rare is a small club.
When you factor in actual construction and precision then there is a certain amount of appreciation that true students of the craft learn to recognize and feel. Thus there is a different class of cue makers who revel in building cues with super tight tolerances and amazing balance and a superb hit. A hit that they know is superb because they themselves are great players who understand from a player's perspective how a cue should feel.
Some cue makers are like professional decorators who can dress up any cue into a work of art. So there will always be the debate between those who think that decoration trumps construction.
Only a few cue makers can blend both. Those are the ones who provide the best value in my opinion. Who they are is known to the people who can afford them in the upper end of the market.
Best absolute value? Cuetec of course. Decent hit with more professional titles, stays dead straight and can be had for under $300 most places.
The fact of it is that when it comes to primary equipment pool players have the absolute widest range of choices on the market. As far as I can tell there are more custom and production cue makers than there are makers of equipment in any other sport. If some one wants to prove me go ahead and I will be happy to learn. But at last count I believe we have something like 700ish ACTIVE cue makers in the USA alone. Combined with brands of cues out there there are over a thousand to choose from.
So the best value is the cue making industry itself. It's hard to buy a bad cue these days and with all the information available it's easier than ever to make a good choice as to where to spend your money to get the most bang for the buck.