bulldog1935

@Hulkster I will always say DC is a band-aid until MagForce patents expire and Shimano copies them - no accident their complex variable mag brake is named SVS - get the trademark secure. @Catt while it's expensive, aftermarket parts will get the weight of a small-frame Ambassadeur down to 6.0 oz.

@MAN you can count on finding Ambassadeur parts and upgrades as long as you want to fish, and yes, your reels will be heirlooms that will fish for generations. Easy to replace with a 90-mm handle, but 5.3 gears may be too slow to use that long handle. My. 6.3-geared Express has a 90-mm Haneda Craft "power" handle My 5.3 geared Ambassadeurs, these are both '77 4500C, get 70-mm H/C handles. Only C3 and C4 (Ultracast) offered 6.3 gears, and are easy to swap on U/C models. Avail and Valleyhill offer 6.1 and 7.1 gearsets for small-frame Ambassadeur (2500C), but no one offers gear upgrades for older mid-frame Ambassadeur.

Thanks for the clarification, I haven't pursued Miravel and was repeating what I heard before on this forum. I always look at Stradic as the baseline spinning reel. Sounds like Miravel is a CI4+ (composite body) Ultegra, which is Shimano's top locomotive drive reel - cold-forged anodized gears vs. die-cast in lower grades. My buddy has 6 years' very good service from his Ultegra.

If it's a reliable shop closing it out, in preparation for the '24, I would definitely snag that. In addition to lighter, same drive as Stradic w/ more BB, titanium bail and magnesium body and rotor, the reel is finished on a Japan bench instead of Malaysia assy line.

If you need a reel and want a recommendation, add $45 to the ante and buy new JDM Stradic. My '19 Stradics are still fishing hard, and my friends' '23's are doing the same. If you want the dressed-up and magnesium-body Excense, it will be a different-color Stella body with downgraded drive. Value for a used reel is set when what someone is willing to pay overlaps with what the owner is willing to let it go. If his reel is coming from the salt, you may not want it.

@Mobasser is correct that every reel is a compromise at this price level. Daiwa reels run tougher at this end, Shimano run smoother - -the Miravel (worm drive) @MN Fisher linked is the First Choice if managing light braid is in your sights. no offense @PhishLI adding ps - option A/R switches are going to disappear from the rest of the reels you buy over your life - get used to not having one now. You're 16 - go for the fine braid and hone your manual bail technique skills.

Seaguar and Sufix have you covered there, generally in larger diameter braided line. Where Japanese X-braid excels is in smaller threadline sizes, e.g., PE#1 is 20-25-lb breaking strength. Pretty easy to argue in line this small, you're more interested in being able to see it rather than a need to camoflage it. On the recent Favorite Finesse Braid thread, @redmeansdistortion pointed out the 10-m color changes in threadline braid are very useful for counting off the amount of line you're adding to your spool. The color change is there for this function, not for decoration (offshore jigging guys measure their drop depth counting color changes).

I would go to credit card to reverse the charge given that history. Amex is really good filing on line, even if your charge to their card went through paypal.

@Dye99 Did you order from existing stock, or did you Preorder? If you considered Preorder, best advise is Don't Do That. Note "ship your order at the next production run"

@FrnkNsteen These 3 fly reels belonged to heroes of WWII - they were possibly given as gifts, never used, squirreled away for a generation, then put on the market. (They say about vintage fly tackle, the best of both worlds is a Brit reel on an American rod.) From left, Young pattern 1c marked for Army-Navy CSL; Young pattern 15a imported to US by Lyon & Coulson sporting goods of Buffalo; Young pattern 1c marked as Allcocks Ousel. When I posted this story on ClassicFlyRodForum, a friend wouldn't relent until I sold him the A&N CSL, which he wanted to put on a shelf. BTW, all 3 reels contained edge-finish wear from sitting in their boxes since 1940. The Lyon & Coulson Varden came from the collection of Hogy B. Carmichael, and my 3-3/8" went under the radar while a 3-1/8" reel just like it took all the auction heat. I bought the Varden for $255, and it's worth about $850 today. The two reels I kept, I took them fishing. I can't think of a better way to honor their former owners.

I'm not even sure of the spool configuration at this point - I can't see what you see - your overall reel frame and the "bumps" in the drive side plate match C3 drive configuration. this schematic is CT non-level-wind, but drive and spool are the same for all Ambassadeur C3. (this reel doesn't have palm-plate idler gear and LW to drive off the idler - it's the schematic I had handy, and clear to see the rest without the LW parts) I do now see in your photo that what I thought was the end of a short spindle is reflection from the bottom of the pinion slot. C3 spindle is usually clipped in place in the drive side by p/n 20090. The tabs on these clips sometime will break, and I keep spares for my reels. The plastic part is kinda woosie (there's a stouter UK part in my blue CT above, but that doesn't do us any good). @CatfishAndBass Since the spindle appeared to come out with your spool, I think we're back to spool centering as the issue causing spool pins to impact the pinion gear. I don't have time to take photos this morning (all the other photos I posted were stashed), but may get there this afternoon. The increased diameter boss on the spindle (p/n 802631) bump-stops the spool bearing inner race, and limits how far the spool can move toward the drive. If the 20090 clip is not pinning the spindle, tightening palm-side brake knob can push the spool too close to the drive and pinion. The solution may be as simple as replacing 20090 clip and adding a brass square shim (p/n 20917, also 5145) to the drive side cap nut. I have a couple of reels w/ Avail spools that need as many as 3 of these shims to center properly. You can get these parts from e-replacement parts or Dad's Ole Tackle. Get some spares, like I said, the plastic part is woosie, and the phosphor bronze shims wear and bend from cranking on the brake knob. The shims are what you add to or remove from cap nuts to adjust spool centering. editing in these photos - spindle - note the groove in the drive end for the clip - the clip and shim. This shows the clip tabs in the spindle groove. But you have to remove drive side cap nut, push the spindle through the pinion, and install the clip on the outside.

@CatfishAndBass - you're kind of putting me on the spot - we don't know for sure that spool pin impacting pinion is causing the noise. If it is, it's not a good thing, but there's nothing I can see in the blurred pinion photo. I'm not familiar with the stubby spindle in your photo. Every reel I know with this configuration, Ambassadeur, Akios, Rocket TG, Kast King, duplicates C3 Ultracast spool design and all have a fixed spindle that's wider than the reel frame. One possibility for making noise is that you lifted the drive from the spool, and dropped a brake shoe into the centrifugal race. Another possibility, the noise is from the LW and needs oil. I'm going to have to see schematics of your reel to tell you anything more - they don't provide them on their website.

The Japanese make it a point to have both. They don't own the amount of tackle we own, can't afford the space to store it. And they don't have the free time to fish that we have - their fishing most always includes travel by train. They look at the whole, gestalt or karma, and believe the spirit of their tackle is a valuable part of the day's experience. The Japanese also bring this same dedication to tackle on their bench. Probably won't find this in Malaysia or China (even Sweden) - but the Japanese believe they're sending more than an object, which attains perfection in workmanship and function. Quoting myself, on the FFR thread I linked just above, agreed with my friend Takeru, if fishing isn't a spiritual experience, one is doing it wrong.

Have to say I don't really understand the question or most of the answers. 1917 Hardy St. George fly reel that I fished for 5 years, then sold for twice what I paid. (kinda cool, fishing the reel for 5 years paid for my T160 kayak) 1918 FE Thomas Special fly rod fishing even harder All my tackle gets fished hard and cared for - and the tackle above, I'm the 4th generation with the task. I'll add, I've fallen in the river and hurt my knee, but not the tackle. Some tackle I won't risk on kayak, mostly for multiple ways it could get damaged or destroyed. Other tackle, that's exactly what I put it together for. Probably not for everybody, but to me, this is too pretty not to fish. Editing to add it has a perfectly defined function - skip-casting 1/8-oz bunny shrimp to visible redfish backs under mangrove overhang.

If it's a continuous ratchet noise in freespool, sounds like your clutch is not fully lifting the pinion. Could be my 2nd possibility above. Best photo I have of this part below is borrowed - if the freespool lever is not properly aligned on the spring-loaded white nylon ball, and in the frame groove, it may not be lifting the pinion gear all the way.

@CatfishAndBass -like I said, the parts are out there. Here's the details on my CS Rocket I built this high-geared 4500CT without a reel, just from parts. Farthest cast I own, and will do it with 3 g. In addition to the Japanese (Avail, Valleyhill) and shops like Mike's in BC, extreme surf upgrades are made in UK and Italy. Akios in UK sold this hot version for awhile, barstock frame, stainless gears, BB drive - - https://akiosfishingtackle.com/product/akios-shuttle-656-lsi-kuro-levelwind-multiplier-reel/ The upgrade parts were fabricated and the reels finished in UK, but the 656 swap parts with Ambassadeur C3, and the Akios version cost 3x. RocketReelCo makes their CT version, sells completed drive plates with BB drive and stainless gears - MannFish in UK makes a high-speed stainless gearset.

How about Japanese wood lures?

Your reel appears to be a dressed-up, re-labeled, Ambassadeur 6500C3. The easy possibility is the spool is not centered, so the spool pin is impacting the pinion gear - too easy to do overtightening the palm-side thumb nut for brakes. To test this, open both thumb nuts a couple of turns - try casting with the reel tilted to either side. When the palm side is up, the spool pin will impact the pinion gear - if this is the sound, tighten the drive-side thumb nut until it goes away. Then tighten the palm side to incipient side play in freespool, or to your casting brake setting. Second possibility is a little more esoteric, and should be intermittent - doesn't make the ratchet sound sound every cast. If the clutch is not fully disengaging, the pinion does not lift completely from the spool pin, and you get the same sound. If this is the case, the drive cover will need to come off for maintenance, and possible part replacement. There are 2 different designs for this function - in the older design, a spring aligns the clutch lever and causes the lever ramps to fully lift the pinion - in the newer design, a nylon ball pushes the clutch lever for alignment. These reels are not difficult to rebuild, because the parts are big and make sense. If it's not a ratchet sound when you cast, maybe describe it better. If you remove the palm cap, it's easy to remove the spool. Replacing the spool bearings simply requires removing the spool from the frame, the spur gear and spool-pin/brake washer from the spool. Spool bearing size is 1044. (CT surf reel) There's also an endless supply of upgrade parts to improve casting in these reels - full-ball-bearing level wind, zirconia pawl, alloy rider, BB idler gear, shallow braid spools, mag brake add-on. (CS Rocket)

mine are too busy on rods to sit still for a group photo.

It gets worse...

Adding a note, the best braid buy out there is Florida Fishing Products - I believe it's supplied by Varivas. First Stradic spool lasted 4 years.

Braid in the 90s wasn't worth caring for. That all changed after 2015 and, especially, after 2018. Coated X8 braids are a great choice, Sufix 832 - Japan X-braid (all made by Izanas - YGK, Duel, Varivas) double the breaking strength for the same diameter. I fish 100% braid - all but 2 of my baitcasters have shallow spools, BFS-mod, and cast into next week. If you haven't tried BFS inshore, you don't know what you're missing. But I also use braid on baitcaster for river kayak, finesse to frogger. My two exceptions are both deep-spool Super Duty, because no aftermarket spools are available for them. Build up a spool arbor with 20-25-yds, 20-25-lb nylon mono (not fluoro), tie that backing to your working braid using a low-profile knot such as Alberto that will pass your line guide. This is holding 120 yds working braid, diameter equivalent to 20-lb 832. Casting 1/8 oz, this will give BFS a run for its money. Here's the capacity calculator for stacking lines of 2 different diameters: https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/.

So you have a real budget to work with. For light weights, linear mag brake excels. It would be nice to see inside your Zebco palm plate so we know what brake you're used to. With half your budget for a reel, Lew's might be a great choice.

Amazon.jp uses their shipping-container and US Customs broker across the big pond. From US Customs, FedEx Ground takes over. Makes me happy, local FedEx delivery is very reliable. Also keep in mind, there was a big back-up leaving Japan during Golden Week national holidays up to May 6.

Another Japanese X-braid fan here - go-to for me is most often Varivas (Shore) Casting. From 832, YGK, Duel X-wire, (<all good) Yamatoyo (<not so good), Varivas Casting has the toughest coating in the long run. Also no reason to limit breaking strength - PE#1 is 22-lb.