Cue making is an art form that many possess. Everyone has their own style and that is no different for “The Redneck Cue Guy” Curtis Robertson. Curtis is based out of Abilene Texas and is a member of the American Cuemakers Association. Curtis is also the only member of the ACA that crafts custom cues and plays professionally. With Curtis being a professional player, he understands what is needed to compete at the highest level.
Robertson Custom cues turns around between 30 and 40 cues a year of the highest quality. Curtis is currently ranked tenth in the world on the WPA-APD Artistic Pool rankings and is one of the nicest guys around. I got a chance to catch up with him and this year’s Allen Hopkins Super Billiards Expo.
Brian: What is the reason you got into making cues? Curtis: Well I have always done cue repair and tried to help pool players out by putting new tips and new ferrules on and one thing lead to another. I have always been good with my hands so I got the equipment and started building cues and before you knew it I had Robertson Custom Cues. Brian: What is the price range of your cues? Curtis: Most of our cues start at about $700. The majority of the work that we do is commission work. It is all custom. It is very difficult for us to make enough cues to have spec cues for sale. We do have to do that for the Super Billiards Expo. All other cues are specific to the customer. So our cues will range from $700 to basically the sky’s the limit. Seven, Eight, Ten Thousand Dollars. Brian: What is the average turnaround time for your cues? Curtis: We are about 18-24 months out for delivery now that sounds unbelievable but it’s just the nature of the product. Nothing leaves or moves until it’s ready to go. Brian: This is an impossible question but do you have a favorite cue? Curtis: All of them! Honestly there is part of me that leaves with every cue I build. I don’t make cues just for the money. I truly make the cues for the relationship that comes out of it long past the time the money is exchanged hands until the time the cue has been delivered. What really matters is the relationship I have with my customers that lasts for years and years. I tell my customers that no matter what price point cue they buy to begin with, I guarantee you, this will not be the last Robertson Custom Cue that you will own. Sure enough they are coming back. That fifth and sixth and seventh cue that they are making orders with and it all stems around that relationship, the quality of work, and the service that I provide. Brian: So as a fellow professional artistic pool player I know there is a cool story about your masse cue. Would you like to share? Curtis: (chuckles) I have always struggled with masse. I was very competitive in all the other disciplines except for masse. I would be right there will the other players on the leaderboard coming into masse and I would just cave. I would shoot single digits. Fours, sevens, and nines. I had bought a lot of other masse cues and I guess it serves me right because I could never find one that worked for me. So what I ended up doing is building a prototype of a masse cue and I am proud to say that it is working very, very well. It has to do with weight distribution and the length of the cue. It took me about two years to develop it. I played in the Masters Artistic Pool Championships the first week of December of 2015 and unbelievably I shot 39 out of a possible 40 points in masse winning the masse discipline medal and taking 2nd place in the tournament so I am very proud of that.
I was emceeing that last round and the first attempt that Curtis missed was a trap shot that did not use the masse cue. Every shot he did with the masse cue, he made first attempt. Curtis Robertson is someone who truly cares about his work, but more importantly he truly cares about his customers. For more information on Curtis and where to make contact with him about a cue, check out his website Robertson Custom Cues.
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Sponsored by POV Pool and McDermott Cues
Author: Brian Pauley
Photo provided by Author
Editor: Shaylyn Troop