Shorter ebony splicing on a one-piece cue - any downsides?

[Greg M]

Hi, guys,

I was watching Dennis Taylor's matches from his time at the Taom Shootout English pool competition back in December 2019, and noticed his cue has shorter ebony splicing than your typical English pool or snooker cue, while retaining a typical splice "peak" length. Here are the videos featuring Dennis' cue:

I have always loved cues that look like this, and I'm considering having a custom cue made soon enough. Would it be practical to ask for a cue with less overall ebony splicing like this? Or would weight/balance be affected in any way?

[j6uk]

No issues with short splices from the constructive side with weight balance and length.
looks like DT my have had a few inches cut from the end of the cue he’s using in the video, as the standard length for splices was 18” and his looked to be around 16”

[Greg M]

No issues with short splices from the constructive side with weight balance and length.
looks like DT my have had a few inches cut from the end of the cue he’s using in the video, as the standard length for splices was 18” and his looked to be around 16”

That's so cool, thanks for the quick reply. Honestly, it's one of the nicest one-pieces I've seen, probably due to my preference of shorter splicing.

I think it's also the reason why I prefer the aesthetics of hand-spliced one-pieces over hand-spliced 3/4s. I've never liked the short, stubby splice peaks on 3/4s.

[j6uk]

I’ve not made a cue with splices less than 17.5”, but I agree that long fingers on a splice looks elegant

[vmax]

That's so cool, thanks for the quick reply. Honestly, it's one of the nicest one-pieces I've seen, probably due to my preference of shorter splicing.

I think it's also the reason why I prefer the aesthetics of hand-spliced one-pieces over hand-spliced 3/4s. I've never liked the short, stubby splice peaks on 3/4s.

How about a combination of long and short splices like this

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[Greg M]

How about a combination of long and short splices like this

Honestly, short peaks in general aren't my cup of tea. Interesting concept, though. I've never seen a combination of long and short splice peaks.

Controversial take, but I think I'd actually favour pointed machine splices over the short hand-spliced peaks on a 3/4 cue. They look nicer to me. I'd probably get murdered for saying something like that though lol