Meet The Cuemaker
Ariel Carmeli By MICHELLE HUGHES Social Media Specialist Biggelbachs.com
The best part about being a cue maker? The ability to “be a stay-at-home dad.” Ariel Carmeli of Carmeli Custom Cues appreciates the finer things in life and is this month’s feature of “Meet the Cue Maker.”
A
riel Carmeli, 52, resides in Eastvale, California with his wife Debra and their family. Prior to becoming a cue maker, Ariel developed his wood-working skills while building furniture under his brother’s high-end sign shop called “Carmeli Design Group”. He also retained employment as a plumber, but it was when the next recession hit that he was forced to pursue another career path. In 1991, Ariel began working at a billiard supply company called Best Billiards in Santa Ana, California. In the shop they also had furniture repair, which is where Ariel started. While he had a strong background in making and repairing furniture, it wasn’t long until he was asked to use his skills for cue repair. He had never used a lathe before but was confident that if he could see the different parts of a cue, then he could effectively put one together. Ariel laughs about his “extensive” lesson on the lathe from the venue’s manager, Robert Wong: He received all of about seven minutes of instructions and then spent the next two days getting comfortable using the lathe. Fortunately, the venue’s owner, Rick Landsburg also happened to be a sales representative for Hall of Fame cue maker, Tad Kohara (TAD Cues). He asked Tad to give Ariel some pointers and for the next year Tad would come in for an hour every other weekend and give Ariel lessons on building cues. Ariel was a quick
10 | Billiards Buzz • June 2022
learner, and it wasn’t long before he began receiving his own orders to fill from people wanting a cue from him. Inspired by this, his friend Del Ramos surprised Ariel with a logo he’d created for the new cue maker. Ariel decid-
ed to keep it and in 1992 established Carmeli Custom Cues. Ariel has been a full-time cue maker since 1994. For the past 20 years, he has worked out of his 700 sq ft shop
