Shamano, Not The Quailty They Used To Be???

[Deadeye-1]

Back in February I was in the market for a new reel. I had found a place that dealt in new,used, & Trade fishing equipment. So I took some of my old gear that I never used anymore to trade in for a new reel/rod.

I intended to get a Shamano Citica. After we agreed on a trade price I went with the owner to look at the reels he had. I picked up a Citica and was checking it out. That 's when he asked me if I was set on getting a Shamano. I told him I was open to suggestions and why not the Citica?

He then told me that back when Shamano built the Canaen they had it outsource to Maylasisa instead of being built in Japan. Because of the success of the Canaen Reel, Shamano decided to transfer all of their manufacturing to Maylasia. In the process the quality appears to have went downhill.

He showed me a used older Japan built Citica to compair to the new Maylasia built one. What a difference! Fit and finish was not as good, smoothness in turning the handle was not the same. He also told me that his Shamano Rep told him that they (Shamano) were loosing so much of their marketshare to Lew's Reels that they were going to start to offer a $50.00 Cash Back Offer the first of March. (by the way the new Curado's are $40.00 less than they used to be at our location)

If you look at the newer reels you will see Maylasia stamped into the baseplate. Even the newest Curado I just got in says it, and the reel does not feel smooth at all when you turn the handle. If you take the spool off of a Stradic spinning reel the Drag Gear is no longer Stainless Steel, it is now made of Plastic.

Has anyone noticed this difference as well? I always loved Shamano and have several of their reels and rods that I have had no problems with.

By the way, that day back in February I ended up with a new Lew's Speedspool Reel with 10 BB and love it.

[J Francho]

Nope. My Shimano Chronarchs all say Japan on them too.

[Deadeye-1]

Nope. My Shimano Chronarchs all say Japan on them too.

Have you got them in the last 2-3 months, or have you had them for awhile? Seems like the ones that I've seen stamped Maylasia have all shown up over the last 2-3 months.

[J Francho]

I JUST got them, they are Chronarch 200 and 201 e7's. I have had SEVERAL G series Curados and Citicas on my bench for Carbontex drag upgrades, and while they aren't what the E series was (keep in mind, they're less expensive), they are built every bit as fine as any other Shimano. In fact, the G series reminds me of another Shimano classic that people still swear by: the Green B series. No one squawked about composite side plates or plastic gears on those, lol.

Keep in mind, 90% of my reels are Daiwa, and I don't shill for either company. But I do work on 300+ reels a year, and I have an idea of what designs and models work, and what doesn't.

[clayton86]

Them are some sexy looking reels

[J Francho]

You should see them after they sit in the bottom of Lake Ontario for a week....

Like new again. Well, almost:

[outdoorsman110]

I own 20 Daiwa reels and 17 shimanos. Half of them I don't have rods for. 10 of the Shimanos are made in Japan. And 15 of my Daiwas are made in Japan. I definitely prefer the Japanese made reels.

[outdoorsman110]

You should see them after they sit in the bottom of Lake Ontario for a week....

Like new again. Well, almost:

How'd you lose it ? How'd you get it?! Was the GL2 okay?

[00 mod]

oops!

Jeff

[J Francho]

Aside from a small scratch in the rod's paint from the snagging hook, both are fine.

[LgMouthGambler]

Shimano is still as good as always in my book. Cant wait to add the Chronarch to my lineup.

[Stasher1]

FWIW, Shimano has been building reels in Malaysia for several years. The preivious generations of Symetre and Sahara were built there and both are fine reels.

[Diggy]

I think the new citicas are smoother than the older ones. My e series feels much rougher

[grimlin]

To me shimano has been going backwards.....I still prefer the D series reels over the E series. heck I like my citica 200D over my Curado E7.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

I havn't seen any quality concerns either in comparing the Shimano series'. I find that to some extent each individual reel has a personality of it's own and even identical models can feel slightly different from each other. Maitenance and use variations just add to this. It's probably not definitive to randomly compare one sample from each and draw meaningful conclusions about the series model. JF's comparison to the Curado B is a good one. I have lot's of customers that still swear by them.

[Jaheff]

I havn't seen any quality concerns either in comparing the Shimano series'. I find that to some extent each individual reel has a personality of it's own and even identical models can feel slightly different from each other. Maitenance and use variations just add to this. It's probably not definitive to randomly compare one sample from each and draw meaningful conclusions about the series model. JF's comparison to the Curado B is a good one. I have lot's of customers that still swear by them.

Yep, I got a bad 50e right out of the box. I didn't want to open it up for the first year, but had too. Now you can't pry that reel out of my hand. Do I hold a grudge against Shimano-Not At All!

[Hooligan]

Back in February I was in the market for a new reel. I had found a place that dealt in new,used, & Trade fishing equipment. So I took some of my old gear that I never used anymore to trade in for a new reel/rod.

I intended to get a Shamano Citica. After we agreed on a trade price I went with the owner to look at the reels he had. I picked up a Citica and was checking it out. That 's when he asked me if I was set on getting a Shamano. I told him I was open to suggestions and why not the Citica?

He then told me that back when Shamano built the Canaen they had it outsource to Maylasisa instead of being built in Japan. Because of the success of the Canaen Reel, Shamano decided to transfer all of their manufacturing to Maylasia. In the process the quality appears to have went downhill.

He showed me a used older Japan built Citica to compair to the new Maylasia built one. What a difference! Fit and finish was not as good, smoothness in turning the handle was not the same. He also told me that his Shamano Rep told him that they (Shamano) were loosing so much of their marketshare to Lew's Reels that they were going to start to offer a $50.00 Cash Back Offer the first of March. (by the way the new Curado's are $40.00 less than they used to be at our location)

If you look at the newer reels you will see Maylasia stamped into the baseplate. Even the newest Curado I just got in says it, and the reel does not feel smooth at all when you turn the handle. If you take the spool off of a Stradic spinning reel the Drag Gear is no longer Stainless Steel, it is now made of Plastic.

Has anyone noticed this difference as well? I always loved Shamano and have several of their reels and rods that I have had no problems with.

By the way, that day back in February I ended up with a new Lew's Speedspool Reel with 10 BB and love it.

Do some research rather than going strictly by hearsay. The only casting reels that are built in the Malaysian factory are the Curado, Caenan, and Citica. The only reason any of the three are lower quality is that the Caenan is a graphite frame.

I've spoken to some of the folks at shimano about the facility, and have heard all of the concerns. The Malay facility is actually calibrated tighter than the Japan facility because all of the equipment is newer, the engineers and QC are all the same. They may be built in Malaysia, but they are still being built by a Japanese company. If you don't understand just what that means, you never will get the significance of it.

Until you've handled and fished any of the new reels, your opinions aren't really opinions, they're hearsay. I have several of the new Green reels and they're absolutely fine.

[0119]

Bold topic for a newcomer to a pro Shimano forum . Im alone on this but saw things going downhill when they catered to the weight obcessed and got rid of the D series Curado. The real clincher is their business saavy in assuring they never keep parts in stock for current or very recently discontinued reels. Unless your a commercial account.

[.RM.]

I JUST got them, they are Chronarch 200 and 201 e7's. I have had SEVERAL G series Curados and Citicas on my bench for Carbontex drag upgrades, and while they aren't what the E series was (keep in mind, they're less expensive), they are built every bit as fine as any other Shimano. In fact, the G series reminds me of another Shimano classic that people still swear by: the Green B series. No one squawked about composite side plates or plastic gears on those, lol. Keep in mind, 90% of my reels are Daiwa, and I don't shill for either company. But I do work on 300+ reels a year, and I have an idea of what designs and models work, and what doesn't.

I agree 100%. I have 10 of the 97 green b 01 series reels, Shimano is still the best.

Some of the new reps out there have their sales spin and BS....

Tight Lines!

[tugsandpulls]

i have a caenan and love it no problems i also have a sonora i like

[thehooligan]

Ive bought 7 shimano reels in the past year, a sedona, sahara, symetre, saros, stradic fj, stradic ci4, and curado 201e7. All are smooth as butter but the symetre, but that was an open box item on ebay and it had gear problems which I returned. Besides that, im very happy with them. This week was the first time ive bought a non shimano reel, got a lews tourney pro, its awesome but I like the curado green paint better, lol.

[trevor]

I don't think they are at all. So many great new products from Shimano it's staggering. First Lucanus, now Waxwing lures, the TranX, lots of great bang-for-your-buck rods, the Trinidad A, the Terez rods, new Power Pro Super Slick, not to mention the new Stella. I guess they could have done better in the Low Profile department, but overall they are going forward, at least in my opinion.

[outdoorsman110]

I don't think they are at all. So many great new products from Shimano it's staggering. First Lucanus, now Waxwing lures, the TranX, lots of great bang-for-your-buck rods, the Trinidad A, the Terez rods, new Power Pro Super Slick, not to mention the new Stella. I guess they could have done better in the Low Profile department, but overall they are going forward, at least in my opinion.

My gramp gave me his Stella, most amazing reel I have.. It has sentimental value to it for me so I kept it on the rod he used it with and I don't plan on using it. I will end up hanging it on my wall, he passed in 07. But I agree, the Stella is amazing.

[flippin and pitchin]

It's not where any reel is made that dictates the quality, it's the design, materials used and the tooling at the facility. I would be happy fishing just about any company's higher end reels. Personal preference and service/parts has become so much more of a factor in reel choices. I fish with three different brands of casting reels but one brand of spinning, Shimano. You won't see me bad talk any manufacture, not these days.

[ww2farmer]

I don't see myself straying from Shimano reels any time soon. While not "old" by some standards, I have a Citica 201D that has never been opened up, except for some oil on the worm gear and spool bearings, and it is still smooth and quite. IDK if it's just me, but Shimano reels don't often feel the smoothest new out of the box as some others, they seem to have a " break in" period, but they sure do get smooth, and stay trouble free (if you take care of them) for longer with less maint. than any other reel brands I have ever owned. Just the opposite in my case were Daiwa reels, best feeling reels straight out of the box, but were very fussy with what oil I lubed them with, and performance generaly faded with use. I am not talking super high end Daiwa stuff, but not low end junk either, and I had enough of them (TD Fuego, TD Advantage, TD Tierra, Exceler) that acted the exact same way to think it was just how they where/are. Pure fishing stuff (Abu/Pflueger) treated me a little better, I don't have a bad thing to say about the Revo's or Presidents I owned.............there only problem is they are not Shimano's LOL. I have never had good luck with most big chain store branded stuff, at least with reels. I don't have any thing bad to say about Gander Mtn, or BPS rods, owned a few and they were fine, but, like the Abu/Pflueger stuff, there problem is they are not St Croix's, which is my prefered brand, but thats another topic. And...........this may surprise some people, the reels I like best and still keep around and use besided my Shimanos are Quantums. The oldest and most used/abused reel in my boat is the previous generation Accurist 501PT, it's a tank. 50lb braid, on the flipping stick, drag locked down, never been opened up, just cleaned off and oiled. Finish looks like crap, but I'll use it till it dies. I also have another, with 50lb braid, on my frog rod, same exact reel, just not as old. NIB for $50 on ebay........can't beat it, will also use till it dies. Both of these reels have gotten smoother/better casters as they age too. When they do die, I probably will replace them with Shimano's, but I will think about Quantum if I can find a deal on one.

As far as the new Shimano line up goes. I can't wait to get my hands on one, but being the cheap skate I am I will buy the G series Citica's and Curado's when they go one sale in the future when the H series comes out. Givin Shimanos recent history that should be in about 3 years LOL. I have also never seen a loss of performance, quality, or value when they change series, IMHO, they know better than to try and pass off inferior products as new and improved. You wait............I have seen it every time they come out with a new reel, people always complain that they won't be as good as the last, but every time, they end up being better.