Mark Richard cues

[I'm River]

My new cue arrived this morning,

It's a Mark Richard handmade cue. 58". Ash. Paid an extra few bucks for a 9.5mm elkmaster tip to be fitted and shaped too. Roll tested as straight before delivery as well.

Arrived within 4 working days from China, was packaged securely in bubble wrap and cardboad. Quality seems good to me, not that i'm a cue expert. It feels nicely balanced, and I like the chevron grains pointing nicely along the line of aim.

Anyway, I found old threads in this forum helpful before I settled on what to buy, so I post these photos in the hope that they in turn help someone else.

Link to the product - https://markrichardcues.com/products...-series-t3st03
Price paid including tip upgrade - £179. Free delivery.

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Edit. Wow that's annoying. I'm not authorised to upload a photo 😆.
Link to photos instead:

https://ibb.co/ShNMpBX
https://ibb.co/qFppqvXY
https://ibb.co/Mxz5bzGb
https://ibb.co/Xxf65Sj8

[DeanH]

Edit. Wow that's annoying. I'm not authorised to upload a photo 😆.
Link to photos instead:

Actually linking to a sharing site is the best way to go; the built-in attachment system is rubbish, very limited and also hard/impossible to manage.

[itsnoteasy]

You need ten posts.

[I'm River]

After probably 50 hours or so with this cue on both the snooker and the pool table, i'm just not best friends with it.

I'm not really experienced enough to know why, either. Perhaps it was a mistake to insist on a 58"? I'm considering selling it and just rebuying the cheaper cue I had before, which I only got rid of because it was a little bent out of shape.

[Cue crafty]

Don't know your ability, but when I was a kid starting playing and my parents bought me a 6x3 table, I spent hours and hours trying to pot the colours off their spots just so I could say my highest break was 27! That was with a tiny cue.

My point is, unless you're already a 40 break player, use that cue you have until you conquer this task, once you do, try to feel what you think is missing for you with the cue, is it a bit light i.e.maybe slightly too short or long.. experiment with tips, don't spend silly money on them though, as Taylor made tips orTs long BA cheap and work well.

A cue is a cue, and a decent player will pot the colours off their spots with almost any cue with a decent tip. So don't please waste your time with the search for a magic wand before you can achieve this task fairly easily.

[I'm River]

I'm nowhere near a 40 break player. I played at my club today and red, blue, red, blue was my highlight!

I haven't felt comfortable with the balance or weight of this cue so far but I think this is probably decent advice, thanks.

[itsnoteasy]

I do agree with CC, when you first start you don't really know what you want, having said that I couldn't play with a butt heavy rear balanced cue, I like a bit of front weight to keep the tip down especially when you have to shorten up off the cushions, which is where I spend half my life lol.
what's the ballance point of your cue?

[philip in china]

Very pleased for you.