Not a lot of turnover.
1.) Mali Merry Widow. It wasn't the best-hitting cue I tested, but it was the best-hitting one I could afford. I used it in college and for a few years after, until I used it to win a...
2.) 1990 Phillippi custom. Guy challenged me and was so confident in his abilities he bet his cue against mine. Boy, was he surprised. He stormed out and I felt kinda bad so I gave his girlfriend the Mali. Left the Phillippi with the pool room owner (who I knew) and came back for it the next day. Shot a few racks with it and realized what a nice cue actually felt like. But it was way too nice to play with, IMHO, so I packed it up, sent it back to Sir Richard for a refinish, re-wrap, and an extra shaft, and set about looking for a cue to replace the Mali. The Philiippi went to live in an It's Greorge 1x2 and rarely comes out to play, and I ended up with a...
3.) Brunswick Merry Widow. I test drove a bunch of cues, and was narrowing it down to a couple of Joss models, when I noticed a few closeout Brunswicks at the end of the display case. I knew about Gold Crowns and Centennials at that point, but I was still unaware of Brunswick's rich history in cuemaking as well. I tried a few and was surprised that the felt as good as the Joss cues did to me. The fact that the plainest one was a quarter of the price of the Joss cues sealed the deal. I played with that cue through graduate school and beyond, but my job and a wife that didn't play pool meant I wasn't playing as much. My wife's brother, however, had caught the bug, and so my cue was on semi-permanent loan to him. When my wife and I split, I decided not to ask for the cue back. We'll see if it ever returns; I definitely earned more using that cue than the hundred bucks I paid for it, so I didn't feel bad letting it go. Anyway, one upshot is that now I had more time to play, which means I needed a cue (I'm still hesitant to bring the Phillipi out to do anything but look at it lovingly for a few minutes, rub my fingerprints off with a microfiber cloth, and put it back in its case). Problem was, now I was living in a place where the breadth and depth of cue selection is not as ample as I was used to growing up in a big city. I did remember, however, that when I first bought the Mali, I had also tested a few two-pronged Meuccis and loved the feel, as much as the two-point look. So, a little bit of hunting on eBay, and I wound up with a...
4.) Meucci 97-8. It was pretty beat-up; the ferrule was blue, the shaft was green, and the butt had a bunch of dents, dings, and a nick or two. But the tip was round, the ferrule wasn't cracked, the shaft was smooth, the joint didn't rattle, and the butt wasn't warped. It was the perfect sleeper cue, something that would perform reliably but not draw much attention to itself in a poolroom, or even a bar (with only one pool room that I wouldn't call big, there are a surprising number of players that show up at the bars in town, cue cases in hand, and not even on league nights). I thought that would be the end of line, but it turns out that my girlfriend, who likes to play, has been considering upgrading to something more consistent than a house cue, but doesn't want to spend the cash on a new cue. So I gallantly offered her the use of the Meucci, which left me to put together my current playing cue: a
5.) Joss 10-16. This one has a plain black ring at the joint, rather than the dashed rings shown on the Joss web site. It also has five points, rather than the four described on the site (but I haven't seen another 10-16 to compare it to, so it could just be a preproduction photo or a typo) Feels even more point-and-shooty than the Phillippi, which I attribute largely to the Katana shaft.
Five cues over about twenty years, of which I still have three. Not bad, I reckon.
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