Advice
Buying a cue is essential if you want to become seriously involved in the game of Snooker , pool or billiards. There are a multitude of cue types, materials and designs that all have an impact on how the cue plays and feels as well as how it looks.
If you are just starting out there is little point in spending serious amounts of cash as it’s unlikely you’ll know what suits your game, so the first piece of advice is buy a cheap snooker cue and get some playing and practice hours in. If after a few months you are still as passionate about playing and have a greater understanding of how to use a snooker cue to control the cue ball then you can think about trading up to a ‘proper cue’. Playing is the most important factor in becoming in-tune with your snooker cue. The more you play the better the marriage between player and cue rather than the price of the cue itself. Alan Mcmanus plays with a cheap machine made snooker cue he bought as a kid and Hendry secured all of his World titles playing with a bog standard cue. The difference between a cheap cue, rather than a handmade snooker cue is manufacturing method and materials. Cheap cues are made by machine to a standard design and size. They are made from cheaper woods to much lower specifications.
With a quality cue you expect to find either an ash shaft or maple shaft. In terms of feel they are almost identical although some players are convinced maple feels slightly harder. The main difference is grain. Ash has a visible grain that, in my opinion gives a good looking and distinctive cue that is absolutely unique. Maple has no visible grain and is much lighter in colour to ash and is nearly white in some instances. At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. When looking for quality ash or maple, you want very close grained and straight. The butt of the cue (the fat end!) on a quality cue will be made using one or more hardwoods and add an attractive quality to a snooker cue. The butt is fixed to the shaft via a technique called splicing which is done either by hand or by a machine. Machine splices tend to give sharper points and are absolutely uniform whereas hand splices are more rounded and have some slight natural irregularity. Handmade snooker/pool cues should be handspliced and will utilise superior hardwoods in complex combinations. The desire for handmade cues has seen an increase in some imports in which the handsplicing has been very poorly done. These cues are waste of a players money which would be better spent on buying a quality machine spliced that has been well constructed from quality materials. Handspliced cues cost more for a reason – the work involved in producing them. If a cue seems too good to be true then it most probably is. Some snooker cues even have ‘fake splices’ that are painted on to give the appearance of a traditional cue this is unfortunately a favourite trick used by unscrupulous manufacturers who fail to tell their customers that the splices are in fact pretend.
Whatever the choice of butt design or whether the splices are handmade or machine cut, providing the cue has been well made it won’t have a massive impact on the feel of the cue compared to the shaft. Cues come either as a single piece of wood or jointed so that the cue can be split into two pieces for transportation. In terms of playability there is little difference but some players swear by the solid feel they get from a one piece. In my opinion a well jointed cue should play as well as a one piece but many players have followed the trend of professional players who have moved to one piece cues in recent years. For the vast majority of players a two piece cue is easier to transport to the club in your Fiesta with most preferring the ¾ design over a half cue. The first consideration in selecting a cue is its length. This varies from player to player but most cues are around 58 inches long and don’t tend to be more than one or two inches either side of this figure unless the player has some specialist needs. Some old Pro’s swear by the fact that the cue should come up to a player’s armpit but in general a 58 inch snooker cue will suit the vast majority of players. At the end of the day it’s whatever feels right for you but just bear in mind that you won’t pick up a 56” cue from a local sports shop for £30 and will mean engaging the services of a cue maker such as myself. Tip size is an essential ingredient of the snooker cue. Most players will use a 9mm tip as this gives an excellent level of control but most less experienced players may want to start with a 10mm or 11mm tip as they tend to be more forgiving when striking the ball off centre. Tips are traditionally made from Elk leather to give a perfect combination of hardness combined with grip on the cue ball. Professional tips are glued to the cue and are rounded by hand using sandpaper. The end of the cue is protected by a brass ferrule to prevent the cue from splitting and protect the cue when changing tips. Cue weight is again a very personal choice with a standard weight being around 17.5 oz some players such as Jimmy White preferring slightly heavier with other such as Stephen Hendry preferring something slightly lighter. The best advice is to borrow a couple of cues from friends and see what works for you.
Butt diameters only tend to change on custom cues and can be adjusted to suit an individual’s hands with players with larger hands tending to go for slightly larger cue butt. Finally you need to consider how you will be playing those tricky long shots on a full size snooker table. In the good old days it would mean utilising the ‘fishing gear’ (long rest and cue) you find hanging on the side of a traditional snooker table. These day’s players tend to use extensions and telescopic extensions to add extra inches to their cue. These usually affix to the butt of the cue via a quick release joint (SD Joint). Many cue makers also supply ‘mini butts’ that extends the snooker cue that little more for the shot that is not quite reachable.
In conclusion when buying a snooker or pool cue, you will invariably get what you pay for. This doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune to get a good quality cue and you’d be well advised to shop around to make sure you get a cue that suits you. When you buy a cue, remember that a top quality machine snooker cue will beat a cheap ‘pseudo handmade cues’. However if you want to specify the design and feel of your cue then a quality handmade cue is the only way to go and will give you a stunning cue that will give years of playing pleasure.