Two Words that are hyped to Death

[~Sticks~]

"Custom & Rare"

How Can a cue that is mass produced by the thousands possibly be a Custom cue?
The only conclusion i can Draw is that if a cue can be offered with a different weight--or tip -etc-then its a custom for sure--not sure how everyone else views the word "custom"--but for my dollar its not a mass produced item in the thousands!

"Rare"-- Again-how in the world can a mass produced cue or any other item that just came down the assembly line be considered rare?? I mean the paint hasn't even dryed fully as yet-:ahhhhh:

Now that all that is out in the open and behind me---I can read up on all the new Rare & Custom mass produced cue models for 2008-:D

[audiopro]

To me Custom means you can modify options such as colors, wraps, rings, joints, etc...

Don't confuse Custom with Hand Made.

Rare is a relative term...

[~Sticks~]

audiopro--Thanks for your input!

Thought all handmade cues were customs ? more so in my thinking than a mass produced factory cue anyway--IMHO

Simply put--in my thinking the words "Custom and Rare" are used today more as a selling gimmac than anything else--has nothing to do with craftmanship or true low production numbers.

[skor]

We had a hot debate on this issue that even drifted to AZB... it all started around the question whether Schon cues are custom or production....
You should look it up

[audiopro]

audiopro--Thanks for your input!

Thought all handmade cues were customs ? more so in my thinking than a mass produced factory cue anyway--IMHO

Simply put--in my thinking the words "Custom and Rare" are used today more as a selling gimmac than anything else--has nothing to do with craftmanship or true low production numbers.

Yes, all hand made cues are custom... But not all custom cues are hand made...

I think using the words custom and rare have definitely long been a selling gimmick... Kinda like new and improved... If something is truly new, which would mean not made before, how can it be improved upon?

Semantics and Marketing Fluff....

[~Sticks~]

Skor--appreciate your reply

Maybe i just needed to vent a thought in writing after seeing another ad for a cue called custom thats pure junk IMHO(owned one)--not even sure if it could have been called firewood--to me that cue was like calling a corncob custom toliet paper-well the cue did have a weight bolt-- after sanding the shaft with a belt sander for a hour--the shaft finally smooth out-not real sure what the wrap was--thinking more in the line of cornsilk-the tip was another issue--never seen a tip that even a skill grinder couldn't taper--i believe that was a selling feature as i recall-- " super hard pro tip"--Sorry i just go stock raving mad when i see the title Custom or rare attached to a less than worthy mass produced product--so with that said to each his or her own thinking of what custom and rare mean--I respect all views

Best Regards
~Sticks~

[dags_lax]

No matter how you want to define custom there will always be cues that many people agree are custom but don't fit the definition. I have McDermot Sexton, which is limited to a production run of 200, many people wouldn't consider custom. Yet those same people may consider a Southwest, which, for the most part, has been making the same cue over and over for many years a custom cue.

A purist might say that a custom cue is a unique, built to order cue. But then when that cue is sold to another person is it no longer custom because it wasn't built for the second owner? What about a Runde cue. Since selling Schon he makes less than 20 cues a year. They are all his design and with the exception of a few sneaky petes he has only made copies of a specific design just a few times. Are his cues custom cues?

Labels, and that's what the term custom is, are tricky things. Take the color blue. How many different things can you look at that that are obliviously different colors yet we call them all blue. But then again on the other hand I may call a really dark color black that someone else will call blue.

Look at the term organic. There is a lot of controversy with the term organic in regards to the packaging of food. The government defines the term organic in regards to packaging for food. But cut clearly some foods are more organically grown/raised than others (hence the controversy) yet they are bothlabeled as organic. And if the government with the force of law can't create a suitable definition for a term we are not going to come to a consensus on the dividing line between what a custom is or is not.

Just because some one claims that a cue that (insert cue manufacturer here) makes by the thousands is custom because the it can be gotten in different, stains, joints, wraps or weights doesn't mean that the next person has to accept that claim.

[Pelikans]

Yeah, what he said! LOL

Actually, I couldn't have said it nearly as well.