snake95 Posted March 24, 2016 Posted March 24, 2016 Just went out to grab a spare spool of mono and wound up walking out with a new reel. Found an Ambassadeur S 6500 at less than half price off retail. Reviews seem to be mixed on various sites; on the negative side, the consensus seems to be that these are budget reels made in China that retail for about half the price of the "C" series reels and aren't as durable, so I am not expecting a lifetime of solid use. Hopefully it will work as a decent travel reel. I've never tried a round reel before and thought it might be worth it just to give one a try. Interested in knowing if anyone has any experience with it, and if so, what are the best applications for it? (hopefully, the answer isn't "doorstop")
0119 Posted March 24, 2016 Posted March 24, 2016 Absolute garbage that should never have the name Ambassadeur pasted on it. Its absolutely a disposable reel. If you need or want a round reel at a budget price look at a factory reconditioned C series at Purefishings web store or a reconditioned 4600C at hookless. As a Ambassadeur collector and user it makes my heart and soul cringe every time I see that chinese sheet metal have the Ambassadeur name on it. Pure Fishings dumbest mistake out of hundreds that they make. The S and SX are rebadged Kalex reels. They had such bad rep and press that Pure Fishing had to bling them up and rename them in order to make them sell to other poor ignorant souls. 5
snake95 Posted March 24, 2016 Author Posted March 24, 2016 0119, OK, thanks. That explains why nobody was buying them, except some ignorant guy strolling past and making an impulse buy. Thankfully it should be easy to take back. 2
0119 Posted March 24, 2016 Posted March 24, 2016 Didn't mean to call ya that! My heart belongs in Fanin County and I don't want to begrudge a N. Ga. man. 1
snake95 Posted March 24, 2016 Author Posted March 24, 2016 0119, No offense taken! I laughed when I saw your response, once my brain warmed up enough to figure out what you were referring to. I completely understood what you were saying. Its disappointing when a company you are loyal to puts out something like that. I have a couple of spinning reels in the same price range as the "S" that are just excellent, at least by my standards, so I thought, well maybe this thing will also be OK. BTW I had originally typed in "rube" and then replaced it with "ignorant" because I had a sudden thought that "rube" might have a more offensive meaning than I was aware of. I'm new on the forum and the last thing I want is to get kicked off for bad language (I'm originally from the very northern limit of the largemouth bass range - but I transplanted myself to the south a long time ago and love it all the more since I discovered that there are so many bass fishing spots here that I can actually get out and fish for bass every week). 1
Super User Goose52 Posted March 24, 2016 Super User Posted March 24, 2016 1 hour ago, 0119 said: Absolute garbage that should never have the name Ambassadeur pasted on it. Its absolutely a disposable reel. If you need or want a round reel at a budget price look at a factory reconditioned C series at Purefishings web store or a reconditioned 4600C at hookless. As a Ambassadeur collector and user it makes my heart and soul cringe every time I see that chinese sheet metal have the Ambassadeur name on it. Pure Fishings dumbest mistake out of hundreds that they make. The S and SX are rebadged Kalex reels. They had such bad rep and press that Pure Fishing had to bling them up and rename them in order to make them sell to other poor ignorant souls. There's some "C" series reels in there right now: Fisherman's Factory Outlet 1
Super User Crestliner2008 Posted March 25, 2016 Super User Posted March 25, 2016 I have two 6500-C's from back in the 80's. Used them for tossing big spinnerbaits and topwaters for large pike ((>18 lbs.). These are mounted on a 6'6" & 7' musky rods. Recently I've use one for big swimbaits (8" Hudds) for LM bass. These reels handle everything with gusto. No problems at all. Great reels in the true Abu line. Have no idea about the Chinese made Abu's though. Mine came from Sweden. 3
Wbeadlescomb Posted March 25, 2016 Posted March 25, 2016 I've got one of those pos reels 0119 is talking about. It's caught big reds a couple of bullsharks and numerous catfish to 35lbs. I've never had a minutes trouble out of it 1
Josh Smith Posted April 4, 2016 Posted April 4, 2016 Over on Amazon there's some feller named "RAIDER" trash talking the Kalex. Josh
Freddy Lee Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 I bought four of these Abu Garcia ambassador 6500 S a few months ago and all four of these reels the spool tension knob and threads that it turns into has pulled out of the side covers and I've tried to find a place to order new side covers to replace these with and they do not offer new side covers anywhere I've looked sorry piece of reels I've ever bought I guess because they made in China I'll never buy another Chinese made reel ever again I was about the bullet and just spend more money for the real thing made in Sweden from now on
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