Many manufacturers of custom billiard cues have models or brochures of their cues. If you buy one of their cleat styles, is it still considered a custom cleat?
This is a question that is being debated in many forums …
The word ‘custom’ is overused and overstated in the world of taco making, especially when a taco is for sale where this word can give the taco a different status making it more ‘salable’. In some places it is used to categorize any two-piece cue …
Some of the answers are in the definition of the word custom. Custom means ‘made to order’ – if you did not participate in the construction, then it is not a custom sign. If you ‘ask’ for a sign to your specifications, you have, by definition, a “custom billiard cue”. Now, sell that taco. What happens now? The person who bought it did not do it ‘on request’. Is it still a custom sign? If not, what is it?
When people talk about “production signals”, mass production comes to mind, but how many signals does a company produce before they are considered “production signals”? The word custom … means just that. Tailor-made according to buyers’ specifications, etc. If a plug with a certain weight, balance point, axle cone, cylinder head diameter, ferrule, etc. is ordered. so that sign is custom made and therefore a custom sign. If the cue is sold to John Smith later … then it is no longer custom made. It’s just a sign.
The focus should be on the signal, not the creator. If, for example, any cue maker creates a unique cue that looks exactly like a cue previously built by another (but was individually built and did not roll off the production line), it would be considered a custom pool cue. On the other hand, if a high-profile custom cleat manufacturer decided to mass produce a standard four-pointer for purchase “out of the box”, then those particular cleats are considered production.
There are 3 types of manufacturing signs:
- 1. Production sign: more than one sign made according to the manufacturer’s specifications and is aimed at a general or specific market.
- 2. Semi-custom or custom production sign: any existing production sign (readily available) in which the “stock” or existing specifications
- 3. Fully custom stud: any stud made from scratch according to all specific customer specifications (choice of materials, ring design, balance point, length, weight, taper, etc.)
has / has been modified according to a specific customer’s specifications (e.g. reduction of shaft diameter, casing change, name engraving, addition of inlays or markings, etc.)
The LIMITED CUES can be of the 3 types of manufacture:
- 1. Limited production: limited number of signs for the public.
- 2. Limited Semi-Custom – Limited production sign that has been modified to the specifications of a specific person
- 3. Limited Full Custom: one or more identical looking signs made from scratch according to all the specifications of a particular customer
A fully custom cue will always remain a fully custom cue, as it has been created with a specific person in mind.
The manufacturing technique used to produce a sign can also influence how the sign is classified as custom or production. The cue can be made by hand or assisted by a machine. Does using CNC disqualify a cue from being a custom pool cue? This is another discussion on its own, but again, if the signal is made entirely by a machine but the design is specific and original, then the answer is clear.