I did not have many cues in my 22 years in this game. I guess I was just lucky to have the best teacher/coach/mentor in my life Jorgen Sandman who helped so much to promote pool in my country and without him we would not have billiards among the other kinds of sports in our National university of physical education and sports of Ukraine so as the billiard school in it and all that knowledge and experience he helped to get ... orginizing here in Kiev from 2000 to 2005 two European championships for youth, Artistic Pool both EC and WC with such great ambassadors as Mike Massey, Tom Rossman and others and so much more to remember.
So in our billiard school we had a bunch of 20$ house cues in the amount enough for a group of students learning there. We were also taught how to replace/put a tip on them and so as the others I started to learn the game with one of those cues with a simple Triangle tip on it. It worked just fine at the time and I would not ever call it the worst...
So as me and two of my classmates who came in billiards with Basketball background ...well we were not so standard when it comes to height ... Jorgen helped us to get 60" cues from Dan Prather. I loved that simple cocobolo/bem wrapless merry widow ... so much memories, matches, tournaments won with that no fancy cue.
Six years later I've ordered my second 60" custom Prather cue with a design, woods and all the details I asked ... all embodied by Jeff Prather. I started to use my first playing cue for breaking and my new player for playing and continued to enjoy both for the years to come.
Till a few years ago I started to be interested in getting some new knowledge/skills/experience in this sport and now enjoying some of my free time with cue-building. One of the reasons for my interest was my certain needs/preferences when it comes to the cues plus being a coach ... having pupils who need cues to learn ... living in a country where pool is still not and I doubt will ever be a main billiard game (piramid is still the most popular).
So I got my learning curve ... experimenting and building first 62" (even split) cue with my first LD solid maple shaft for myself and afterwards a few cues for my students.
My full spliced ABW/Pau Rosa cue came out so special and having such a hit that it seems to become my standard/gauge when it comes to the hit for the years to come and building the cues using different constructions I'm trying to get as close as possible when it comes to its hit.
Last summer among some orders I've experimented once again and I finished 62" wrapless merry widow cue built on a full length core where I experimented on a shaft's taper and tip's size so as some other changes in construction. This shaft came out with a lowest deflection I've ever had (tested and compared it to Revo 12,4 , Ignite and it's on par) while having great feel/feedback and what is the most important in length I need.
This second cue came out very special too and I can tell woods/materials used contributed so much. I was lucky to get the board of very old / stiff hard maple 120+ sm in length for my future shafts. So the shaft, forearm, butt sleeve for my second cue are from the same blank afterwards divided accordingly. It has some character, honey color, more yellowish and darker at one side the grain at the forearm is straight like it was drawn under the ruler. Should I add about the sound). Plus of course Pau Rosa full length core from the same board I used for my first full spliced player and Pau Rosa handle contributed to the hit a lot too among with some other nitty-gritty details.
For breaking & jumping purposes I've built very stiff purple heart shaft with a hammerhead tip at the end. Joined with my full spliced butt it transfers so much energy ... no need for those hi-tech toys if we talk about power ...being honest the main advantage of those expensive cf break shafts is their very low deflection which of course is an important factor to consider but I'm happy with what I have.
So all in all in 20+ years only 4 cues I've owned ... no worst and these two I'm using now have everything I love when it comes to the hit ... now I'm just happy being able to embody some ideas, having some fun and enjoying the process while building some cues I have an interest to build.
P.S. Just last week I filmed myself doing the same routine big position zone drill with both of my cues plus one more I've built for sale (same shaft on three different butts) because one of the AZers had some questions and I've tried to make it possible to hear if there is a difference in a hit. Unfortunately so as it is a billiard school it is very seldom you're alone at the room with no others hitting some balls. This time it was a student practicing at the piramid table interfering but anyway it was fun experiment to feel the difference.
So here is me hitting some balls with three different butts