John Parris Workshop Visit...

[Guy3103]

ended up in me buying another cue

I came to London to visit my brother and decided to make the long trip to visit Parris this morning. It's quite a long drive from central London that cost about 30 quid but that's really not the worst part...

Anyways so the plan was just to visit, have a chat, look at some cues and perhaps make a custom order but to my surprise John had an Ultimate cue finished on Thursday that was just standing there and that was too much for me to resist.

He had a couple of very nice cues there... several paragon's, one special, one limited edition and a couple of traditional's that also caught my eye. But nothing came close to the Ultimate! It's not in a special design (traditional) but the finish and the shaft were far superior to all the other cues.

I spent over an hour considering whether I should buy it or not and trying it on the small 8 feet table John has in his shop and eventually just went for it. Am I happy I did? Still not sure but I guess time will tell... perhaps it's the one, who knows!?

I've got to mention that John is quite a friendly guy and definitely very busy. During the hour and half I spent in his workshop he had about 7-8 customer coming in, out of which two ended up buying new cues while all the rest came in for a re-tip. Obviously the phone keeps ringing all the time and to my surprise he wasn't rushing with any of the calls.

I remember seeing a thread about what cars cue makers drive on here... so I can tell you his driving a Mercedes CLS in silver with the following plate - JP 51 CUE )

[narl]

John Parris Workshop Visit...

Pics required !

[cueman]

Strange because I e-mailed him only on Thursday to enquire about what he currently had in stock and asked had he any 1pc cues. He replied that he hadn't yet you are saying that he had a few Traditional models and I assume some of the paragon and specials were possibly 1pc too?

[Guy3103]

I don't know if you were in his workshop before but if you have than you would know that the cues he has for sale are separated into two parts... one part which are standard cues that are less expensive, these are hung in a sort of round rack at the back end of the shop. The second part has about 10 cues hanging on the left hand side of the shop, out of which there are some standard ones that are more on the expensive end and some unique cues.

It's as if he uses this stand to present the more nicer cues, and I can definitely tell you that it had two 1pc traditional cues on it with pretty much similar specs (I tried both and they play very well). There was another Paragon cue that was a 1-pc with a very unique design - 4 lower splices, 2 in snakewood and 2 in thuya burr, and each of these splices had a different colored veneer (Green, Blue, Red and one more color I can't remember). But this cue was more on the longer and heavier side of spec...

That's the only 1 piece cues I remember... hope that helps ; )

[cueman]

thanks guy, i guess JP was just trying to keep 1pc cues in the shop for customers looking to visit, rather he had just said that rather than say they had nothing. Makes him out to be a liar!

[sootyvrs]

Didn't I read in another thread that a guy ordered an Ultimate and 18 months down the line.. still no cue!

I'm surprised if JP is so busy that he's churning out cues, especially Ultimates that are not special order when I can only assume his order book is rather full and waiting list immense?

Was it a cancelled order?

[craigslater]

John Parris Workshop Visit...

If it was a JP ultimate with a 'traditional' front splice perhaps Ronnie's order that he doesnt need with him obviously not playing the rest of the season

[Guy3103]

thanks guy, i guess JP was just trying to keep 1pc cues in the shop for customers looking to visit, rather he had just said that rather than say they had nothing. Makes him out to be a liar!

No problem mate. Its really strange he told you there was nothing there!! I must admit I was very surprised to find so many nice cues in the shop... thinking of the high demand his cues haveand all. I wonder whats the benefit of telling customers via phone he has nothing on stock when in fact he does?!?

I just recalled there was also a Stirling cue which is also 1piece. In 3/4 there was one Regency cue (very nice design imo), a Exclusive cue, Superior cue and a Elite cue. Just in case someone's interested.

[sberry]

Long time since I was there but was dozens of cues around the walls, no point at all in having a shop if you're not going to show and sell stuff, may as well just stick with the workshop. Physical shops cost money, virtual ones don't, much.

[Guy3103]

Didn't I read in another thread that a guy ordered an Ultimate and 18 months down the line.. still no cue!

I'm surprised if JP is so busy that he's churning out cues, especially Ultimates that are not special order when I can only assume his order book is rather full and waiting list immense?

Was it a cancelled order?

He told me its between 8-12 months wait for a 3/4 Ultimate and 12-16 months wait for a 1pc at the moment. The only reason i can think of having to wait 18+ months is ordering a very specific looking shaft or perhsps asking for an exotic wood that Parris has a hard time getting hold of.

I have no clue how he happened to have an Ultimate on stock but he did tell me it happens very rarely and that what usually happens with those cues is that he keeps them just in case some of the professional players need a replacement cue.

I did ask him about the Paragon cue with the different colored veneers whether it's a canceled order... its just because that cue was very far from an ordinary spec and also had the chevrons not on the badge side but on the right side of the cue. His answer was that it might be or the customer just decided on a different design or spec wjen it was already to late to alter the existing cue. So they just completed it and put it up for sale in the shop.

[Guy3103]

Long time since I was there but was dozens of cues around the walls, no point at all in having a shop if you're not going to show and sell stuff, may as well just stick with the workshop. Physical shops cost money, virtual ones don't, much.

Makes sense now

[throtts]

ended up in me buying another cue

I came to London to visit my brother and decided to make the long trip to visit Parris this morning. It's quite a long drive from central London that cost about 30 quid but that's really not the worst part...

Anyways so the plan was just to visit, have a chat, look at some cues and perhaps make a custom order but to my surprise John had an Ultimate cue finished on Thursday that was just standing there and that was too much for me to resist.

He had a couple of very nice cues there... several paragon's, one special, one limited edition and a couple of traditional's that also caught my eye. But nothing came close to the Ultimate! It's not in a special design (traditional) but the finish and the shaft were far superior to all the other cues.

I spent over an hour considering whether I should buy it or not and trying it on the small 8 feet table John has in his shop and eventually just went for it. Am I happy I did? Still not sure but I guess time will tell... perhaps it's the one, who knows!?

I've got to mention that John is quite a friendly guy and definitely very busy. During the hour and half I spent in his workshop he had about 7-8 customer coming in, out of which two ended up buying new cues while all the rest came in for a re-tip. Obviously the phone keeps ringing all the time and to my surprise he wasn't rushing with any of the calls.

I remember seeing a thread about what cars cue makers drive on here... so I can tell you his driving a Mercedes CLS in silver with the following plate - JP 51 CUE )

Congrats, I wish I beat you to it.

Enjoy it mate...

[Guy3103]

If it was a JP ultimate with a 'traditional' front splice perhaps Ronnie's order that he doesnt need with him obviously not playing the rest of the season

That would have been really great but I doubt it... John didn't mention anything about Ronnie to me and also it's a 3/4 cue and as far as I remember The Master likes playing a 1pc cue.

[Guy3103]

Congrats, I wish I beat you to it.

Enjoy it mate...

Thanks mate.. are you planning to give him a visit?! I really find myself very lucky ending up visiting his shop just one day after he put up this cue for sale

I'm leaving London only tomorrow night and the cue is spending all this time packed in the tube and it just drives me mad I can't take it out of that tube and go to a random club and play with it... I keep telling myself that patience is the key right now!!

[screw]

Congratulations. You must be a very very happy man right now to say the least.. let us know how you get on with it?