Who's cues hit like (*&%?

torqiet said:
my exact experience.. a mcdaniel i tried a year ago really sucked, almost as bad as my first philippine cue-audrick(broomstick), but my playing cue now is a mcdaniel, has one of the best hits i feel..
Click to expand...

my cue was supposed to be un hit. it had original champion tips on it for the 70's. they werent dry rotted but they played terrible. the cue hit like a shovel.

those tips must have really sucked back in the day. very dead
 
I bought a Sherman Adamson DCC cue. I did not like the hit of it at all. Nor the workmanship for that matter. HOWEVER. I was given a full refund and in no way am I trying to bash Sherm Adamson. He's an AZer and a fine gentleman as far as I can tell.
 
1pRoscoe said:
So we always hear the hype about "hit like a mack truck", "hit a ton", and "hit is INCREDIBLE!", but I'm curious..... Who makes a cue that just hits like crap? Why do you not like them?

Not looking for opinions on cuemakers you don't care for, but cues that just consistently don't seem to be right....

Like others have said, I've yet to see an add in the for sale section that said, "it doesn't really hit all that great, but I'm selling it anyways...."

My vote - Ernie Martinez. I bought one due to the hype and was sorely dissappointed... Didn't like the taper, the joint, the balance - nothing.
Click to expand...


On several different occasions over the years I have received cues from well known cuemakers and one shaft would play fantastic and the other, not so good. Noisy,rattley,clicky and a quick change of the ferrule and tip or sometimes just the tip itself will correct the problem.
 
jayman said:
My dentist has a collection of Ernie cues that ALL hit like a dream, ALL OF THEM. But yet, A lady I play leagues with has one that is too rear balanced and hits kind of dead.?? She knows I love ernie cues, so she always offers to let me use it. but i just tell her I wouldnt want to be responsible if anything happend to her cue.
Click to expand...

Just so you all know, there are a few Ernie Martinez cues out there that were not made by Ernie, but Ernie's brother using Ernie's logo. During a couple of Ernie's "time outs", I'm told his brother continued to make cues using the logo and sold them as Ernies to continue his revenue stream. All this was done without Ernie's knowledge or permission. If the fit & finish isn't perfect (i.e. where the wrap meets the forearm/buttsleeve) or it is very loose or very tight when it's screwed together, it may not, and probably is not one of Ernie's cues.

Ernie put a stop to this this go around and since his brother does not work with him anymore, this should not happen again. However, we are talking about wood and it's not to say every cue ever cuemaker mkaes hits the same, there could be a lemon or two out there from Ernie, I just haven't hit with one of those yet :). Ernie is a perfectionists and knows his craft very very well. But we've all hit with cues we didn't like (for us) that others from the same maker hit great.

Sorry to disturb the thread but I thought you would like to know what has not been talked about. All of Ernie's new cues are made 100% by Ernie & have all hit really well that I've tried. But are they for everyone??????

Dave
 
1pRoscoe said:
Doh! This is the wrong section..... and I concur about the post-Franklin SW cues as well.. I didn't care for them at all.

-Ross
drinking heavily tonight.... alone...
Click to expand...

This is a very interesting opinion..
Since the SAME people have been making the cues in the SW shop for about 20 years.. When Jerry was alive and now.. Mickey and Al didn't change their techniques after Jerry's passing...
Best,
Ken
Highendcues
 
Danktrees said:
was it the shaft that sucked or was it a combination of the shaft and the butt. did u try that cue with another shaft to see if it makes it any better?
Click to expand...

On the Auerback, it was definitely the shaft. It was dead no matter what cue it was on. It was a new cue too. I might have tried replacing the shaft, but the cue was too heavy for me anyway so I just got rid of it.

Chris
 
Bad Hits

In some cases I think it may be the piece of wood used or the combination of wood used. I haven't built that many cues but I have built a couple that hit like crap. Every cue that I've made with a maple forearm and a laminated maple handle or purple heart handle have hit great regardless of how many points or veneers were in them. I made a cue with a paduak forearm and it was the worst hitting cue I've ever played with. Probably a rookie mistake I guess, because I haven't seen too many cues with paduak forearms. I trashed that POS promptly. I can tell you it sucks when you work on a cue for months and finally get it sprayed and buffed out, take it to the table and shoot a rack to find out it doesn't hit good. Kinda like a kick in the sack:(
 
HighEndCues said:
This is a very interesting opinion..
Since the SAME people have been making the cues in the SW shop for about 20 years.. When Jerry was alive and now.. Mickey and Al didn't change their techniques after Jerry's passing...
Best,
Ken
Highendcues
Click to expand...
The base of my opinion is a 1982 6pt w/ micarta ferrules to a 2003 BEM plain jane... You can tell me the only differentiator between these two cues is that Jerry died? :rolleyes:
 
1pRoscoe said:
The base of my opinion is a 1982 6pt w/ micarta ferrules to a 2003 BEM plain jane... You can tell me the only differentiator between these two cues is that Jerry died? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

IMO, with the exception of the availability of real good shaft wood, and the use of asbestos based melamine (which could cause you some health isues if you work on it and breathe in the fibers), yes. In fact, I would tend to think that Jerry's cues made in the late 80s and early 90s were better than the ones he made in his very early days.

When discussing early Schon cues to later Schon cues once, Evan Clark told me "Hell, if I had not learned enough to make a better cue now than I did 20 years ago, I would quit." Again, with the exception of the availability of good wood, etc, I feel he is correct. That is not to say that the cues Jerry, Mickey and Al made before Jerry passed were of any lesser quality that now...that is obviously not the case.

However, Mickey, Al and Laurie could have cranked up production at any time by going CNC, buying new equipment, hiring more people, etc, but they haven't. Instead, they have remained at a fairly steady production rate, using the same techniques as in the past, concentrating on building a quality cue. Wood is wood, and from time to time, things happen to it, but I feel that SW still puts out a really good "billiards instrument". Next time you are in Vegas, call Laurie and go visit the SW cue "factory" and let me know what you think then.

Joe
 
yes well considering u talk shit about every cue i own i guess its not surprising that u'd comment on them now.

on topic - ur schon is pretty bad too, especially with the pred shaft. normal is 29 inches but u had to get a 30 inch one to add an extra inch of crappiness to it. i was gonna chuck the cue into the ground after using it but it wasnt mine so i just let it slide lol.
 
Last edited:
Umm, Chris? You DO KNOW that ALL - as in 100% - of Brick cues made from Dymondwood were made as BREAK CUES, right??

-von

TATE said:
I hit some balls with a Brick cue made from Dymondwood. Although it hit like a Brick as advertised, I would have preferred it hit like a pool cue.

Chris
Click to expand...
 
bogey54311 said:
this year i went to the DCC. i sold 4 gus szamboti's to a friend and delivered them to him there. he also brought 4 of his barry szamboti's with him for me to check out. we took them all one of the nights down to the tables to fool around with them. we both shoot with 314's, so we just kept swapping our one playing shaft with all the different szamboti's. he pulls the last barry out and tells me, for whatever reason, he can't make a ball with this cue. (this guy is a great open player by the way). now all the barry's and gus' that we tried hit about the same. i try the cue he has been having a problem with. guess what, this cue acts TOTALLY diferent. (all the cues had a piloted steel joint). i couldn't control the english as well, and there was more deflection for some reason. the cue had no rattles, nothing was loose. using the barry shaft, it did the same things. tapers seemed the same between the 8 cues. weird. (iv'e seen this type of thing before in other top makers also.) we had a few other people try it, and they all said the same thing.

chris G<--------gonna make some people mad;)
Click to expand...

The second you said I put a predator shaft on a Szamboti you lost all credibility.. lol :D

JV
 
12squared said:
Just so you all know, there are a few Ernie Martinez cues out there that were not made by Ernie, but Ernie's brother using Ernie's logo. During a couple of Ernie's "time outs", I'm told his brother continued to make cues using the logo and sold them as Ernies to continue his revenue stream. All this was done without Ernie's knowledge or permission. If the fit & finish isn't perfect (i.e. where the wrap meets the forearm/buttsleeve) or it is very loose or very tight when it's screwed together, it may not, and probably is not one of Ernie's cues.

Ernie put a stop to this this go around and since his brother does not work with him anymore, this should not happen again. However, we are talking about wood and it's not to say every cue ever cuemaker mkaes hits the same, there could be a lemon or two out there from Ernie, I just haven't hit with one of those yet :). Ernie is a perfectionists and knows his craft very very well. But we've all hit with cues we didn't like (for us) that others from the same maker hit great.

Sorry to disturb the thread but I thought you would like to know what has not been talked about. All of Ernie's new cues are made 100% by Ernie & have all hit really well that I've tried. But are they for everyone??????

Dave
Click to expand...
I second the motion. I was in Denver before and during Ernie's leave of absence and in his shop many times even when the Bro's were still trying to keep it open by making plain janes or finishing cues he had started. If it has veneered points, you can rest assured Ernie did the forearm and any inlay work. If it is a plain Jane, you can't really be sure. I like Ernie and his work alot.
 
The only cue I own which I can't play with is the first one I bought, a Crest. The tip is too hard. I could put a tip on it but I like my Schon so I probably still wouldn't use it.
 
1pRoscoe said:
Exactly my point! Hit is subjective, however those that know what a cue should hit like pretty much can peg the same errors...

case in point, I had a friend that has a VERY well known cuemaker's cue - we both didn't like it... had a very funny vibration throughout the cue... Just sucked.

hit is highly subjective, so you can chalk this post up as another one of those "Hits unbelievable" is full of shit posts...

edit - mods, please move to main forum
Click to expand...

Oh I like this post. Common thread is that some cues just hit bad, even from very good makers. Wood has its own qualities after all. And I know some folks that actually like a soft, mushy feeling cue. Personally a cue has to balance about 18.75" or more from the butt cap, and hit somewhat stiff before I even start to like it.

I do try to give cues a far try out, rarely toss one aside until I've played a few weeks with it. Sometimes I find that something I didn't initially like actually works great.
 
Danktrees said:
u spelt 2 of those wrong, its carmeli and audrick.
Click to expand...

Spelt? :D Spelled you mean.

Meuccis. Plastic collar, spongy ferrules, long straight taper on shafts and weight bolts everywhere=no life to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top