TimeOut

The last of these George Balabushka work in progress, you can see the craftsmanship. This is amazing that raw wood is still straight 50 years later.

It would be a dream to have one of these made into a custom made one of a kind cue made to fit and play just for you. These blanks are less than 5 left in the world.

This one came from a widow that got it after George died in 1975. She brought it to TAD and asked if he would turn it into a cue. Tad was not open to the idea...in 1975. The widow had no further use for it and left it at the shop. Today, this is valued at $15,000, more expensive than a completely finished Balabushka. Rarity, and the ability to make your own designed and custom fitted Balabushka can't be done any other way. And the wood has been seasoned for 50 years. It will play like God himself made it. Sky is the limit to build your own. You can easily make a $100,000 dollar custom with this.

I can't show my blank yet as it is being used for a project. I will see it completed in a few years. The process is slow. You only get one chance to cut the wood and it is being done the traditional way. The team had to employ some outside help to cast and machine parts for my custom build. The remaining George Balabushka blanks used forearms made by Gus Szamboti who also is a legendary cuemaker of such high regard that it is difficult to say who historically will be known as the Greatest Cuemaker of All Time, George or Gus. There were a total of 1200 cues made in George's lifetime. 600 were house cue conversions. He cut in half bar cues he liked, added his design to them and it was done. 500 were made with Burton Spain blanks. Less than 100 are these Gus Szamboti blank forearms. Less than 10 were unfinished Gus Szamboti blanks. Most all looked like this blank basically brown and black . Less than a couple had colors in them. And at least 1 had red color in it the most rare Gus Szamboti blank color. My blank has green in it making it very rare but not as rare as red or the most desirable color blue.

And if it wasn't apparent, the secret to how a genuine George Balabushka plays is hidden inside that checked ring part that connects the handle to the forearm points. It's called the "buzz ring ". George solved the biggest problem with the harshness of contact with hard wood cues. He built maybe the very first shock absorber mechanism for a cue. It keeps all the feel , but removes the impact shock.

Blue



Red



Purple

The original idea George came up with is to remove direct contact of the forearm and the handle. Impact energy propagates through the buzz ring instead of through solid wood. The cue gets a bit of a hint of a rubbery feel as it literally bounces off the cueball. It is not a dead feel that you could get from soft material used to cushion the impact like soft leather tips.

I would say you need a doxa poseidon

Thought I owned a Maserati. I joked and said no way, it's a Countach S

Here is 1 of mine that I have owned several times over the past years. 

You are so fortunate 😍. Thanks for sharing! There's not many of that class. It's clearly one of the very last ones George made at the peak of his skills!

. . . thanks much for sharing, Vinnie.  And the implication you've traded for that cue a few times . . . more common among cue collectors, imho, than for other collectibles.  Players have such an intimate connection with their cues and memories of games played that reconnecting with a previously owned cue is kinda like reconnecting with your first girlfriend.  

Vinnieb and I are AZ'ers and strongly suspect we are kneeling in front of royalty 😉

I was wondering who is the current master of masters. The answer I got from the best cuemakers is Andrew Rounceville.

After John Davis left the Earth, Rounceville became the most coveted full splice blank maker. Many will argue convincingly that Rounceville is a better blank maker than John Davis ever was. Except Davis made blanks for Balabushka making his blanks the last connection to GB.

. . . on Bell Forest's website.  Bob mentioned Prather as the maker he'd turn to if he were into making spliced cues for a living.  Bob's made a handful of full-splice cues in the distant past but decided early on that he was going to concentrate on making players instead.  

Consider the full splice cue as the ultimate and purist cue build type.
The big pin with ivory joint, full splice cue 30 + 30, with an 18 balance point, 19Oz. made from Rosewood or Ebony is usually the ultimate serious players cue. It is usually the most prized playing cue there is for actual game play. There are others that love to play with fancy cues with ivory and precious metal inlays but aside from Ko Ping Chung, don't know that many professionals who play with their own cues that play precious metals fancy.
My friend that plays like a nightmare APA 8 level on his own Diamond 9 foot with 4 1/4th inch pocket table plays with 60 inch Burton Spain custom full splice no wrap made from cocobolo with an ivory joint 3/8-10 pin with 12.25mm shafts. He spots me 6 to 11 in One Pocket. He will play serious games with only that Burton Spain. He has a Kent, Judd Fuller, and several other customs. But when he plays me, it's only with that Burton Spain. Last week I was in great shape. I ran 6 three games in a row He unfortunately woke up and proceeded to give me lessons for the next 5 games including beating me solid 4 games straight at 9-ball. Great shooter with 30 years experience.

. . . never play bar rules bank-the-eight.

Don is very strong player. Runs out almost 50% of the 9 ball positions from the 3 ball. Runs out 30% of the time from the break at 8 ball on his 9 foot tournament Diamond table with customized 4.25 inch pockets. He's really great at two and three rail banks as he plays One Pocket as his favorite game. I barely can send the ball around his table three rails without selling out the position. Maybe I can arrange playing a game or two at Danny K's?

. . . Saturday.  Especially if the game is bank-the-eight, two rail minimum, . . . 

. . . no defense - gotta go for a legit shot every time.

I don't think I could do that even once in five.

. . . scratched on his last ball.  

. . . said it best: 

🙂

This is the most beautiful table I have ever played on. I brought a great weapon for battle. I brought the fancy Balabushka today. And wow this cue was a surprise, it hits a tonne. It weighs more than the Lisciotti Balabushka and you can feel the hit is a little more powerful. The Lisciotti is a slightly more finesse cue.