Dan has 40 years of experience building, repairing and restoring vintage stringed instruments. This gave him the ability to select and work with woods from all over the world. Eventually this lead to Dan owning his own music store where he pioneered the introduction of computers interfacing with musical instruments know as MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface).
In 1990 DanBuilt Cue Case Company emerged from the music business. These specialized cases were designed for cues makers, cue collectors and dealers. In 1992 Dishaw Custom Cues evolved into a business where Dan’s cues are now considered to be some of the most sought after cues by world class players such as Alan Hopkins, Dennis Hatch and by collectors and dealers form all corners of the world.
Dishaw Custom Cues was proud to be one of the founding members of American Billiard Manufactures Assoc.
Dan was a member of the Billiard Congress of America and exhibited at all the BCA Trade Shows. In April, 2002 Dan was elected to the BCA Board of Directors and has served on several committees such as, Trade Show, Promotion, Hall of Fame, Membership and Long Range Planning.
Dan was a participating artist at the very prestigious, Gallery of American Cue Art, held at the Baltimore Hotel in Los Angeles, the NY City Athletic Club and the International Cue Collectors Show. He served as President of the Academy of American Cue Art.
Dan served as chairman for the Trade Show Committee, and was present on all of the AACA’s committee meetings. Dan has consistently shown a sincere desire to be a part of this industry, in addition to being regarded as a well known and respected craftsman.
History
Dan Dishaw grew up close to a pool-hall, with a father who was a good player. Dan started playing at a very early age. He continued to play pool through college, where he majored in bio-chemistry and math. Dan also was involved in music, and he played several instruments. Right out of college, he did some construction work; restoring old hotels in Buffalo. Soon he was working as a pattern maker, making full size wood models for castings, and making custom cabinets as a hobby. One day, he repaired a guitar, and decided to start doing some instrument repairs. Before long, he was doing all the repairs for three local music stores, specializing in wood stringed instruments. He enjoyed working with musical instruments, so when one of the music stores went out of business, he decided to open his own store.
In the late 1980s, Dan bought a small company that made flight cases for musical instruments and called it Danbuilt.
As a pool player, Dan saw the need for a heavy duty flight case for pool cues, so Danbuilt started making them. He put a pool table in his shop in the early 1990s, and began playing more. After he had a cue repaired, he was disappointed with the job because he knew he could do better. So, he bought an old lathe and started doing cue repairs as a hobby. In 1992, he made his first three cues. As a result of showing these cues, Dan received orders well over two dozen.
Early Danbuilt cues are easily recognizable by the Danbuilt logo on the butt cap. In the summer of 1996, Dan started signing his cues “Dishaw” on the forearm instead DanBuilt. He renamed his cue company Dishaw Custom Cues, to avoid confusion with his case company. Early cues were fairly plain, but the more recent cues may feature overlapping points and elaborate inlay work. He believes that his experience working with musical instruments gives him a different approach to cue construction.
Dan makes about 50-75 cues a year in the shop he has built under his music store. If you have a Danbuilt cue that needs further identification or repair, or would like to talk to Dan about ordering a new cue, feel free to contact us by email or phone. Dishaw Custom Cues listed trademark index.
Currently we are still designing and building Dishaw Custom Cues and DanBuilt Cases, but within the past few years we have geared up to build these magnificent electric guitars. We will have four models available, a double cutaway, strat style, carved top, a single cutaway LP style, carved top, a LP jr. style flat top and a LP TV model, flat top. All models feature the neck thru body design.
Point of interest, this work bench was the bench used at Gerber Music at the Shoppingtown Mall location and built by the late great Dave Pasternack.