Cue Contest

[cueman]

I had an end joint fitted to screw in extentions to a cue of mine some years back which completely changed the feel and hit of the cue. I think any alteration will make a cue feel different, trouble is if you really are at one with your cue and get so used to it any alteration will affect your game. Its a psychological problem as much as anything, I doubt you can't play the shots or have the cueball under the same control, you just need to re-learn how to play the shot with the cue now.

Snooker is a muscle memory game whereby you are relying on your muscles to transfer the feel through the cue to the cueball. Its all about feel and once something feels slightly different you need to tell your brain to alter the way your muscles react when striking but this takes time and patience. Its like going back to being a beginner again though when you are an advanced player you will adapt quickly but its frustrating at the same time.

[pottr]

I'm gonna go my spec contest way pal. Gonna let all the cuemakers know about my contest challenge too. Bet they'll be up for it.

[buddfridgeman]

yes mate try Stu...greenbaize 01642/760888 good value cues good guy.

After fifteen years of knocking in balls with the same bat I am facing upto the fact that I need a new cue. The joint is shagged and is being repaired as we speak.

I was thinking that this would be the chance for me to add some weight to the cuemaker debate.

I intend on placing identical spec orders through some top cue makers... I'm thinking 5 or 6 tops and cataloguing my experiences of dealing with them, ordering through them and of course the product itself.

As he is local to me, I have already placed an order for the following with Tony Glover:

One piece
Maple shaft
9.5 millimeter ferrule
58 inches length
18.5 ounce weight
29mm butt diameter
Ebony butt with a front facing Thuya Burr splice over a thick Birdseye maple veneer.
Drilled to accept mini-butt and a telescopic extension (also to be made by the cuemaker).


I intend to forward the same request with Mike Wooldridge, Trevor White, John Parris and Dave Coutts.

Is there anyone else I should contact?

[pottr]

Got my cue back yesterday. Joint looks great, cue looks great... It doesn't feel the same at all, I'm very disappointed.

Played ten frames at home with my pal, couldn't get hold of the white at all. The hit doesn't feel anywhere near as solid and the cue actually feels lighter.

I did manage to run an 87 in one frame but they were on. Does a new joint always have this affect?

[pottr]

yep, forgot to add that; this will a contest in patience

From my point of view that's a good thing. I doubt very much I could justify laying out all that cash at once for a set of cues.
Besides, if they all come at different times then they'll be new and shiny and will each get their fair crack of the whip.

Fair enough if that is what you want to do though, its a lot of money and time to wait for what could be 5 or so cues you don't like the feel of. I've probably had about 20 odd cues made to similar specs and never found one that felt right for me, and mostly including the cue makers you mentioned too!

Completely agree with you. There is a chance that after I've gone through all this I may decide that my old cue is still the one for me. If it hadn't been on the verge of breaking for so long I wouldn't have even considered this.
But I'm way too curious now not to go ahead with it... So, here we are.

You could try sending the cue to Andy Travis and get a new butt made for it to match the present one.

I won't be throwing my old cue out for sure so this is a consideration for the future.

p.s My case holds two one piece cues if you want to leave one at the Conny

So kind Mark I quite like my cabinet idea to be honest.

I am still waiting on a couple of the cuemakers to get back to me. I will update on my dealings as soon as they do.
Stay tuned.

[The Doctor]

I have 2 really nice maple cues with black ebony butt. One 58" and other 57" the shorter one has one knot in.it but this is only fault and you can't see it when looking down cue plate up. Both med stiff shafts. Pictures will be uploaded sion.

[Chappers]

Good idea mate. Will follow your progress how you get on with the different cues.
Interested on the quality of the different cue makers aswell to see if there's much between them.
p.s My case holds two one piece cues if you want to leave one at the Conny

[johno]

Good luck Terry, I also used a 57 inch cue for years but my new MW ash cue is 58 inches and I'm pleased with it. I'm sure
Mike will be ok to amend your order at this early stage, Will be interesting to see how you get on with all the new cues

[vmax4steve]

After fifteen years of knocking in balls with the same bat I am facing upto the fact that I need a new cue. The joint is shagged and is being repaired as we speak.

Fifteen years with one cue is a long time, I've had mine for twenty five and can't play with anything else. You could try sending the cue to Andy Travis and get a new butt made for it to match the present one. Shaft feel is all, as long as the new butt is the same dimensions it shouldn't matter but any new shaft would feel different as no two pieces of maple would be the same even if machined the exact same size. Grain density and moisture content give every wood it's own character and you are definitely used to yours after fifteen years.

[Terry Davidson]

johno:

Weirdly enough, Nic Barrow recommended to me 3 years ago that I should try out a 58" cue and hold it up a bit from the end of the butt and also weird the 4 cues I talk about above with what I consider my 'perfect' hit were ALL 58" one-piece. I didn't take Nic's recommendation at the time because I'm just too stubborn for my own good sometimes.

So right now I'm trying out a Green Baize ash one-piece that is 58" and a medium flex and gripping it so I have about 2" of butt behind my grip hand and I seem to be playing better. I don't know the reason for this but I've just asked both Dave Coutts and MikeW to change my cue orders to 58" if they can (I know cuemakers just HATE for a customer to change specs in mid-stream but I'm hoping I'm early enough in the process to have that done without any trouble).

I don't know why I seem to play better with a 58" one-piece but I definitely do so what the hell, I'm going to go with it. Plus of course, no joint wear to worry about like what's happened to pottr with his 15yr cue!

Terry

[DeanH]

Correct, Robert Osborne is not doing custom orders, else I would have mentioned him to be added to the list

[irfeen75]

Robert Osborne don't think he takes orders now so might not get the same specs.

[johno]

Terry

From looking at the specs of the cue(s) you had for sale a couple of months ago, they all seemed to be 57 inches long.
Have you ever used a 58 inch long cue ( I seem to recall you are around 6 foot or just under?) or do you prefer the
slightly shorter 57 inches as you grip the cue right at the back or with your little finger curled around the end.
Just wondered what your thoughts were on the length side.
cheers

[Terry Davidson]

pottr:

Oddly enough I've had 4 cues here which I felt had a hit exactly like I wanted. They were all ash and I measured the shaft diameter of all of them (which I felt was a 'medium' hit as opposed to other cues I have here like a JP Classic and also an Exquisite cue which are both a bit stiff for me.

I found (comparatively) to be quite a difference in the shaft diameter, especially between 15" to 39" from the ferrule. For the flex I like the diameter increased about 1mm every 3" up to 15" and then increased about 1.2mm for every 3" on down to 39". I start with a 9.4mm ferrule and end up with around 28.5mm butt diameter at the end of the cue.

So, since all these 4 cues came out virtually identical (as an example, the Exquisite rated 'stiff' at 15" was already 1.1mm thicker than the 4 medium cues and at 39" was a full 2.5mm thicker). From these checks I figure anyone could specify to a cuemaker fairly close shaft diameter measurements to get what he liked. It may be a bit more refined than just specifying to the cuemaker a 'medium-stiff' or 'stiff' hit.

The other problem of course is every piece of ash will be slightly different but I was quite surprised at how close the measurements were in the 4 I liked. For this problem I would rely on the cuemaker's expertise to produce a cue to the flex I was looking for. It might not be exactly right but I think it would be really close.

Given that you are going to order 4 or 5 custom made cues I figure at least one or two of them will come out to exactly what you want. My recommendation would be to stick with the flex you have now as you're used to it.

Terry

[pottr]

Cheers Terry, that's what Tony Glover suggested also.

No two cues feel the same so I'm not too worried. With time, I should be able to adapt to anything I guess.

Not worried by the wait times. My Glover will come first, if I get on with that, I'll just sell the others I suppose, or keep them in a smart cabinet in my snooker room.