Sneakies should look like jointed house cues. Big pin might be the limit of sneaky although what's the advantage? Everything else comes under pool stick. You guys with collarless big pins, how do they hold up? Can you for instance do the Sigel break schtick?
Interesting discussions & thats a great question. I'm a SP & full splice junkie - in my teens I lived in Baltimore, MD (Joss, Scruggs, Frey territory) and a beat up used TS "pure" sneaky was my very first personal cue in 1986 ish timeframe. Back then I didn't know a big pin vs small pin vs bowling pin. I think (but am not sure) that it was a big pin, I remember it was wood-to-wood and think the shaft had bare wood threads, but I can't remember if it had 3/8-10 or 5/16-14. One never sees (or at least I've never seen) 5/16-14 thread into bare wood - those shaft threads always have brass or linen/phenolic inserts, right?. So I think it was 3/8-10 and it hit super nice so I've always sort of been on the lookout for another - but TS true sneakies that come up online always seem to have 5/16-14 threads... I gambled that cue away and ended up with a Joss non true sneaky floating point cue with classic Joss 5/16-14 linen thread shaft & black phenolic collars - also played great. I sold that one when I quit pool in 1995. After starting up again after being out of the game for 25 years, I grabbed a brand new Joss purpleheart fancy sneaky which is also fantastic & remains one of my favorite keepers, even though I'm always experimenting with stuff...
I've never really obsessed over "true sneaky's" but they do seem to hit fantastic. I got an el cheapo Action chinese ebony sneaky off Amazon for my daughter with pure wood-to-wood with 5/16-18 pin and unbelievably it feels/looks/plays great. Over time I've developed a personal preference for large pins in simple full splice veneered cues and so called fancy sneaky's with man made collars (phenolic, juma, ivorine). I think the main theoretical criticism of using big pins in pure wood-to-wood joint is their durability/longevity, but I've never owned one long enough to find out. Curious to also know if anyone out there has big pin true TS sneaky's and how they've held up over long periods of heavy usage?
