Gus Szamboti or G.S Was born in 1933 in Philadelphia Pensylvania and died in 1988 at the age of 57. He initialy had exposure to billiards at the age of 8. He fell in love with the sport and decided to set his life in a path towards the Billiards industry. In 1960 he became a designer with RCA. In 1969 he sold his Haley for a pile of cue materials and the tools he would use in his business. He manufactured his first cue and sold it to an ex-colleague in RCA for $25 marking the beginning of his cue manufacturing career.

In 1970; Gus had been researching spliced prongs failing numerous times. With persistence he succeeded in making his own prongs. By 1971 Gus was armed with the knowledge and techniques of making prongs; started to design them with different colors and styles. At that time George Balabushka even purchased his prongs from Gus praising his remarkable craftsmanship. George purchased all of the prongs used in his cues form Gus untill the day he died.

In 1977 Gus produced the first 8 point cue.  At that time it was very popular to use ivory to decorate a cue. Gus was ahead of the times and realized that inlays weakend the foundation of the cue, sacraficing performance. He started to research other basic principals that affected performance and introduced the principal of balance to the industry.

In 1978 Szamboti cues were selling in the $300-$400 range. And it usualy took a year or longer to get a cue after it was ordered. Often customers would order cues and resell them for double the price or more. Gus knew about these reselling practices and still insisted on not raising the price. Orders started to pile up and Gus knew he had to expand. He had heart disease at this time that was worsening with the pressure.

Eventualy Gus was told by a doctor that he would need an artificial heart valve transplant. Gus wasnt disturbed by the bad news. He continued working alone in his workshop. Because Gus was a perfectionist, the waiting time for his cues extended to 2 years. His clientel grew from entgusiasts to professionals, collectors, cuemakers, and even professional wood-workers.

Gus Szamboti knew his time was coming and in the later part of his life he started passing his passion and knowledge to his son Barry Szamboti who had been making cues with Gus since he was young.

Currently the price of a real G.S cue is going for a hot $10,000 and up. If you are fortunate enough to own a piece of G.S  congrats on holding a piece of billiards history.

Gus Szamboti never dyed his cues. Most of his cues have a stainless steel joint however sometimes he used an ivory joint depending on the customers preferance. All of his cues had an ivory ferrule, slightly longer than a normal ferrule but never longer than 1 1/16 inch.

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