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So we bought an Acuerate 147 cue set to try it out and here follows firstly my opinions and then the opinions extracted from e-mails of the cue maker Trevor White and the snooker players Dominic Dale and Ryan Day.
Me:
The Cue I found to be well presented and fair value for money at £285 in a leather case with both extensions although I suspect with a bit of shopping around you could buy a similar package that is better quality from O'min or Mastercue. The cue was in my opinion far too light for general use and looked quickly and cheaply put together with very average materials, the ash in particular was not of the standard you would expect from a top UK maker. the design was a little too flashy and the little cross target thing was very tacky. To play with I found the shape distracting and the overall lifelessness of the cue depressing, it just did not have the right feel. 4 /10
Trevor White:
Hi Andrew,
Got the cue, WOW, WOW and again WOW........
It really is very...........................ordinary.
SO.......
I took it down a local club to give it a whirl.
If I'm going to be honest, I found it did in fact play very reliably with side, it was very acceptable in that respect.
Generally, I thought it was a totally usable cue, nothing special whatsoever, just a usable cue that happened to be pretty good when it came to off centre striking. One thing I also did was to take my own cue for some comparison, and.....well.........
there was no comparison. My own cue beat the pants off it, more feel, more response with the white and every bit as reliable when striking off centre, better build quality, materials and finish, but apart from those points, there was nothing to choose between them.......ha!.
This cue you sent was particularly dead I thought, even with the slightly softish tip on it, which you'd think would create more spin...nowt much going on and a real effort to get instant backspin, it was very disappointing there.
The build quality was typical of a lower end 'quality' cue. Not too bad generally but really lacking in an overall feel of quality and attention to detail. The name disc is very shabby, as is the little target style emblem on the green strip in the butt....shockingly tasteless. The lower splices sort of lost their shape a little also and I thought the overall design to be poor.
I would'nt want to be too critical of the overall package though I must say. For your average player who knows, or has seen, little in the way of 'REAL' quality cues, they're not bad value I guess. It's a reasonable cue, but nothing more than that, the case, although not the best in leather style cases, is ok, as are the included extensions. Ultimately however I feel there's nothing to really set these cues apart, even when you consider the kind of clever marketing propaganda they've pushed them with. So I don't see them ever getting a huge fanbase or threatening the likes of more specialist makers in the UK.
It's a huge market however, so I'm sure they'll sell enough of them, and, the fact that Hendry has his name linked to them might help a bit.
Maybe it would have helped a lot more if he'd done the business in Sheffield with it.
If I had to put a score on it, I'd say 6 out of 10.
Thanks for sending it, I'll be sure to get it back to you this week.
Regards,
Trevor..
Ryan Day: Ryan hit a few balls and did'nt miss a great deal in close, over any sort of distance though it was a different story, he didn't like the shape of it either. "what's up with the badge its all to gone to p*ss"
(P.S) Acuerate Cue for sale open to offers!
Me:
The Cue I found to be well presented and fair value for money at £285 in a leather case with both extensions although I suspect with a bit of shopping around you could buy a similar package that is better quality from O'min or Mastercue. The cue was in my opinion far too light for general use and looked quickly and cheaply put together with very average materials, the ash in particular was not of the standard you would expect from a top UK maker. the design was a little too flashy and the little cross target thing was very tacky. To play with I found the shape distracting and the overall lifelessness of the cue depressing, it just did not have the right feel. 4 /10
Trevor White:
Hi Andrew,
Got the cue, WOW, WOW and again WOW........
It really is very...........................ordinary.
SO.......
I took it down a local club to give it a whirl.
If I'm going to be honest, I found it did in fact play very reliably with side, it was very acceptable in that respect.
Generally, I thought it was a totally usable cue, nothing special whatsoever, just a usable cue that happened to be pretty good when it came to off centre striking. One thing I also did was to take my own cue for some comparison, and.....well.........
there was no comparison. My own cue beat the pants off it, more feel, more response with the white and every bit as reliable when striking off centre, better build quality, materials and finish, but apart from those points, there was nothing to choose between them.......ha!.
This cue you sent was particularly dead I thought, even with the slightly softish tip on it, which you'd think would create more spin...nowt much going on and a real effort to get instant backspin, it was very disappointing there.
The build quality was typical of a lower end 'quality' cue. Not too bad generally but really lacking in an overall feel of quality and attention to detail. The name disc is very shabby, as is the little target style emblem on the green strip in the butt....shockingly tasteless. The lower splices sort of lost their shape a little also and I thought the overall design to be poor.
I would'nt want to be too critical of the overall package though I must say. For your average player who knows, or has seen, little in the way of 'REAL' quality cues, they're not bad value I guess. It's a reasonable cue, but nothing more than that, the case, although not the best in leather style cases, is ok, as are the included extensions. Ultimately however I feel there's nothing to really set these cues apart, even when you consider the kind of clever marketing propaganda they've pushed them with. So I don't see them ever getting a huge fanbase or threatening the likes of more specialist makers in the UK.
It's a huge market however, so I'm sure they'll sell enough of them, and, the fact that Hendry has his name linked to them might help a bit.
Maybe it would have helped a lot more if he'd done the business in Sheffield with it.
If I had to put a score on it, I'd say 6 out of 10.
Thanks for sending it, I'll be sure to get it back to you this week.
Regards,
Trevor..
Ryan Day: Ryan hit a few balls and did'nt miss a great deal in close, over any sort of distance though it was a different story, he didn't like the shape of it either. "what's up with the badge its all to gone to p*ss"
(P.S) Acuerate Cue for sale open to offers!
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