bulldog1935

I'm a Livre fan - their titanium knobs come in at 11 g. My favorite EF30 has pentagonal facets that grab your knuckle and thumb. Taken to next level, Livre Union handle counterbalances and adds finesse to Vanquish low-inertia drive. Livre Union is packaged with their version of a fat I-shaped titanium knob - Fino. https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/2776 Since I shop in Japn using a broker, I buy Livre from SquidMania, who offers every Livre handle combined with your pick of their knobs at slightly discounted price.

@lastmanstanding, what you have from limited photo appears to be an excellent condition example of the 75th Anniversary Commemorative Ambasssadeur Pro Max. It you compare to Sold ebay listings, mint boxed examples of Pro Max stand out and bring about $175. The mean for used reels is about $50 - the Tournament embossed fishing scene adds $10 to $20 to overall value. A note about myself, there was a time when I set the market on antique fly reels, and people still trust me to clean and restore their valuable antiques. I'm also breaking a personal rule by posting a $ value. Your reel is different from Ambassadeur CDL versions with gold-plated trim and sold in a wooden box w/ gold-plated tools. These reels were made for collectors, and mint reels bring collector prices. Note there was an EX-condition T5600C like yours sold in '05 on Stripers On Line for $100 shipped. There's a dearth of internet buzz from Ambassadeur collectors about the reel. You do find people talking about Silver Max, Black Max, and Pro Max, but Morrum rises above as the reel people want to fish. Of course, the biggest Ambassadeur audience for selling your reel is ebay. Old Reel Collector's Association bulletin board is a more focused audience, with at least a few there who might be intereted - you'll find them a pragmatic and possibly frugal lot, but a good source for elusive history. Compare prices to Sold listings. @lastmanstanding Why do people list inflated asking prices? - (1) Lack of Knowledge combined with Avarice. (2) Fishing for a sucker. (3) Mint boxed reels may bring somewhat higher prices in Japan collector's market, but anything less won't. Your questions have been generously fielded by the people who know these reels and market.

hmmm, Japanese work-hardened brass = 175 HV work-hardened stainless steel = 430 HV

The other thing that can happen is bend the spool spindle.

that's some obtuse sh, but if you're worried, wrap your line a few times around something solid and pull with that.

yes, if your pull is hard enough and your gears are soft enough to "brinnell" (mar and change the gear teeth shape and contact pattern). This is the reason stainless steel gears are used in UK surf reels to permit higher drag loads (also in Stella - gears that improve with use and never wear). You see brinnelled pinion gears in many old Penn spinners pushed too hard

As long as we're hijacking here, I have a very specific niche that needed very specific rod specs. After exhausting JDM for the multipiece rockfish casting rod I wanted, I chased absolutely everything on Ali Express. This is an 8-1/2' 7-pc rod to fit in a bicycle half-frame bag, and pedal to a fabled snook hole at a dam that forms a tide-basin limit. It's a half-day kayak paddle, and the only other way to get here is an hour on a bicycle. It's a winter activity shore fishing small glass minnows and poecilids for bait, using equally small lures. So I saw this in a cheapie, and knew I could make this work before I bought it. Note the rod has exactly half the number of tip guides that a casting rod requires. The only way to make it work is assemble the 7 pieces as spiral guides, with rings down on the 3 tip sections. Note that the shorter 6-pc versions don't have enough pieces to assemble this way. Best thing about it, the reel seat accepts the long foot on my custom 4500CT built for shore micro-jigging. I wrote my honest review for this rod on Ali Express, and was almost surprised when they published it - doesn't reliably cast its 2-g-rated low-end, but makes up for it casting 3 g - also, only the 7-pc casting rod can be assembled spiral-guides to function as a casting rod...

They're deep in the A/E fishing market, listing the most entries in every category. They're either really good at sourcing their products, or they do make their reels and completed reels or parts for other brands. Logically, they're building off something that's already in their manufacturing capability, and applying quality cuts to get here. Reviews on their spinning reels are smooth out of the box, non-function in a few months. "Out performs" a 4-y-o entry level reel to me is less pertinent than how it will perform in 4 years. My first ebay-buy $120 Super Duty is in its 6th salt year - its brake fits my distance niche better than most, I'd put it against any reel for light-lure distance, and it's still going strong with only a magnet swap for onset of corrosion.

Technology is a convenient word that deserves thought on its own. Paradigm changes in function of fishing reels happen about 3 or 4 times/ century. Most all are patents that belong exclusively to that maker for 18 years (you called out MagForce - fits right here). Technology is how to package it, reduce labor assembly steps, and, especially, how to build it cheaper to increase profit margin. In the case of spinning reels, technology in the last decade included CAD/CAM to overcome their inherent bad design. While technology can include how to make them better, it always includes how to make them cheaper. It can be Material of Construction choice, because some materials, e.g., hard-anodized alloy gears, are cheaper to manufacture, and the technology of the hard anodizing process has caught up with properties needed in gears, etc. Another MOC is plastic/composite frames. Consider the subject reel is a cheap knock off of another entry-level reel - just how many quality corners do you think they cut to get this product out the door. What suffers the most is MOC that may not have the mechanical properties needed for the long run.

@nso123 Vince Cummings Water Witch (St. Croix blank taper-shaped and polished by Vince), c. 30s Medalist. Of course, this was stealthy sight-fishing, leading and keeping steady while the bucket-mouth followed and flared on my cats whisker.

None of my friends can load a rod, except for the few who came from fly rods. My dad's cast is entirely swing. My buddy Lou is swing + wrist-snap. Even when they bring the rod back in a rod-loading motion, they stop static so that motion is lost and doesn't load the rod. The last edge is follow through and elevation. Finish with the rod tip high and aim up. In a 2-hand cast, you pass the rod to your rod-butt hand and stretch that arm - in addition to higher speed from 2-hand swing, this final follow-through can add 20% to 30% to cast distance.

The Royal Express has the advantage of high-speed gears. Note that both are C3 drive, and all the parts interchange. Both also take this Avail spool, which has the same line capacity as the EF spool I posted above. The spool swap is simple - move everything from your stock spool to the upgrade spool. This is also a good time to upgrade your spool bearings (1040 size) @redmeansdistortion mentioned the plastic worm gear sleeve on Royal Express. If upgrading the LW to ball-bearing is in your sights, the new worm drive comes with a metal sleeve - you can also order it with the alloy rider and zirconia pawl. https://www.mikesreelrepair.com/abu-dual-bearing-worm-kit-4000-6000/ if you go this route, I recommend replacing the idler with BB also https://www.mikesreelrepair.com/reel-tuning-upgrades/wormshaft-upgrades/ My Royal Express below also has Avail mag brake, which you would want mainly for casting UL to 1/8-oz lures - not all upgrades are necessary. Consider if you make the LW upgrades, you have a reel that performs as well as the $500 Factory Tuned bench reels.

Here's where I buy most of my JDM lines and JDM lures https://fishingshop.kiwi/category/Fishing-Lines/Pe-Line/Pe-Line-Ygk/

Every glass casting rod I've ever fished will fish below its rated low end - what it does best is skip-cast (reverse spiral) lite lures below its rated low-end. Can't exactly call it noodle, but this 6'4" bad boy S-glass, I set up to skip-cast 1/8-oz bunny shrimp to redfish backs under mangrove overhang. This is my river kayak version for cypress overhang, and only 5' - the 1-pc composite blade has S-glass tip and an IM6 layer on the butt for turning bass.

200 g of '23 SLPW Millionaire is 10 g (5 %) more than a '23 Steez A Yes, they're aimed at different niches, but the $720 Millionaire sold out in weeks, and most sold in advance, prior to their release. Somebody likes them, though a peeing contest wouldn't fit their culture.

I wouldn't call it bad luck, but the thumb bar design was added as an afterthought. In classic marketing form (sell your weak points) they call it FC for "fast cast" It works, but you have to finagle it about half the time - rock the spool with your thumb to get the clutch to disengage. As I said before, my hands-down favorite Ambassadeur tuning result is '77 4500C - - I liked this enough to build a 2nd one. Avail AMB-4550R-EF spool will fish PE#1 (200 m) to PE#3 (55-lb), or mono to 14-lb Thumb caps on both sides, adding/subtracting bronze shims, also let you center the spool, which makes a difference w/ fine braid. Since I'm still here, there's a couple of schools on the forum. One is get rid of them, or keep them fishing as an option while recognizing there are better newer reels to use instead. The second is fish them because they'll keep fishing as long as you want, and then can hand down to the next generation. @MAN, @redmeansdistortion, and I fit a subset of this group. Recognize as the Japanese did 40 years ago that you can improve these reels, fish them peerlessly, and they'll always be worth what you put into them.

Another way to look at the top-weight rating is the butt power for turning and handling fish. I fish rods that will cast below 1/16 oz, yet are rated to 5/8 oz top end. Bass Seabass There have been dufus call-outs from a banned member "how is 20 g finesse" Here's how - while this rod will cast and fish a trout lure, a trout rod won't land this fish.

@SC53 look into Florida Fishing Products for cost-effective braid - I believe it's supplied by Varivas, and it meets the specs of Japan X-braid. I fished a charge of their 20-lb for four years inshore. My go-to inshore spinner is Twin Power C3000MHG - the stock spool capacity is 150 m equiv to Florida Fishing Products 20-lb. I also have spare spools that include a back-up PE#1.2, and a shallower-yet spool for PE#0.6 for long shore casting niche.

@Smirak hi friend, that is Duel X-wire in PE#0.8 (0.15-mm-dia, 16-lb breaking strength) - the Japanese are big on 5-color braids, changing every 10 m (+ 1-m marks) - this is good for counting as you load your spool, and they like it for measuring depth when vertical jigging. For me, it was my first delve into salt BFS on a long shore-fishing rod.

The weight here tells you the frame size under 200g is small frame, 210 to 230 is mid-frame (C3000MHG is beefed-up mid-frame), 260+ is large frame. ('20 Twin Power chart) I bought C3000MHG for bad-boy inshore small package with near-enough large-frame drag. (Actually, I bought it because my friend Lou accidentally ordered 2 from Asian Portal). I have a distance shore niche that will benefit casting PE#0.6, and the target is snook. My bud Nick uses C2000S Twin Power in spinning finesse and loves it. My reel is both so smooth and so overbuilt, it seems like cheating. What you gain in Twin Power strength is not lost in finesse performance, because Japan-bench parts matching makes these reels astounding. Side-by-side, Vanquish is the best finesse reel ever because it was designed to be the best finesse reel ever. But unless you have the two side by side, you won't notice the drive inertia difference.

wow, you guys really do live with backlash to have that many different names for it. @Fishingintheweeds The reason mono was ever described as easier with baitcaster is exactly because backlash is easier to see, and easier to pull and work out of your spool. Without backlash, fine diameter and total limpness makes braid easy to love - the smaller it is, the farther it casts. Braid backlash makes tight 180-degree loops that can be very hard to find - if you don't want these, fish mono. Most of what gets called braid line dig on the forrum is actually backlash that has been ignored and fished over.

I have a '20 Twin Power, and it's my favorite Shimano, and my only mid-frame. I just added a ('19) Vanquish spool (while I still could) to get shallower PE #0.6 capacity on my C3000MHG reel. Standard spool on this size is 1215 - PE#1.2, 150 m. Killer line management, even swapping 3 spools around.

letting the lure hit the water and then thinking about it The OP's description to me is start-up backlash from wrist-jerk. The difference between getting it or not can be really subtle, and it's a bad habit brought over from spinning tackle, because spinning tackle rewards wrist jerk with distance. This is a fact of physics - gravity also causes wind backlash when the lure is approaching mid-cast hump.

@redmeansdistortion The bronze pinion always takes the wear, and it's nice OS is out there so we can replace them. The 6.3 ManFish gears include stainless pinion - been on my watchlist through the stock of this run, and I got the last set. The maker says this will be the last pinion we'll ever need...

Sorry, this is non-sequtir. Depending on brakes for end-of-cast overrun carries a long list of character derisions that boil down to inexperience. When your cast gets past mid-hump, gravity prevents backlash. Your thumb should always be there for end of cast, both final brake, and to adjust your final cast elevation and accuracy on the fall. Difference here is tournament distance casters, who load their spool only with the day's distance target plus extra kismet - they never brake on the fall, and let their spool backlash at the end to get every competitive inch from their cast. If you're not a tournament distance caster, your thumb should do its best work on the fall and finish. There are times casting the light-end limit of your reel, where the spool runs out of energy and stops itself before the lure hits the water. End-of-cast thumb is not needed, but it still should be a habit. This is not the normal cast finish with a baitcaster. Your thumb should be placing the heavier lure exactly where you want it. With enough experience, your thumb also feels incipient backlash, and reacts as a reflex to add light brake and get you through it. In my case, it helped a lot coming from old Ambassadeur, where every cast was 100% thumb. Moving that to reels with modern brakes, thumb is still ready to engage through the 3 types of backlash - start-up overshoot, mid-cast wind backlash, and end of cast spool stop.