As far as the OP's topic is concerned, I would have to say that Harvey Martin comes to mind. He did a lot of innovative things in cuemaking, and his style has been passed down into a very popular form of cuebuilding we still see today. I think it's ok to say what works and what doesn't to a degree. Martin apparently messed around with putting weights behind the ferrule to "obtain more contact time between the tip and cue ball"... In today's world, most people would say that's a no-no as it creates massive deflection. Bob Meucci also did some very innovative things with cues. Some practices have died out, some stay around. I'm sure most people who read this area of the forum have read some of the threads that pop up about proper ferrule installation techniques. Even something so simple is hotly debated amongst today's cue makers and repair men.