Andrew Gibbs Cue

[jrc750]

Are you Andrew Gibbs himself bigandyg ??? or just a coincidence

[bigandyg]

Its me and enjoying the site very much.

[old school]

I have a 3/4 Gibbs cue in ash with a quick release dot to dot joint and a matching short ebony butt that fits the shaft ( for pub tables) .Great playing cue and it is as good as the day it was made, thank you for giving me the chance to play with it,Andy you should never have re-tired.As a matter of curiosity have you any idea as to the number of cues you made,they seem to be getting very scarce ?

[Neil Taperell]

Its me and enjoying the site very much.

You made Graeme Dott's cue that he won the World Championship with Andrew , is that correct ? You must be proud of that ?

That cue is currently sitting in the workshop of another cuemaker , Robert Osborne . Saw it only last week .

[bigandyg]

Glad you got good use out of it that gives me great pleasure when I hear a comment like that.Never kept count of how many cues I made but it had to be remembered I never did it for a living as I always had a full time job.I started in the eighties during the miners strike and experimented with old fashioned brush shafts which were made out of ash in those days.My own cue needed a new ferrule and I took it to Rileys in Glasgow for repair but they did not do a good job so I redid it myself and then some of my mates asked for me to do theirs and it just snowballed from there.Eventually I ended up doing all of Rileys repairs in Scotland.

[bigandyg]

I did and was very proud of that and hate to see Graeme getting bad press as he is a lovely guy who was really good to me and allowed me to use his name for free.Mixed feelings on the cue that Graeme picked because when he came to the house I had a dozen or so of the best cues I had for him to look at.He rejected them all within a minute and then got his eye on a small cue I had made for pool which I had left in a corner as it was not one I was over proud of.It was three or four inches short,slim with an 8.5mm tip and the shaft was very poor quality ash.As soon as he lifted it he wanted it but I tried to talk him out of it but he insisted and away he went happy as Larry.Knowing the hours he spent on the practice table and the stresses the cue would be under with the heavy snooker balls I was really expecting the ferrule to fly off or the shaft to shatter during a TV match.Graeme immediately loved it and it certainly went on to earn him a bob or two and it amazingly lasted quite a time before he had to get another.

[bigandyg]

Sorry reply in wrong place.

[old school]

Michaela Tabb used one of your cues as well and has represented Scotland at 8 Ball as well,if I remember correctly.Like I said I dont think you got the recognition you deserve and you should not have retired.I was aware that it was not your full time job and that you did some work for Rileys,which is why I asked about numbers.My own cue , which I still use occasionally, feels hand planed to me can you confirm as to whether this is so.Much obliged.

[cueman]

How come you stopped making cues Andy?

[Neil Taperell]

Thanks for the reply Andrew . It is quite short as you say .

A liitle piece of history that cue as well .

[bigandyg]

Michaela and about half of the ladies team were customers as I am friends with Yvonne Ewing who ran the team and she got many sales for me.
Your cue is hand planed as I started of with a large plane and worked my way down to finish it with a tiny plane which fitted in the palm of my hand.

[bigandyg]

Several reasons I stopped,I had been doing it for a long time and was fed up,I changed my job and getting cues picked up by carriers was difficult and the quality and prices of the cues coming from the far east was hard to compete against.

[cally]

After being here a while you'll be itching to get back on to a cue or 2 i'm sure.....

[DeanH]

After being here a while you'll be itching to get back on to a cue or 2 i'm sure.....

+1 :snooker:

[cueman]

Several reasons I stopped,I had been doing it for a long time and was fed up,I changed my job and getting cues picked up by carriers was difficult and the quality and prices of the cues coming from the far east was hard to compete against.

Thats a shame. The others have beaten me to it though, so any chances you'll rekindle that cue making hobby again?

Ever thought of doing it as a business, I'm sure you'd get a load of orders through this site alone, get a website and you could make a tidy sum of money!