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Adr147 / Andrew Ramsay and I have chatted a bit offline about cues and with him being a dealer in such I've got to appreciate he knows his stuff as he's bought, owned, sold and played with cues made by almost all of the top English cue makers.
As for the cues he makes I'd no idea how good they were, but when I saw one of his had sold for a £50 pittance on EBay I made a point of watching how his next faired. As it happened I got the auction end time mixed up and logged into EBay not only to see my bid had been topped but that I was also too late to make another and it had gone this time for £70. ADR had notice I had bid and on msn messenger he asked why as he knew I had no real interest in a plain black ebony cue. I just said that as no one had done a review on one of his cues I thought I would. "Heck if that’s all you want", he said "I'll send you a cue to try out"
And so a couple of days later the postman called with a cue. First thing I noticed was it was in a plastic tube far better than the flimsy cardboard ones you nearly always get. Behind closed doors I quickly tore at the duct tape with such eagerness a picture of Juanita came to mind, an ex of mine always eager to expose the goodies. Before it had emerged in all its glory enough for me to realise it was a one piece I'd noticed the sublime smoothness of the ash. Again Juan came to mind as the last time my shaft felt as smooth it was soaked in baby oil and nestled in her natural 38" ebony cleavage. Fully exposed this one was nearly as stiff but I'm sad to say a fair ways longer. Even the splices reminded me of her long fingernails as they are far longer than what you normally see. Good job these wont be digging into my back or dipping into my wallet as she did before I dumped her.
Perverted memories asides, the ash as you would expect from a quality piece has dead straight tightly packed grain on two sides and is obviously mature as the line count is as high as 15. There are three nice arrows at the business end on the top view enough for anyone who uses them as a guide to sighting. I know many feel even arrows along the entire shaft are preferable but not for me. Each piece of wood has its own character and the grain is its thumbprint. Let those with more money than sense pay a premium if a clone of someone else’s ideal piece is what they want.
The Ebony is African Gabon Ebony. Really matt but not 100% deep black, It's only noticeable in the daylight and in flash photos but a little of the sapwood does show through on the one splice. I asked Andrew why he didn't apply a little bit of dye or stain but I may as well asked him if he drank his whisky with water, "Bloody sacrilege that is" he said.
Buying the deepest black ebony is no longer just a price factor nowadays although it's rising as much as South America's inflation it's actually finding it. If I remember right Andrew told me a while back he gets his from one of the biggest importers of exotic woods in Europe, a German timber merchants and he simply asks them for the very best they have when he buys it.
Although I was not after another cue and a one piece plain black one would never have got a look in had I been it’s appeal quickly grew on me and after playing just a couple of games of pool with it I felt a little like you do when you wear a tuxedo and am smoking a Havana cigar I didn't play any better nor would I be naive enough to expect to but it had that touch of class that gives you that feel good factor.
Like most I thought a one piece would be a bit of a pain transporting it around but I found it was no problem at all really. It cannot lie flat on the backseat of anything but perhaps a Hummer but in the tube it fits in easily enough at an angle. The plastic tube is itself a decent case all it needed was two rubber bungs from my local fishing tackle shop at fifty pence apiece. I wedged a piece of foam in the bottom and wrap the top of the cue in a yellow duster to keep it from rattling. The perfect one piece case in my opinion.
Actually it was realising I did not need to buy a 1 piece case that made my mind up and the following day I got back to Andrew and said you'd better tell me how much I owe you as your not getting it back. NO WAY !
As for the cues he makes I'd no idea how good they were, but when I saw one of his had sold for a £50 pittance on EBay I made a point of watching how his next faired. As it happened I got the auction end time mixed up and logged into EBay not only to see my bid had been topped but that I was also too late to make another and it had gone this time for £70. ADR had notice I had bid and on msn messenger he asked why as he knew I had no real interest in a plain black ebony cue. I just said that as no one had done a review on one of his cues I thought I would. "Heck if that’s all you want", he said "I'll send you a cue to try out"
And so a couple of days later the postman called with a cue. First thing I noticed was it was in a plastic tube far better than the flimsy cardboard ones you nearly always get. Behind closed doors I quickly tore at the duct tape with such eagerness a picture of Juanita came to mind, an ex of mine always eager to expose the goodies. Before it had emerged in all its glory enough for me to realise it was a one piece I'd noticed the sublime smoothness of the ash. Again Juan came to mind as the last time my shaft felt as smooth it was soaked in baby oil and nestled in her natural 38" ebony cleavage. Fully exposed this one was nearly as stiff but I'm sad to say a fair ways longer. Even the splices reminded me of her long fingernails as they are far longer than what you normally see. Good job these wont be digging into my back or dipping into my wallet as she did before I dumped her.
Perverted memories asides, the ash as you would expect from a quality piece has dead straight tightly packed grain on two sides and is obviously mature as the line count is as high as 15. There are three nice arrows at the business end on the top view enough for anyone who uses them as a guide to sighting. I know many feel even arrows along the entire shaft are preferable but not for me. Each piece of wood has its own character and the grain is its thumbprint. Let those with more money than sense pay a premium if a clone of someone else’s ideal piece is what they want.
The Ebony is African Gabon Ebony. Really matt but not 100% deep black, It's only noticeable in the daylight and in flash photos but a little of the sapwood does show through on the one splice. I asked Andrew why he didn't apply a little bit of dye or stain but I may as well asked him if he drank his whisky with water, "Bloody sacrilege that is" he said.
Buying the deepest black ebony is no longer just a price factor nowadays although it's rising as much as South America's inflation it's actually finding it. If I remember right Andrew told me a while back he gets his from one of the biggest importers of exotic woods in Europe, a German timber merchants and he simply asks them for the very best they have when he buys it.
Although I was not after another cue and a one piece plain black one would never have got a look in had I been it’s appeal quickly grew on me and after playing just a couple of games of pool with it I felt a little like you do when you wear a tuxedo and am smoking a Havana cigar I didn't play any better nor would I be naive enough to expect to but it had that touch of class that gives you that feel good factor.
Like most I thought a one piece would be a bit of a pain transporting it around but I found it was no problem at all really. It cannot lie flat on the backseat of anything but perhaps a Hummer but in the tube it fits in easily enough at an angle. The plastic tube is itself a decent case all it needed was two rubber bungs from my local fishing tackle shop at fifty pence apiece. I wedged a piece of foam in the bottom and wrap the top of the cue in a yellow duster to keep it from rattling. The perfect one piece case in my opinion.
Actually it was realising I did not need to buy a 1 piece case that made my mind up and the following day I got back to Andrew and said you'd better tell me how much I owe you as your not getting it back. NO WAY !
) Any chance of some pics? Would love to see this cue!
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