any billiards players can help out?

[replicant_argent]

Originally Posted by gvarsity

I would recommend a Schmelke cue. They provide most of the shaft maple used by most of the major cue manufacturers like Schon and Viking. You can get a Schmelke for 80-150$ direct from the factory and cheaper used on ebay or craigslist. http://www.schmelkecue.com/ I would avoid the fiberglass and graphite cues as well as the one pieces as they aren't very portable. The BR series has a couple that run $105-$125 as does the K, M, R, S, & SP series.

Nice all wood hand crafted nice shaft straight etc... You want one with the "Kiln dried Canadian Maple Shaft with pro taper" which is what they sell to other cuemakers. The cuemakers then add all of the inlays and designs and wraps on the butt which is where the money comes in to play. Schmelke construction, balance and playability are fine they just make some real basic cues as well as fancier.

Oddly enough 4-5 of the major cuemakers are based out of Wisconsin Schon in Milwaukee, Viking is in Madison, Schmelke is north of rice lake in the middle of BFE. At least one other major cuemaker is based in Wi also.

As far as wood shafts, all manufacturers of high quality cues us Canadian Maple, or Hard Rock Maple. Taper is a very user specific perception, a thicker taper is going to give you less deflection, and a thinner taper, such as Meuccis, will flex more upon contact and provide more "spring" to the shot, this "spring" is a very difficult thing to control, but when using extreme amounts of english or Masse' shots, can enable a livelier action to the cue ball. I am not aware of the fact that Schmelke makes shafts for many other cue makers. Schmelke makes good entry level cues in my opinion as well as McDermott, and a host of others. McDermotts tapers are typically thicker, but in many cues, you can find anywhere from 8 mm on a snooker cue, to 11 or 12, even 13. A 13 will pretty much feel like hitting bricks for most players.
Joint material can be widely varied, from wood to wood, with phenolic or metal collars of various compositions (brass, stainless, etc) as well as differing pin types and materials, whether metal pin to metal "nut" (ala Schmelke or Viking) or a larger pitched more "lag screw" looking arrangement like McDermott uses. Each will give a certain "feel" to a shot, none is better than the other, with proper construction techniques, other than what you like, much like cigars.
There is a place for graphite, especially when you may leave your cue in the car, or in situations where temperature and humidity may change rapidly or to extreme. Wood cues, (and shafts) absorb and release moisture, (much like cigars, again ) and are sensitive to those changes and will warp slightly sometimes when that happens. They will return to position, or can be flexed by someone that knows what they are doing with some skill. I have tweaked many a $1K cue shaft to true it up a bit.

As far as tips are concerned, The harder the better, with the caveat that softer tips will mushroom out a bit more, but require less overall attention in that they will hold chalk better for a longer period of time. I prefer a very hard tip, and spend more time making sure that I keep it playable with roughenings as necessary. My ex-father-in-law ( the guy I used to work for) owned his own very high end custom cue shop, pool room, and repair facility for many years, being very well known in the pool world. He would put a very hard burnished tip with a phenolic fiber pad underneath it and I enjoyed the way it felt. A well made tip, well installed, will last a very long time, unless you are playing many hours a day, day in and day out. . Let me know if I failed to address anything for you.

Originally Posted by ucubed

thanks for all the information...I've been playing for a number of years now, and I think I'm pretty good...I'm just looking for a good stick so I can start practicing some actual "skillful" shots and with all this information seems like I'll be well underway...

Can someone explain to me the difference in stick material such as specific woods vs carbon fiber etc...and also the difference in cute tips?