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Some interesting opinions on the aluminium cue thing.
I fairly recently inherited an Apollo cue from my late father, so if I might proffer a few words as someone who has played with one.
Weight.
The Apollo cue is light compared to most, it's well balanced "fore & aft" as it were, but light if you"re used to regular wooden cues maybe 17oz?, not sure as I didn't weigh it. It's weight is where I like it but given a choice I would probably have gone heavier, that said it seems the "pros" are moving towards lighter cues, and I've got used to it.
Feel.
What ever that is, is subjective, when I was young many guys put 1' wheel spacers on their old Minis and declared them to be "better", they weren't better, they just felt "different", putting excess strain on your wheel bearings & destroying your castor angles isn't good, & gives you a less stable car which ultimately you drive slower. Lets not confuse "different" with "better", play 3 shots with anybody else's cue and it'll feel odd, play 10 games with it then your cue will feel odd...
When striking the cue ball it does "feel" different than my old CueCraft wooden cue, I imagine it transmits more "feel" back to my hand being metal not wood (which one would imagine is more shock absorbent) whether that's good or bad is down to your own preference, I found it odd at first, but don't think about it now, everybody buys carbon mountain bike bars now because they "feel" better, but truth be known on the numbers they're more rigid than the alloy ones, go figure....
Sound.
At first my Apollo had the "clink" mentioned earlier, then I had a tip fitted properly, and now it sounds like any other cue, the only time you can really tell it's metal is when using a bridge and you can clearly tell it's metal on metal, not wood. I didn't experience any "screeching" and would suggest if you did try spending a £1 more on a bridge that's been finished properly, it's not the cue.
Deflection.
Interesting one, many people are selling a lot of cues now on the basis of being "low deflection" makes you wonder how Steve Davis & co ever managed without them... I've not seen any numbers from scientific testing of an Apollo, but it seems to play well enough (nothing that me practicing more couldn't improve I'm sure).
On the whole, having come from a regular "reasonable quality" wooden cue I would say if you're open minded enough to fancy an Apollo cue then go for it and buy one, they're cheap enough on ebay (mine is a silver one with no joint and doesn't have that horrible ribbed sleeve at the butt end).
I didn't like mine that much at first but now i'm used to it I really do, it's a fine cue (and everyone who tries it seems to like it, it does attract some attention).
As with so many things, as the old man once said to me when I passed comment on his car "if you can ride a black horse then you can ride a white one" or as I recently read "it's the Indian not the arrow".
The old man didn't have internet access, so he didn't get to read the opinions of the various wizened sages that deign fit to proffer their wisdom to any one willing to read, but that didn't stop him beating most everybody he played for over 30 years.
I was not making 147 breaks with my wooden cue, and I'm not making 147 breaks with my aluminium one, but in the back of my mind i have something telling me that my cue is utterly 100% straight so what I miss is my doing not the cues.
If you like the idea then go for it, form your own opinion, you might enjoy.
Best regards,
MJ
I fairly recently inherited an Apollo cue from my late father, so if I might proffer a few words as someone who has played with one.
Weight.
The Apollo cue is light compared to most, it's well balanced "fore & aft" as it were, but light if you"re used to regular wooden cues maybe 17oz?, not sure as I didn't weigh it. It's weight is where I like it but given a choice I would probably have gone heavier, that said it seems the "pros" are moving towards lighter cues, and I've got used to it.
Feel.
What ever that is, is subjective, when I was young many guys put 1' wheel spacers on their old Minis and declared them to be "better", they weren't better, they just felt "different", putting excess strain on your wheel bearings & destroying your castor angles isn't good, & gives you a less stable car which ultimately you drive slower. Lets not confuse "different" with "better", play 3 shots with anybody else's cue and it'll feel odd, play 10 games with it then your cue will feel odd...
When striking the cue ball it does "feel" different than my old CueCraft wooden cue, I imagine it transmits more "feel" back to my hand being metal not wood (which one would imagine is more shock absorbent) whether that's good or bad is down to your own preference, I found it odd at first, but don't think about it now, everybody buys carbon mountain bike bars now because they "feel" better, but truth be known on the numbers they're more rigid than the alloy ones, go figure....
Sound.
At first my Apollo had the "clink" mentioned earlier, then I had a tip fitted properly, and now it sounds like any other cue, the only time you can really tell it's metal is when using a bridge and you can clearly tell it's metal on metal, not wood. I didn't experience any "screeching" and would suggest if you did try spending a £1 more on a bridge that's been finished properly, it's not the cue.
Deflection.
Interesting one, many people are selling a lot of cues now on the basis of being "low deflection" makes you wonder how Steve Davis & co ever managed without them... I've not seen any numbers from scientific testing of an Apollo, but it seems to play well enough (nothing that me practicing more couldn't improve I'm sure).
On the whole, having come from a regular "reasonable quality" wooden cue I would say if you're open minded enough to fancy an Apollo cue then go for it and buy one, they're cheap enough on ebay (mine is a silver one with no joint and doesn't have that horrible ribbed sleeve at the butt end).
I didn't like mine that much at first but now i'm used to it I really do, it's a fine cue (and everyone who tries it seems to like it, it does attract some attention).
As with so many things, as the old man once said to me when I passed comment on his car "if you can ride a black horse then you can ride a white one" or as I recently read "it's the Indian not the arrow".
The old man didn't have internet access, so he didn't get to read the opinions of the various wizened sages that deign fit to proffer their wisdom to any one willing to read, but that didn't stop him beating most everybody he played for over 30 years.
I was not making 147 breaks with my wooden cue, and I'm not making 147 breaks with my aluminium one, but in the back of my mind i have something telling me that my cue is utterly 100% straight so what I miss is my doing not the cues.
If you like the idea then go for it, form your own opinion, you might enjoy.
Best regards,
MJ
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