i have a diawa ss spining reel and it is a peice of crap but keep in mind its realy old, i dont realy have anything against daiwa. i realy like my penn slammer, and my bros pflueger is great. but shimanos cheep stuff realy is junk, my brothers 40$ shimano fell apart, the drag clicker broke, it sounds like shaking a spray can whene u reel it in and it clunks. my vote would go for pflueger. a shimano of the same quality as a pflueger costs way more