  The lunatic to your left is Ariel Carmelli. Ariel is shown here trying to snatch up as many shafts as he can. We allowed him to go through part of our shaft inventory and he picked out what he claims are the best shafts for his cues. You see, Ariel is quite unique in the method of picking shafts for his cues. Here's how he does it. He pulls down about 50 shafts, then he takes each shaft and bounces it on the ground and listens for a certain tone. The shaft can be tight grain or loose grain as long as it has the tone he's listening for. After having him in the shop for 4 hours, I can honestly say that we were glad to see him leave as the bouncing of the shafts got to our head - thank God for Advil! We had the unpleasant misfortune of having Ariel visit us twice. The first time he came through he purchased a nice quantity of shafts and we got to know one another. The second time was a few months later. He wanted to get as many shafts as he could because we have "the best shafts that he's come across in years". Ariel has told us that out of 100 shafts that he purchased on his first trip, he lost fewer than 5 which is an "incredible yield". As such he came back for seconds. There's one thing that we noticed about shafts and cue makers that's really strange. Everyone agrees that we're all looking for staight grain, bla, bla, bla. We've had numerous cue makers come through our shop and go through the very same shaft wood that other cue makers rejected and they're all able to buy as many as they like. We've found that no two cue makers pick the identical shafts when the opportunity presents itself to pick to their hearts content. Anyway, getting back to the nut, errrr, I mean Ariel - he's really a strange duck to say the least. I will say that he does build a beautiful cue and I've had the pleasure of hitting a few with two of them. His finish is exceptional and the hit is real nice. His prices are extremely fair for what he builds. If you want to talk to him feel free to email Ariel or call him at 909-664-5164. And here's more great news! Ariel just phoned us recently to let us know that he plans on visiting once again so he can pick out some more great shafts. Gee, I can hardly wait to see him. Bang, boing, bing. My aching head! |