Honest thoughts on peradon cues

[Prince23]

My Peradon Royal is amazing, best cue I’ve used and I’ve had many Parris cues. It’s better for me than anything else regardless of cost. Would have over looked Peradon if I hadn’t had the chance to play with one.

BEAUTIFUL

[edmania786]

Hi all I’m having trouble finding a good cue can I have honest opinion please my budget is 200 to 400.appreciation in advance

[Frankthered]

Hi all I’m having trouble finding a good cue can I have honest opinion please my budget is 200 to 400.appreciation in advance

Honestly, you have a lot of good options in that price range. The question I would pose it what do you actually want? Do you have an idea of the following?

Length
Weight
Balance Point
Tip size
Butt diameter
Pool or snooker?

if you do, then you will narrow down your choices and it may be easier for other people to help you find what you're looking for.

Beyond that, it you can get to a place that sells cues and will let you try them before you buy, this really is the best thing you can do.

The problem here is that, underneath it all, the cue shaft is a piece of wood and, even if you are buying the same model of cue, from the same manufacturer, no two cues will be exactly the same because the pieces of wood they came from will never be exactly the same. So, if you get the chance, try them all!

The other uncertainty is how the cue feels. What one person likes, the next person may not, so, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, try as many as you can.

And then pick the one you like the best, which may not be the most expensive cue from the most prestigious maker.

Good luck!

[chunkis]

I once picked up a 15 euro peradon cue fresh out of the plastic, you know one of those brown hall cues, and i made a century with it, so when it comes to cues, its more about the player.

In saying that some cues are made very well, and that definitely helps, even if its just psychological - take john parris for example, i went to his shop and everything on the rack was the same as what you would find at peradon, with a different badge, but his cues arnt anything special, its just that they are endorsed by a lot of professionals, to be honest most professional could probably pick up just about any cue and play well.

John Parris has 11 people working for him, all making different parts of the cue, if anything its better going to a cue making specialist to have a cue made, because it will be with you in a few months, i think there is something more personal one person making a cue from start to finish, they know the cue inside out and have a fair idea of the qualify and work thats gone into making it, any top cue maker will do you a cue for about 400-600 depending on what you want, and have it to you in just a few months, your waiting years at john parris.

Back to peradon cues, a friend of mine has a 1 piece Joe Davis and i must say it plays as well as anything ive ever picked up, its one piece, lovely weight and balance and it just feels great, one piece is definitely the way to go in terms of how it feels when you strike a ball.

Ken Doherty bought his cue for 5 pound off the rack - and was world champion, so I think its definitely all about the player and not the cue.

[Frankthered]

I once picked up a 15 euro peradon cue fresh out of the plastic, you know one of those brown hall cues, and i made a century with it, so when it comes to cues, its more about the player.

So, did you keep that rack cue like Ken D. did? 😁

Funnily enough, I made my highest break with a rack cue in the club I played at - the break was 30 and it was on a day that I didn't have my own cue with me. (It was in 1985!!) But I think it's quite unhelpful to tell people who are looking for advice on cues to tell them that "it's more about the player".

I mean, of course, you are absolutely correct to say that, as is saying something along the lines of "whatever feels like the best cue to you is the best cue for you". But if that's all there is to it, why do so many people want to buy a "nice" cue?

It's not just psychological, in my opinion some cues really do play better than others. At the time I made my high break, I had a Riley Realm - a maple shaft, two-piece, machine spliced cue with a rosewood butt that cost about £20 from Argos. I thought it was fine and, if I couldn't do the things with the cueball that I wanted, it was down to my technique. Maybe I should have twigged sooner that it wasn't a great cue because the club I played at used them as (you guessed it) rack cues! I made my 30 after ditching the Realm rack cue I was using and switching to one of the others that they had!

Fast forward about 10 years and (after a long break from the game) I was having a knockabout with a guy from work who showed up with a one-piece cue in a tin case the like of which I had not seen before. In between frames, he let me try it and it completely blew me away. I hit what would normally have been a stun shot with my cue, and it turned out to be a screw shot with this magic wand. I tried an angled stun shot and, rather than having to guess how hard to hit it because the cue was so mushy, it was a clean strike that I could feel.

It was a B&W Burwat Champion. I tried to buy it but he wouldn't sell.

(I also now realise that at least some of this difference could have been due to the tips that were fitted to the respective cues, but that's a completely different can of worms!)

I went to a snooker shop and asked (foolishly) for a "good" cue and was told that whatever feels right to me is what I should buy, based only on hitting a cueball up and down a 6ft table because the guy in the shop wouldn't let me chalk the tips! So I ended up with an ok BCE cue that, when I used it for the first time, felt more like the Riley cue than the Burwat.

So, I do get a little frustrated when people trot out all the old cliches like "all you need is a broom handle and a strip of boot leather", "you'll get better value out of some coaching sessions", "it's more about the player" and "whatever feels like the best cue to you is the is the best cue for you".

They are all accurate (ok, the broom handle is a bit of a stretch!) but they're not very helpful to somebody who is looking to buy a cue, particularly if they are a newbie and/or clueless (like I was/am!).

This frustration isn't really directed at you, Chunkis, it's more general than that and I would acknowledge that you did give some helpful views on JP, the alternatives, and indeed a nicely balanced comment about Peradon!

👍

Some other cliches that might have applied to my situation were; I think I'd "outgrown my cue", I think my old cue "played like a piece of string" and was probably "only good for firewood".

Ken Doherty bought his cue for 5 pound off the rack - and was world champion, so I think its definitely all about the player and not the cue.

I believe he only paid £2 for it, despite having got his mum to give him £5 and he pocketed the difference. It also wasn't one of the regular rack cues either, he said it seemed like somebody had left it behind and because he really liked it, he asked if he could have it if nobody claimed it!