Cue Contest

[pottr]

After fifteen years of knocking in balls with the same bat I am facing upto the fact that I need a new cue. The joint is shagged and is being repaired as we speak.

I was thinking that this would be the chance for me to add some weight to the cuemaker debate.

I intend on placing identical spec orders through some top cue makers... I'm thinking 5 or 6 tops and cataloguing my experiences of dealing with them, ordering through them and of course the product itself.

As he is local to me, I have already placed an order for the following with Tony Glover:

One piece
Maple shaft
9 millimeter ferrule
58 inches length
19 ounce weight
Balanced as close to 18" as possible
29mm butt diameter
Ebony butt with a front facing Thuya Burr splice over a thick Birdseye maple veneer.
Drilled to accept mini-butt and a telescopic extension (also to be made by the cuemaker).


I intend to forward the same request with Mike Wooldridge, Trevor White, John Parris and Dave Coutts.

Is there anyone else I should contact?

[DeanH]

I would add Robin Cook (www.robincues.co.uk) to your list.

[Gerry Armstrong]

Gonna have to wait ages on the results of the contest based on current waiting times for some of those guys!!

[Terry Davidson]

pottr:

It looks like you not only have the same specs as I do but I'm also trying the same thing. I have a TW cue which I was playing with for a year but I kept looking at other types of cues so now I have one on order from MW, Andy Travis, Dave Coutts and I have ordered cues from Robin Cook and John Parris (not an Ultimate).

I recently discovered (at least for me) that shaft flex plays a very big part in what makes me really like the hit and feel of a cue. I have a 1pc Green Baize cue here which has a pure medium shaft flex (recognizing my 'medium' might be someone else's 'medium-stiff' or even stiff.

I would recommend if you like the shaft flex of your present cue then measure the diameter of it every 3" down to 39" or so and send those measurements to all the cuemakers and you should end up with nearly the same shaft flex on the cues you order.

I realize this might be a real pain for the cuemakers however I've found most cues today are made way too stiff for me and I have a hard time finding a cue with the flex that I prefer.

Terry

[DeanH]

yep, forgot to add that; this will a contest in patience

[cueman]

Yeah Dean is correct, you'll need plenty of patience with the likely waiting times for those you mentioned.
If I was in your position I would just choose a couple of cue makers and firstly see if anyone has a cue near to the spec you want. From past experience having a cue made to identical spec doesn't usually ever result in a cue feeling the same as my previous one. In fact you might find a cue with a spec you'd never consider might end up feeling like the best cue you've ever tried.

Fair enough if that is what you want to do though, its a lot of money and time to wait for what could be 5 or so cues you don't like the feel of. I've probably had about 20 odd cues made to similar specs and never found one that felt right for me, and mostly including the cue makers you mentioned too!

[pottr]

Cheers Terry, that's what Tony Glover suggested also.

No two cues feel the same so I'm not too worried. With time, I should be able to adapt to anything I guess.

Not worried by the wait times. My Glover will come first, if I get on with that, I'll just sell the others I suppose, or keep them in a smart cabinet in my snooker room.

[Terry Davidson]

pottr:

Oddly enough I've had 4 cues here which I felt had a hit exactly like I wanted. They were all ash and I measured the shaft diameter of all of them (which I felt was a 'medium' hit as opposed to other cues I have here like a JP Classic and also an Exquisite cue which are both a bit stiff for me.

I found (comparatively) to be quite a difference in the shaft diameter, especially between 15" to 39" from the ferrule. For the flex I like the diameter increased about 1mm every 3" up to 15" and then increased about 1.2mm for every 3" on down to 39". I start with a 9.4mm ferrule and end up with around 28.5mm butt diameter at the end of the cue.

So, since all these 4 cues came out virtually identical (as an example, the Exquisite rated 'stiff' at 15" was already 1.1mm thicker than the 4 medium cues and at 39" was a full 2.5mm thicker). From these checks I figure anyone could specify to a cuemaker fairly close shaft diameter measurements to get what he liked. It may be a bit more refined than just specifying to the cuemaker a 'medium-stiff' or 'stiff' hit.

The other problem of course is every piece of ash will be slightly different but I was quite surprised at how close the measurements were in the 4 I liked. For this problem I would rely on the cuemaker's expertise to produce a cue to the flex I was looking for. It might not be exactly right but I think it would be really close.

Given that you are going to order 4 or 5 custom made cues I figure at least one or two of them will come out to exactly what you want. My recommendation would be to stick with the flex you have now as you're used to it.

Terry

[johno]

Terry

From looking at the specs of the cue(s) you had for sale a couple of months ago, they all seemed to be 57 inches long.
Have you ever used a 58 inch long cue ( I seem to recall you are around 6 foot or just under?) or do you prefer the
slightly shorter 57 inches as you grip the cue right at the back or with your little finger curled around the end.
Just wondered what your thoughts were on the length side.
cheers

[irfeen75]

Robert Osborne don't think he takes orders now so might not get the same specs.

[DeanH]

Correct, Robert Osborne is not doing custom orders, else I would have mentioned him to be added to the list

[Terry Davidson]

johno:

Weirdly enough, Nic Barrow recommended to me 3 years ago that I should try out a 58" cue and hold it up a bit from the end of the butt and also weird the 4 cues I talk about above with what I consider my 'perfect' hit were ALL 58" one-piece. I didn't take Nic's recommendation at the time because I'm just too stubborn for my own good sometimes.

So right now I'm trying out a Green Baize ash one-piece that is 58" and a medium flex and gripping it so I have about 2" of butt behind my grip hand and I seem to be playing better. I don't know the reason for this but I've just asked both Dave Coutts and MikeW to change my cue orders to 58" if they can (I know cuemakers just HATE for a customer to change specs in mid-stream but I'm hoping I'm early enough in the process to have that done without any trouble).

I don't know why I seem to play better with a 58" one-piece but I definitely do so what the hell, I'm going to go with it. Plus of course, no joint wear to worry about like what's happened to pottr with his 15yr cue!

Terry

[vmax4steve]

After fifteen years of knocking in balls with the same bat I am facing upto the fact that I need a new cue. The joint is shagged and is being repaired as we speak.

Fifteen years with one cue is a long time, I've had mine for twenty five and can't play with anything else. You could try sending the cue to Andy Travis and get a new butt made for it to match the present one. Shaft feel is all, as long as the new butt is the same dimensions it shouldn't matter but any new shaft would feel different as no two pieces of maple would be the same even if machined the exact same size. Grain density and moisture content give every wood it's own character and you are definitely used to yours after fifteen years.

[johno]

Good luck Terry, I also used a 57 inch cue for years but my new MW ash cue is 58 inches and I'm pleased with it. I'm sure
Mike will be ok to amend your order at this early stage, Will be interesting to see how you get on with all the new cues

[Chappers]

Good idea mate. Will follow your progress how you get on with the different cues.
Interested on the quality of the different cue makers aswell to see if there's much between them.
p.s My case holds two one piece cues if you want to leave one at the Conny