Why do some cues feel like they were assembled

poolrod

poolrod

I like old school
Silver Member
I bought and played with a lot of cues, high and low end cues. Every now and then, some cues almost feel hollow or something. I played with a cue once, that was put together, nothing was machined or anything by this guy. The cue had a strange hit. Everything was beautiful, and it didn't look cheap either. I like a cue that doesn't give at the joint, on contact. Anyone want to share an experience?.
 
I think what you're feeling is exactly that - a little gap in the joint. Or a tip that's coming loose or has an area with no glue that 'gives' a tiny bit. It can give you that weird hollow hit that doesn't feel natural.
 
I'm pretty sure every cue is assembled.. otherwise you'd just have a pile of cue pieces waiting to become a cue..
 
softshot said:
I'm pretty sure every cue is assembled.. otherwise you'd just have a pile of cue pieces waiting to become a cue..
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I just think there's a difference between a cue maker that turns every component, and threads and glues them, instead of just throwing a cue together, and calling it his own. Those cues don't have the playability to me.
 
hard to describe

Hi Rod,

Even many of the cue makers who jump through all the right hoops make cues that I do not find inspiring. When I go to SBE, I see lots of pretty amazing looking cues from just about everybody. But when I hit a few balls, I almost never feel like I need to buy. That level of taste is obviously personal and the reason so many cue makers can achieve success and recognition.

I have played some cues that feel as you describe. Mostly, I find cues to either feel light in the shafts (balanced too far back) or extremely thick, empty, and dead at the joint (also hard to describe, but obviously part of the design because it is common to the cue maker). I currently have two main players. On the few occasions that I let someone else hit a few balls with them, the response is always the same, "it feels very dense to me." That's what suits my taste.

Greg
 
poolrod said:
I just think there's a difference between a cue maker that turns every component, and threads and glues them, instead of just throwing a cue together, and calling it his own. Those cues don't have the playability to me.
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It's not that simple. Balabushka and Rambow assembled cues from blanks.


You might be surprised that many high end cues actually aren't threaded in construction too.

I am confident that in a blind test you couldn't tell how a cue was constructed and whether or not the cue maker made the blank himself. In fact I am 100% confident.






.
 
Sealegs50 said:
Hi Rod,

I currently have two main players. On the few occasions that I let someone else hit a few balls with them, the response is always the same, "it feels very dense to me." That's what suits my taste.

Greg
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Indeed, it is very subjective.
 
I had a cue that felt very hollow. I could feel a little buzz but couldnt hear it. I took it to a local cue builder and he said the dowel was not glued enough and he used thin super glue and fixed the problem in 5 minutes. The cue played totally different after that.
 
Poolrod

I agree that some cues feel much different than others. I also believe that the cue you hit with wasn't good, and that it was assembled from parts rather than being completely made by the cue maker. But, the cause and effect is where I disagree.


There are cues out there made with purchased parts that hit great. There are cues out there where the cuemaker made everything that hit terrible.

The parts that are available out there to buy are made very well. The construction and quality of materials is very high. I think you be surprised by the number of parts these companies make. They are very good at it, because they've been doing it for years, and they make a lot of parts!

Pretty much all cues, that are of traditional construction, are made from parts. When a cuemaker builds a cue, he first buys or builds a forearm, buttsleeve, handle etc. He then assembles them into the final cue. How he does the final assembly is just as important as how the parts are made. If not more so.

At OB Cues, we build everything we use in our cues for a number of reasons. First, our cues are not built from traditional construction methods. We have developed our own technology, so we need to build our own components. Second is expense. Parts are expensive, and we sell most of our cues wholesale and just can't afford the cost of parts.

The moral of the story is this. As a consumer, buy what you like. If it hits bad, just don't buy it. The reasons why can be really complicated. It's not just simply whether or not the cue maker built or bought the parts he used int he cue.
 
RBC said:
Poolrod


The moral of the story is this. As a consumer, buy what you like. If it hits bad, just don't buy it. The reasons why can be really complicated. It's not just simply whether or not the cue maker built or bought the parts he used int he cue.
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Well said.

There are many factors that interact in complex ways.

For example, the maple used. Even two pieces that come from the same tree can be quite different. Lignum is the fiber that makes hard wood hard. The ratio of lignum to cellulose is different on the leeward versus windward side of the tree. The difference is created during the development of the tree to withstand compression versus tension forces. Now, some cue makers are lucky enough to follow the wood from the felling of the tree, but in most cases not. They will select the wood from squares and only a percentage of that wood will qualify as shaft wood, core wood, forearm wood, or handle wood based on the properties the cue maker looks for. It goes beyond the number of growth rings or straightness.

I don't pretend to know the cue maker's MoJo, but I understand some of what is behind it.

Simply put, it is complex, and part of the artistry of the cue maker is in fact understanding such things at almost a visceral level it seems because not all of what they do is quantified, and that is before talking about how the cue looks. And each maker accomplishes these things differently, sometimes with quite different results from the same construction and sometimes quite similar results from very different construction.



.
 
Very insightful information contributed here.
My sense of 'hit' will most likely be different from another player's.
Just have to try them all and/or know what you like.
 
CreeDo said:
... Or a tip that's coming loose or has an area with no glue that 'gives' a tiny bit. It can give you that weird hollow hit that doesn't feel natural.
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A tip can make all the difference. I bought a cue that sounded like breaking glass when I hit with it. The kind of sound/feel that causes chills to run up and down your spine. After tip replacement the sound went away.
 
poolrod said:
I bought and played with a lot of cues, high and low end cues. Every now and then, some cues almost feel hollow or something. I played with a cue once, that was put together, nothing was machined or anything by this guy. The cue had a strange hit. Everything was beautiful, and it didn't look cheap either. I like a cue that doesn't give at the joint, on contact. Anyone want to share an experience?.
Click to expand...

Bob Muecci seems to believe that the butt as well as the shaft can effect deflection. He was fairly amazed that an Adams Balabushka hit so well in his testing with the stock shaft and said that it was probably the butt. The results sort of confirmed it because it had the least improvement with his LD shaft. It's on the Muecci site if you would like to take a look.
 
evanandpeaches said:
I had a cue that felt very hollow. I could feel a little buzz but couldnt hear it. I took it to a local cue builder and he said the dowel was not glued enough and he used thin super glue and fixed the problem in 5 minutes. The cue played totally different after that.
Click to expand...

I had a cheapy that did that & it was threaded. I fixed it myself. It was almost like as if they put one(1) drop of clue on it & screw it up. I used wood clue & it played fine after that.
 
Bob Jewett said:
A tip can make all the difference. I bought a cue that sounded like breaking glass when I hit with it. The kind of sound/feel that causes chills to run up and down your spine. After tip replacement the sound went away.
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I'd agreee with that. To me, one of, if not the most, important part is the tip. A great very expensive cue can be terrible if it has a terrible tip on it. But... tips & tip type are subjective. Hell a bar cue can be a 'good' cue with a 'good' tip on it.
 
Strangest hits I've felt are either a loose ferrule or weight bolt. Outside of that, just a crappy shaft.
 
Tim Scruggs told me more than once that the more small voids there are in a cue at the epoxy loctions, the less solid the cue will sound. It all comes down to meticulous craftsmanship.
 
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