Top 10 Snooker Cue Manufacturers

[itsnoteasy]

I Heard he sets the ash blank on fire and from the ashes he can tell if its ready to play with......

If that's how it works I would say RemovalmanStevies cues should be bang on by now

[billabong]

If that's how it works I would say RemovalmanStevies cues should be bang on by now

LOL, I'll need to give him a phone, and see how he's doing. .

[bigandyg]

I will probably be ridiculed but after 30 years of working with ash I felt I could tell if the ash was suitable just by feeling it even with my eyes closed.

[Ramon]

Someone said that JP can look at a piece of timber and know when it is ready by giving it a tap and listening to it. The frequency response indicates how playable it will be. And that's why he often lets wood mature to 30, 40, 50yrs apparently, because it wasn't ready. This could be mythryl mind, so I stand to be corrected.

There is no cue maker in the world who can to assess playability of a wood just by looking at it or listening to it!!! Yes,, the experienced cue makers can estimate approximately how the wood (or timber) will play!! but the only way to know it for 100 percent : is playing with it!!

[Chappy5]

Someone said that JP can look at a piece of timber and know when it is ready by giving it a tap and listening to it. The frequency response indicates how playable it will be. And that's why he often lets wood mature to 30, 40, 50yrs apparently, because it wasn't ready. This could be mythryl mind, so I stand to be corrected.

This statement reminds of the movie Braveheart when William Wallace was rumored to be 8ft tall and shoot lightning bolts from his arse to bring down the enemy!!

[svendh]

All i can say is that my ultimate plays fantastic - sadly I don't

[itsnoteasy]

LOL, I'll need to give him a phone, and see how he's doing. .

I hope everything worked out for him, he was like a firework, burned very brightly and kept us all entertained but sadly it was over too quickly.

[Ramon]

Yes, obviously. But I've never seen anyone put a tip on a board and hit balls. A young bit of timber sounds and looks different to something 40 years old. There is a bit of chance involved, if the people herein really have ordered an Ultimate and then found it doesn't play well. But if JP spends much of his day searching through countless boards to maybe find a dozen good ones, he's trying to limit the amount of cues that do end up playing badly and max the ones that play exceptionally. Most cue makers won't have this luxury with Ash being in short supply, lacking JP's contacts. Does that mean that a greater proportion of their cues play badly. Who knows!?

well,, place ur order for a custom made cue is always a risk!! Each wood has its own character!
You can buy a JP ultimate. If the cue does'nt suit your game , you can'nt blame JP or other cue maker for that !! as far as i know , each cue maker'll try the cue dat has been finished to test it !! I know for sure that Ton praram does !!
As for the ash,, I'm agree with you, that JP sells relatively more cues compared to some other cue makers!!
Usually a cue maker (especially bigger companies, such as Maximus/praram/.....), has a stock of ash ready!! for example: The ash what he uses for the limited ( or maybe other ranges as well ),, has been months in stock. To see how the wood reacts against different climate or gonna be bent or .......
Anyway,,, No matter what the cue maker does, buying a cue without trying it first,, is always a chance that the cue does'nt suits ur game !!
IMO,,, is realy important that you( as a player), know what exactly you want (specification and......). and discuss that with the cue maker before placing ur order !!

[Leo]

well,, place ur order for a custom made cue is always a risk!! Each wood has its own character!
You can buy a JP ultimate. If the cue does'nt suit your game , you can'nt blame JP or other cue maker for that !! as far as i know , each cue maker'll try the cue dat has been finished to test it !! I know for sure that Ton praram does !!
As for the ash,, I'm agree with you, that JP sells relatively more cues compared to some other cue makers!!
Usually a cue maker (especially bigger companies, such as Maximus/praram/.....), has a stock of ash ready!! for example: The ash what he uses for the limited ( or maybe other ranges as well ),, has been months in stock. To see how the wood reacts against different climate or gonna be bent or .......
Anyway,,, No matter what the cue maker does, buying a cue without trying it first,, is always a chance that the cue does'nt suits ur game !!
IMO,,, is realy important that you( as a player), know what exactly you want (specification and......). and discuss that with the cue maker before placing ur order !!

I would hazard a guess not 1 cuemaker test the cues when they're finished.

[Ramon]

I would hazard a guess not 1 cuemaker test the cues when they're finished.

hahaha,,, well, it's a guess. but who knows. Maybe you're right!!
To be honest, I know that there are cue makers who doing this !!
Normally, when the cue does'nt conform to a certain requirements,, they should not send it to the customer.....
Whether they actually do that ??? would be a different story!! I do'nt know !!

[jono*]

Apparently they get a few to try. Dominic sale Said that parris is very good at replicating their old cues, the ones they had been playing with a long time. That could contribute to them being good players. All the talk about the players using them cos they are free is nonsense imo. Top players who make enough money aren't going to risk their game for the sake of a few hundred quid.

[ghost121]

The reason why so many pros use Parris cues is because of the snowball effect. Davis started it and everyone copied. Snooker players aren't any different from everyone else; most of them follow the herd and end up with a Parris because it's the easy option. Popularity then breeds more popularity. A London location also helps, as does John's obviously accommodating attitude. It's not about money or what's free. If you got any top 32 player and gave them a table and a cue to their specs from each of the top ten makers, in a blind test, I doubt Parris would monopolise the way he does in reality.

[Leo]

You can talk about Coutts, wouldridge, Trevor white and how good their cues are but on a commercial level these will never take over the Parris brand and pros will always go with what they know it's just how it works.
99% of comps around the Pro circuit are won by Parris cues, and ultimately they are the top brand, wether many of us think different really doesn't matter because if the pros use them and are winning with them our views are not really valid.

[itsnoteasy]

Just a thought about cue makers testing cues, we all seem to agree that how a cue plays is very subjective, give the same cue to three different folk and you would get three different opinions on how they feel it plays, so what's the advantage of any person testing any cue apart from the person who's going to use it.
I always think back to Dotts cue story when I think of what makes a playable cue, I'm sure he was advised that the cue was not the best and to pick another one, but he just liked it and went on to win a world championship with it.

[cueman]

The reason why so many pros use Parris cues is because of the snowball effect. Davis started it and everyone copied. Snooker players aren't any different from everyone else; most of them follow the herd and end up with a Parris because it's the easy option. Popularity then breeds more popularity. A London location also helps, as does John's obviously accommodating attitude. It's not about money or what's free. If you got any top 32 player and gave them a table and a cue to their specs from each of the top ten makers, in a blind test, I doubt Parris would monopolise the way he does in reality.

I'm not so sure because quite often players who go to JP for a cue tend to use it and adapt to it very quickly and have a lot of success with it. Whereas other players who frequently chop and change cues tend not to go to JP but end up using loads of different cues and never find one that suits them.

I mean look at Murphy, his cue broke at the end of 2013 season, he went to JP, got a cue, took a little while to adapt and now he's playing better than ever. Then you have other players who've gone to JP for cues in the past few years and are playing well again, Perry, Milkins, Carter for example. They didn't need to go through numerous cues, they asked for something specific, JP provided and their game improved.

Whilst there may be other good cue makers out there and the blind test could well lead to one or two players using a cue not made by JP, the fact is the players trust him and that is important because a cue is the single most important thing for a player. What JP does and has a record of doing is providing players with what they want and more often than not they play to the best of their ability with it. Few players have a JP cue and their game goes downhill, yet many players who change cues that don't go to JP often do go downhill, that for me says a lot.