differences between cheap and expansive cues?

[nuXbe]

Hey all!

I play snooker since about 18 month, I bought myself a cheap cue about a year ago, which was 50 pounds.
I really want to buy a very good cue now.


Maybe this sounds very crasy to all of you, but what are the differences between "very good" and not so good cues?
Yes, of course, they look better......

[jimmymoller]

well the only thing looks will help you with is maybe confidence. but it doesnt matter what cue you have as long as it feels right. so you could buy a $50 cue from a sports shop and a $1500 cue from parris cues and depending on who plays with it the cheap cue could feel better. of course a good cue helps because you know your in good hands but a good cue doesnt make a good player. a good cue would be a great piece of ash with well done splicing and ect and a bad cue would be splices split in short amount of time and falling apart. a cue is a cue. hope ive helped a littile bit man. good luck
Jimmy

[nuXbe]

of course, an expansive cue does not make people play like the pros.

What I'm asking is, does a very good cue has any effect on the white?
for exampe: does sidespin or draw works better with a very good cue than with a bad one?
or does the white goes more straight when using sidespin?

Good cuemakers use very good ash only, is it possibile to play more acurate because the very good ash bends more, or less than the ash they use in cheap cues?

Does anyone knows something about this?
There are a few cuemakers in this forum....don't worry telling me the truth guys, I will buy a good cue anyways

Alex

[MikeWooldridge]

What I'm asking is, does a very good cue has any effect on the white?
for exampe: does sidespin or draw works better with a very good cue than with a bad one?
or does the white goes more straight when using sidespin?
Good cuemakers use very good ash only, is it possibile to play more acurate because the very good ash bends more, or less than the ash they use in cheap cues?
Does anyone knows something about this?
There are a few cuemakers in this forum....don't worry telling me the truth guys, I will buy a good cue anyways

Alex

there are no simple answers to the questions you ask, but a 'good' cue IS better than a 'bad' one. question is, how do you tell a good one from a bad one?

years of experience will teach you but, in the meantime, this may help on your road to enlightenment:

http://www.handmadecues.com/home/20-advice.htm

[dannyd0g]

it would be interesting to hear what advantages an expensive quality cue offers to actual game play over a cheap cue with a decent tip.

Great looks and quality finish doesnt mean you can pot balls.

If the likes of Hendry and Mcmanus played most of their careers with a £15 cue bought from a high street sports shop it didnt make much difference to them.

[MikeWooldridge]

it would be interesting to hear what advantages an expensive quality cue offers to actual game play over a cheap cue with a decent tip.

price alone is not the issue. a 'cheap' cue could be actually be very good if made well, with quality wood, and play as well as any 'expensive quality' cue

good point about the tip though. a good tip can make a dodgy cue much more playable.

Great looks and quality finish doesnt mean you can pot balls.

hear, hear...

If the likes of Hendry and Mcmanus played most of their careers with a £15 cue bought from a high street sports shop it didnt make much difference to them.

i'm tired of that old story about hendry's cue. it's misleading, and totally irrelevant anyway.

as far as i remember, the retail price was relatively expensive at the time. i'm sure it was around £70+. but that's unimportant also. hendry may well have paid £15, but it was certainly not the genuine retail price at the time. maybe it was second hand? i don't know and i don't care.

point is, his cue was mass produced, in the far east i believe, and made to a relatively reasonable standard. the thing with mass produced cues is, amongst the hundreds, or maybe thousands, made, there will be some very good ones that came out just right.

clearly his was a good one, and he was lucky enough to pick it up for next to nothing. or at least far below it's market value.

so, whatever he apparently paid, is not a yardstick by which people should consider whether a cue could be good or not.

i don't know anything about mcmanus' cue, but like hendry's, it will be a 'good' one amongst a thousand 'identical' ones that are more than likely not so good to play with.

p.s. i took apart a 'hendry' cue once and found a cheap machine spliced butt under all the fancy splicing. not saying they're all like that but my guess is they were originally mass made machine spliced 'club' cues. when they arrived in the uk, amongst the really awful bits of ash/maple, there would probably have been a fair few that turned out really good. these were probably then spliced over and a 'new' cue was born.

[nuXbe]

Thanks for the link Mike!

I still wonder if the good wood, of a good cue has any effect on the white balll?
Does good wood bends different than a "bad" one, so that this has a "positiv effect" to the white ball?
Or is it just the leather-tip?

for example:
is the way of the white different when hitting with side-spin, when you use a "good" and a "bad" cue?

Alex

[MikeWooldridge]

yes. a good bit of wood will do the job better and 'feel' better.

a good tip will help any cue play better,

[ADR147]

I would guess that an expansive cue would be bigger?