r83srock

Money is correct.
 
When I started out not so long ago (25 years) St. Croix had 3 lines of rods:
 
Premier - Good
Avid- better 
Legend elite-best
 
G-Loomis
 
GL2/GL3 - Good
IMX-Better
GLX- best
 
Kistler
 
Graphite/california - Good
Magnesium - better
Helium - best
 
Berkley
 
Cherrywood - good 
lightning rod - better
Series one - best
 
Fenwick
 
HMX - good 
HMG - better
Techna AV - best
 
Shimano had crucial and cumulus rod which are now long gone a nearly forgotten, some of the best rods ever made, that I sadly never owned but had fished. Shimano had reels
 
Citica - Good
Curado - better
chronarch - best
calais - super best lol
 
Marketing changed. The 7’6” flippin stick became 7’11” or 8’, and as the 5’6” pistol grip became the mighty 6’6” full handle “bass rod” along came All Star/castaway/Kistler to market “technique specific “ rods. Falcon too. 6’6” mh fast became 6’10” mh mod fast, and later the standard 7’ mh fast became 7’3” mh XF. It didn’t take long for loomis to come out with bronzeback and mossyback series, and St. Croix to come out with legend tournament (technique specific) and about 5 years later (2008/2009) mojo bass (budgetish technique specific. 
 
I could be wrong but I think All Star (wr1/wr2)/castaway, Kistler/American Rodsmiths/and the not related at all Falcon made technique specific rods popular. Other brands followed and soon reels/reel ratios and spool designs changed. Brilliant really, as technique specific is now “normal” In bass fishing equipment. 
 
Companies can capitalize on everyone’s budget. 
 
The 2008/2009 era (recession) forced companies to provide decent gear for good prices. The $100 rod was never more popular and you got a lot of bang for your buck at that time. Boyd Duckets departure from E21 to start his own brand and Skeet Reese to market his own rods, and of course KVD and his name on everything, made guys like that more money than any tour win. 
 
Today’s gear is awesome. It can be expensive, but the budget gear is better than anything we had 20 years ago. The amount of choices can be overwhelming for a newcomer. I do like simplicity, but I can choose to be simple, that’s easy for me, having choices is a very nice thing to have however.
 

Sweet deal! I like the older bass x rods a lot. I’ve used my 7’1” mh for pretty much anything in its weight range. The 7’4” H is great for frogs/punching/big jigs/a-rigs like a yum flash mob jr. I do not have experience with the 7’11” H in bass x but I have used the mojo bass, it would be great for monster deep divers and big a-rigs/swim baits.