John Parris Workshop Visit...

[NiallAE111]

Why did you send it back? How long did you have it with you before sending it back??

It's almost impossible to see the blemish on my new cue, and if in fact a customer refused this cue because of it, then I'm sorry but his a total idiot!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12544[/ATTACH]

:O The person that sent it back must be very very picky and have OCD.

[narl]

And it was sold on as a brand new cue?!? Ok that doesn't seem right... so basically it would be quite logical to presume that all cues in his shop that are not standard range, are used cues!!>!1??

Probably refurbished and sold on at a lower price.

[narl]

Why did you send it back? How long did you have it with you before sending it back??

It's almost impossible to see the blemish on my new cue, and if in fact a customer refused this cue because of it, then I'm sorry but his a total idiot!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12544[/ATTACH]

:O The person that sent it back must be very very picky and have OCD.

To be fair though its like a scratch on a car, once you notice it you always seem to see it. If I was buying an ultimate with that in the shaft it would be getting slung back immediately. Probably have to taper in that section of the shaft slightly to get rid of it, assuming its not a "feature" of that particular shaft that goes right through it.

[sanman]

I beg to differ. When u are buying an ultimate you are paying for perfection. Now take Mike woolridge for example. That cue would probably be a sinbin cue for him. The question of playability often comes to the defence of JP cues. Playability is a very subjective thing and and if I were to ask a player to play with cues from different cuemakers which were all unbadged i wonder what the concensus would be on playability. Coming back to the issue at hand. When one pays for an Ultimate cue(which is a heck of a lot of money) what exactly is one payaing for. I for one would not accept a cue with any blemishes or any uneven splicework (Which this cue seems to have)

Why did you send it back? How long did you have it with you before sending it back??

It's almost impossible to see the blemish on my new cue, and if in fact a customer refused this cue because of it, then I'm sorry but his a total idiot!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12544[/ATTACH]

[Guy3103]

To be fair though its like a scratch on a car, once you notice it you always seem to see it. If I was buying an ultimate with that in the shaft it would be getting slung back immediately. Probably have to taper in that section of the shaft slightly to get rid of it, assuming its not a "feature" of that particular shaft that goes right through it.

I guess it's a matter of character then or perhaps the reason behind buying a cue in the first place...

I've spent the past year and a half looking for the right cue that will fit me and that I can feel I'm playing my very best with. I got 6 new cues during this period of time, all with different specs, and out of all these cues I can honestly say that only one came close to giving me that feeling. They are all great great cues but they are just not perfect for me.

So, the purpose of my ordering new cues is to find that cue that I can stick with while playing snooker and that will help me improve my game and not be stuck at the same level all the time.

I've played my new Parris Ultimate twice so far. I've lost both times but I played a 28, 29, 37, 47 and probably a few more lower 20 breaks. Now, I don't know what it is about that cue that makes it so much better than all the others... it just feels right, it feels as if there is no ball on the table that I can't pot using this cue and that's a great feeling to have when playing snooker

Actually, as it turns out it is my shortest cue at 57" while all the others are closer to the 58" mark, but it's hard for me to believe that this is the reason I'm playing so well with it.

[narl]

I guess it's a matter of character then or perhaps the reason behind buying a cue in the first place...

I've spent the past year and a half looking for the right cue that will fit me and that I can feel I'm playing my very best with. I got 6 new cues during this period of time, all with different specs, and out of all these cues I can honestly say that only one came close to giving me that feeling. They are all great great cues but they are just not perfect for me.

So, the purpose of my ordering new cues is to find that cue that I can stick with while playing snooker and that will help me improve my game and not be stuck at the same level all the time.

I've played my new Parris Ultimate twice so far. I've lost both times but I played a 28, 29, 37, 47 and probably a few more lower 20 breaks. Now, I don't know what it is about that cue that makes it so much better than all the others... it just feels right, it feels as if there is no ball on the table that I can't pot using this cue and that's a great feeling to have when playing snooker

Actually, as it turns out it is my shortest cue at 57" while all the others are closer to the 58" mark, but it's hard for me to believe that this is the reason I'm playing so well with it.

If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay for it? As said its possible thats just a slight defect in the wood but its hard to say, looked at the pic on my phone and it looked like a bad indent in the wood, now im on my pc the defect looks nowhere near as bad as it did for some reason. 57" is my preferred size as well

[Guy3103]

I beg to differ. When u are buying an ultimate you are paying for perfection. Now take Mike woolridge for example. That cue would probably be a sinbin cue for him. The question of playability often comes to the defence of JP cues. Playability is a very subjective thing and and if I were to ask a player to play with cues from different cuemakers which were all unbadged i wonder what the concensus would be on playability. Coming back to the issue at hand. When one pays for an Ultimate cue(which is a heck of a lot of money) what exactly is one payaing for. I for one would not accept a cue with any blemishes or any uneven splicework (Which this cue seems to have)

You are buying an Ultimate because you can afford it, period! You buy an Ultimate because it's the most expensive cue a certain cue maker is offering and you don't want to settle for anything but the best!! Blemishes are a natural thing and not something John Parris, Mike Wooldridge or any other cue maker can not avoid, so please don't compare a blemish with uneven splicings, which is completely in the hands of the cue maker. I am very confident that many customers of John Parris Ultimate's don't even know what a blemish is... the reason being them buying the bloody thing in order to play with it and not glance at it and admire it's "perfection"!!

Going back to Mike Wooldridge... I'm very happy for the guy to have such a great reputation around lovers of the game, but I think it's a bit overhyped to be honest. I ordered a Black Legend from Mike earlier this year and after waiting a good 3-4 months and really expecting it to be the "one" for me, I ended up being very disappointed. You want to guess why?! Because it came with a blemish:

IMG_2670.jpg

I didn't really know what a blemish was back then but I noticed something's not right on the shaft of the cue and right away wrote Mike an email about it and he told me that it's natural materials he is working with and that these things happen... I was very close to returning this cue to him a couple of times, not only because of the blemish but mainly because it just didn't play well for me and I was quite frustrated after expecting to get much more out of it. It's a beautiful cue and it fits quite well in my collection as I don't have a full ebony butted cue but I really can't see myself going back to playing with it anymore.

Oh and by the way, one of my new Trevor White cues I will be collecting very soon has a blemish on it... I waited 12 months for this cue!! So does it make any sense for me or anyone else to not be interested in that cue because of a small blemish on the side of the shaft when the cue is a f****** MASTERPIECE?!???!

[Guy3103]

If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay for it? As said its possible thats just a slight defect in the wood but its hard to say, looked at the pic on my phone and it looked like a bad indent in the wood, now im on my pc the defect looks nowhere near as bad as it did for some reason. 57" is my preferred size as well

Somewhere around the high 600's is what I paid... John calculated the price with the cue builder and what was funny is that he didn't forget to add the charge for the extension joint!! Also when I asked about the specs of the cue, he measured everything instead of having it written down somewhere...

To give this story a "happy ending"... I was in London a couple of weeks ago and went to visit John's workshop for a second time. This time it was to change the badge on my Snakewood Ultimate... it was a bit off line. Once again it was on a saturday and once again there were quite a few potential clients in the shop.

John wasn't in so it was one of his senior assistants helping me out. I told him about me buying that Ultimate off the workshop a couple of weeks back and that I heard from a couple of people that it might be a used cue because of it's low numbering in comparison to the period of time.

His answer was that they are NOT selling any used cues in their workshop and that they won't risk their reputation in doing so. He said that all the more expensive cues in their workshop are cues that were not collected, not paid for at the point of completion. What usually happens is that they hold the cue for a certain period of time but after that's over they just put it up in their workshop for sale.

Whether true or not I guess I will never know but one thing is for sure and that is that I am very happy with that cue so I already said it doesn't make much of a difference.

Oh and by the way, they had a very sexy leather case at the shop... it was a 3/4 case made out of Ostrich leather and I just couldn't help not buying it It is by far my nicest case thus far. Sadly I will be collecting it from my sister's in Vienna just in about a month or so

John's assistant told me that this is the first case they made out of this kind of leather and that it was originally made for Ali Carter... So I guess him bottling that SF against Murphy made him give it up, or perhaps it was just the price

[sberry]

Let's be honest, anyone paying for any hand made cue is paying what it costs because they can, because they want one, because they want to be seen to have one of 'the best' cues.

I would struggle to pick between an old BCE two piece or powerglide 3/4 I owned in terms of playability and best cues but as you do, I changed cues plenty, some rack cues I found were crackers and I settled on a riley prize cue for 15 years before buying a raymo hand made because I felt like it.

In between I spent a week or two's wages on a JP which while looking great, played rubbish for me and I gave it away, I'm currently re-finishing an antique as it might just be perfect.

It doesn't matter if the grain has a blemish or if the points or bottoms of the splices are not level or even if it has splices, that's just window dressing like having an nice shirt, the blindfold analogy on this thread was fair.

At the end of the day if the cue fits within a reasonable spec band and is straight and feels okay then you should be able to adapt to it and play the shots with it, the rest is really in your head. But then snooker is a head game as much as an ability game.

If this antique works out, which it will because I want it to, the rest will be for sale in the new year, bargain city for someone. And the old plastic tube is easier to carry than the cuecraft double.

Happy new year.

[jrc750]

Which Antique cue is it ???

[sberry]

You know what it is and you should never have let it go, it plays better than my old riley prize I think, will need to double check once I've refinished it but it could be the one for me, you know when they feel right.

[jrc750]

Excellent, hope you get on with it as you hope

[Guy3103]

[QUOTE=sberry;685051]At the end of the day if the cue fits within a reasonable spec band and is straight and feels okay then you should be able to adapt to it and play the shots with it, the rest is really in your head. But then snooker is a head game as much as an ability game.

Totally agree with you there... I can change cues on a frame basis and still play pretty much ok since they are all straight and quality hitting cues. Good luck with your antique and a Happy new year!

Here's some pic's of the new home I gave my blemished cue