MIKE DURBIN
TITLEIST CONVERSION
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You can't get much more traditional than a Titleist conversion. It's just a matter of taking an old Titleist house cue that managed to survive through the ages and making it into a new two-piece stick that plays the way a cue built today should play.
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This old Titleist was made from cocobolo and rock hard maple, with traditional Brunswick colors in the veneers. It is about 10-12 years old but was kept in a private collection and test-hit only. Mike got the cue back and made sure it was in mint condition beofre sending it on to me.
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While all this sounds simple, building a good conversion cue requires most of the same skills necessary in constructing a much more complicated and expensive stick.
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Although the wood in a cue of this age has probably done all the "moving" it's going to do, in order to insure the new cue stays straight Mike cores the butt through its entire length with another piece of maple.
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Having done that, he could then focus on the cosmetic aspects of the cue, starting with a nice block ring around the butt just above the butt cap. He builds a ring of ebony with white LBM squares and centers it between two silver rings.
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He then adds a white elforyn butt cap for durability and eye appeal.
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The cocobolo is dark. It probably started that way, but may have darkened a bit with age, as well.
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The points are sharp and pretty even - not always the case with these old blanks.
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And of course, being a full splice cue, the points also go in the other direction. With a conversion like this, you also get the benefit of the pure hit of a true full spliced stick.
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Very traditional - and very pretty - Titleist veneer colors.
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I think the simple features Mike built into this cue are all very appropriate. The bold ring at the bottom, the Hoppe-style butt cap, they all keep it simple and traditional.
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He adds a simple white elforyn joint and stitch rings, with matching stitch rings on the collars of the two shafts.
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I think the joint sleeve is ivory. I can't be sure, because some of the ivory substitute materials are so good these days that it's sometimes hard to distinguish between the two. But since this was made in the days when ivory was more readily used, it may be. It has a nice grain in it with a warm tone that looks like ivory.
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It's built with a 3/8 X 11 G-10 resin pin, very strong and very resilient. It weighs 19.3 ounces (15.7, 3.6, 3.6) and is 58 inches long. It comes with two 13mm maple shafts with LBM ferrules and LePro tips.
PRICE: $2575 PLUS SHIPPING
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