little advice on cue choice
3/12/2012 6:45:25 PM
little advice on cue choice
so I've been playing pool casually my whole life. I had a nice table in my basement growing up. I'd say I'm pretty decent for someone who hasn't ever really "practiced."
I've never bought a cue for myself before. There were just cues at my house. But now that table, and those cues aren't available to me any more, and I'm tired of using house cues when I go play with my friends.
Anyway, I'm looking to spend $150.00 to $250.00. I've been doing a little research and it looks like there are quite a few available in that range.
Again, I'm not trying to be a professional player or anything, I just like to play for fun. And it was far less frustrating playing with a nicer cue.
When I was doing my research a bunch of lengths, and weights came up and I don't really know where to start. A lot of the places seem to default to a 19 oz stick, so I'm guessing thats pretty standard.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, from brands to check out or weight to start on...etc.
Thanks in advance.
little advice on cue choice
Replies & Comments
osage24 on 3/13/2012 8:47:50 AM
I shoot Meucci and they have some great deals online, ebay etc. For a starter cue, look at the econo line or freshman series, also they have great deals on factory seconds. Mostly found on ebay, daily.
thenewguy on 3/13/2012 10:51:36 AM
hey, thanks a lot. I've seen that brand a lot in my searches.
So professionally, I'm a guitar player. I know its best to play each guitar before you buy it because its wood, and there will be a difference from instrument to instrument.
Does that hold true for pool cues? I can only imagine so, because they are made of wood. I know I'm not at a level where I could really tell, but I'm just curious.
Only real difference in bad, good, and really good cues are the shafts, the butts are totally for show. You get what you pay for. Also get a high dollar tip. Cheap tips will ruin you. Meucci has a longer ferrel, which is the white part at the end. The longer the better. Also the tip size is 10mm to 13mm. Start with 13mm and never change. This gives you more tip to move the cue with, for control spin, etc. Like anything, if you are going to do it, do it right from the beginning. Just like buying crap golf clubs and wondering why you suck. Equipment is half the game. Any top end brand is good. Go to the billiards parlor or table store, they will let you hit most sticks. But when buying online if it is not a new stick, get some good pictures of the tip. After you look around for a while you will see what I mean on this topic. Most tips or shafts are totally abused and new ones (go to meuccicues.com) go for up to $240 each for the really good ones.
If you do buy used on ebay or other auction site, if people are not bidding on it for up to 70% of blue book, you do not want it. Great cues usually sell for about 70-80 of blue book for shooting cues, and collectors pay more for investment cues or collections or rare cues. You gotta be careful you do not buy a collectors cue and think you can play with it. Buy a playing cue, also pick up a check break cue, or use house cue to break with, if you use your playing stick, you will just ruin the tip and be replacing a $20 tip weekly, and it takes a week to get them replaced.
cuesplus on 5/5/2012 11:51:15 AM
19 ounce is the "standard". I put that in quotes because no everyone likes 19 but by far that is what sells the most. If you have a friend or two that has a cue that the would let you use ask them to try their out and see what weight you like. That also might help out with the brand decision also - one note do not believe the weight of house cues.
As for brand... if you are just wanting a good cue and don't care much about design you could get something good for under $100. If you want a design then overlay cues are usually under $100 also on up to the $180 and up (that still have overlays) - inlayed designs are usually $120 and up.
In my opinion go for lower cost, sneaky pete type of cue and try it out. But I will default back to the best bet - try some friends cues and see which brand you like. I personally like McDermott, one of the previous posters like Meucci, I have both and go back to the McDermott that I've had since 1986 - personal taste. Most stores will not allow you to get a refund once you put chalk on the tip since it then makes the cue a used cue.
Mike
BilliardsBill on 5/11/2012 9:55:58 PMBuy yourself a JOSS cue. They start at around $200.00. You can't go wrong with a Joss. They are better than Meucci and McDermott. I own all of them and JOSS are definitely better. Trust me, go with JOSS.
Mitch Alsup on 5/12/2012 2:10:47 PM
19 oz is the reference starting point. This is just a tad more than 3X the weight of the (regulation) CB. As the cue gets lighter, it is easier for the player to mis-stroke the cue. As the cue gets heavier, it is harder to accelerate the cue up to speed. So for powerful breaks, a lighter cue with a very hard tip is prefered.
Nose weight: The weight on the nose of the cue determines a lot of the play characteristics of the cue. A cue wiht a light weight nose (also known as Low Deflection) will shoot the CB straighter than a cue with a heavy nose when side spin is employed. It comes with its own set of problems, being light, it is easy to move the cue tip as the stroke takes place. This can be done deliberately for position play, or without the player knowledge/observance in which case bad shots happen. The lighter the nose the lower the polar moment of the cue, and the easier it is to impoct the CB somewher other than where you wanted to. For example, after playing for years and years, I got a LD shaft. It took me 6 hours of practice to get a grips on the new characteristics. Then after playing exclusively with that shaft for 3 years, I got an even lower deflection shaft. This thing took me 2 months of rather constant play to come to complete grips with the shaft. Now, 4 months donw the road, I can do things with the new shaft I never could with the old shaft, BUT I have to be VERY DELIBERATE about doing it, or it still does what ti wants and not what I intend.
{Summary: low deflectionshafts require you to adjust your game to them--once you do it is mostly good, but until then it is a good learning curve.}
Your fisrt cue should be considered a write off. You will bang it up, put dents in the shaft, whack it on tables, corners, and almost anything around--UNTIL you develop a sense of situational-awareness and figure out how to avoid doing this to your cue. No amount of internet lecturing can teach you the requisite skills. So, but a cue you like the looks of as your first cue, then play with it for a few years until it is all banged up and ready for replacement,then buy a cue you want to last for a long time. There are planty of cues in the $60-$150 range that will satisfy this requirement.
- BilliardsBill on 5/12/2012 4:33:20 PM
After your head stops spinning from all of the "advice" you recieve here, buy a JOSS.
little advice on cue choice
- Title: little advice on cue choice
- Author: thenewguy
- Published: 3/12/2012 6:45:25 PM
