Paulson Inspired Custom Set (best of the best) (1 Viewer)

[churlbut18]

I've been working on an inlay theme for several months now, to be revealed at a later date. In the meantime, I started playing around with molds, spots, and colors.

Mold: I chose the "H" mold because my last name is Hurlbut (natural fit); is there any known issue with this mold?

Spots/Colors: I was thinking about doing a Paulson inspired custom set based on my favorite Paulsons...

$0.25 = Blue Chip (@Tommy did this with his Broken Bell set as well and it's fantastic)
$1 = Silver Sevens
$5 = Bourbon Street
$20 = PCA Secondary $25 (but switched green with yellow because of denomination change) - 1st pic
$20 = Aztar MO $25 (but switched green with yellow because of denomination change) - 2nd pic
$100 = Aztar MO

Thoughts and feedback on all chips are welcome... This is my first real leap into the custom world...

Thanks,

 

[TheBigTater]

Looks good. Of course I love that quarter and really like the $20.

The Key Wests among other are on the H mold. I also have an older stamped H mold set and they have a softer, almost buttery feel to me as they wear.

 

[ovo]

I'm not crazy about your 20, others look good

 

[churlbut18]

I'm not crazy about your 20, others look good

Neither design? That was the toughest chip. I really prefer the green $25 as far as appearance (PCA, Aztar, etc...), but really want a $20 chip and want to stick to the "standard" Vegas/Jersey colors so I'm somewhat stuck with a yellow $20.

 

[MaxB]

not a fan of the 5 (the chocolate spot).... but the others are nice. I do prefer the second 20 with the 6 thin spots

 

[Psypher1000]

H mold is a fine, classic mold. No issues I'm aware of there. If you want relatively cheap samples, hit up Dennis at Key West for some of his chips.

There's nothing wrong with doing a tribute set, and as it stands the color selections look pretty good to me. For your first set of customs, though, my advice to you would be this:

Don't do it.

If you want to do a tribute for a later set, knock yourself out. But for your first set, make something that's yours. Fully you. Maybe a tribute chip in the set, but not a full set of them. Keep in mind that many times tribute chips are more expensive than the originals, and while you can sometimes get close to the colors & patterns, your brain will be telling you, "These are nice, but they're just not the same." - and when the're just not the same, you run the risk of paying more just to be disappointed.

Furthermore, a full "mixed" tribute set will rarely have any kind of consistency or cohesiveness to it. The set posted above is great for a variety of colors, patterns, and discernability in stacks, so it's highly *functional* (which, make no mistake, is very important...probably the most important). But while it shines in functionality, it lacks a bit of flow. In this case, that $20 is a bit of an oddity in the set - all the other chips are a 3xx pattern, and that's a 6xx. On a different note, four of the five chips have a shade of yellow (including arc yellow), but the $1 doesn't really go anywhere near it. If I was making a custom set, I'd probably consider either using the same shade of yellow in every chip (similar to @TheBigTater 's Green set), or remove yellow entirely from either the 5, 20, or hundo.

Ultimately, I will always say that, when it comes to customs, get what you want. It's your money to do with what you want, and you like what you like. I'd simply encourage you to go get the real thing since you like the real thing, and get your first set of customs only when you want to make something fully your own. Customs are too expensive and take too much time and patience to have any regrets when you get them.

 

[TheBigTater]

Sorry meant to say I like the 618 $20 (#2)

 

[slisk250]

I like all of the chips by themselves but I don't like to use similar colors on adjacent chips (in value). Too much yellow across the board. If you stick with a canary base on the 20, then the yellow spots on the 5 and hundo just don't work together as well as other colors can. Great individual chips do not always go together. It is the sum of the parts that make a set great.

 

[churlbut18]

Thank you at @Psypher1000 and @slisk250 for the candid feedback. A lot to consider. Based on this, I may put the project on hold and re-think it. I'm in no rush. I couldn't pull the trigger on this until well into next year anyway.

 

[jbutler]

H mold is a fine, classic mold. No issues I'm aware of there. If you want relatively cheap samples, hit up Dennis at Key West for some of his chips.

There's nothing wrong with doing a tribute set, and as it stands the color selections look pretty good to me. For your first set of customs, though, my advice to you would be this:

Don't do it.

If you want to do a tribute for a later set, knock yourself out. But for your first set, make something that's yours. Fully you. Maybe a tribute chip in the set, but not a full set of them. Keep in mind that many times tribute chips are more expensive than the originals, and while you can sometimes get close to the colors & patterns, your brain will be telling you, "These are nice, but they're just not the same." - and when the're just not the same, you run the risk of paying more just to be disappointed.

Furthermore, a full "mixed" tribute set will rarely have any kind of consistency or cohesiveness to it. The set posted above is great for a variety of colors, patterns, and discernability in stacks, so it's highly *functional* (which, make no mistake, is very important...probably the most important). But while it shines in functionality, it lacks a bit of flow. In this case, that $20 is a bit of an oddity in the set - all the other chips are a 3xx pattern, and that's a 6xx. On a different note, four of the five chips have a shade of yellow (including arc yellow), but the $1 doesn't really go anywhere near it. If I was making a custom set, I'd probably consider either using the same shade of yellow in every chip (similar to @TheBigTater 's Green set), or remove yellow entirely from either the 5, 20, or hundo.

Ultimately, I will always say that, when it comes to customs, get what you want. It's your money to do with what you want, and you like what you like. I'd simply encourage you to go get the real thing since you like the real thing, and get your first set of customs only when you want to make something fully your own. Customs are too expensive and take too much time and patience to have any regrets when you get them.

Could not agree more.

Further input from @slisk250 on this point would be helpful imo since he took the course suggested by @Psypher1000 above, making a personalized set first, then the Mapes tributes.

I also know of one other very prominent member working on tribute customs with a similar underlying strategy (the best separate denoms put together in one set) as yours and he is only considering such a set after designing several very successful and universally praised personalized customs under his belt.

 

[slisk250]

Could not agree more.

Further input from @slisk250 on this point would be helpful imo since he took the course suggested by @Psypher1000 above, making a personalized set first, then the Mapes tributes.

I also know of one other very prominent member working on tribute customs with a similar underlying strategy (the best separate denoms put together in one set) as yours and he is only considering such a set after designing several very successful and universally praised personalized customs under his belt.

Boy that sounds great! I wonder who and what set?

For me, the Mapes tribute set...Mike's is a mix of known chip replicas and the addition of denoms that were custom. For my tastes, when I'm designing a set now, I try and do everything I can by myself and then have just a couple of very trusted members here weigh in. Too many cooks in the kitchen can cloud the final result. I was part of a design committee for a different project and it was just not working out. Jack and Chris helped me out with the Mike's. We didn't always agree 100% on things but in the end, I'm happy with everything. I think I have one more custom set in me...at least I better have. Using the same model above combined with the ChaosRock surprise element. We'll see that set in 2017-18. I think it will be something that most people would just not make.

 

[dew4au]

I'd like to second what @Psypher1000 said and add this: This set would be like having Diamond Dave, Slash, John Bonham, Steve Vai, Flea, and John Medeski all together in a cover band. I love all of them individually, but they wouldn't really work as a team.

 

[abby99]

There's some excellent advice in this thread. (y) :thumbsup:

One way to approach a custom set is to start with one tribute chip and build the rest of the set around that one chip, paying close attention to the flow of both colors and spot patterns. I used this approach with my first set of customs, but when I was finished, the original "tribute" chip had changed so much from the original that the original link was unrecognizable.

 

[courage]

A lot of good advice here, and I agree with psypher regarding the tribute design. It makes a lot of design decisions easier up front but I think you'll be more satisfied thinking on your theme and then trying to use that as a guide in color choices and spot combos (simple, complex, pastel, etc).

H-mold is great. I think long ago it had issues with spinners but ASM got that worked out.