Fit and finish - which rod companies rise above?

[walleyecrazy]

5 hours ago, KP Duty said:

My most asthetically pleasing/well built rods are...

 

Daiwa BLX...

 

 

 

 

 

I have to agree. My BLX rods are beautifully made, and they have the best quality cork out of any of my rods. 

[evilcatfish]

JDM Evergreen rods are probably the most well constructed rods I’ve fished, flawless fit and finish. Most jdm rods, even the more affordable ones, seem to be very well made though

[WRB]

So a beautiful artistic cosmetic rod maybe important to collectors, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

St Croix cosmetics on the new Victory series is outstanding for production rod under $200. 

Dobyns Estacy highend series rods combines excellent craftsmanship, balance, state of the rod blank, guide train, Highest quality cork etc, plus unequaled performance.

Mid price range both Dobyns and ALX rods achieve everything anyone could want in craftsmanship and performance.

G.Loomis GLX & NRX+ fill in the higher end rods with workmanship and performance.

All 4 companies excel in customer service that shouldn’t be over looked.

Tom

[fishwizzard]

7 hours ago, walleyecrazy said:

I have to agree. My BLX rods are beautifully made, and they have the best quality cork out of any of my rods. 

I would agree which is unfortunate as the BLX that I have is the short little frog rod and it lives an extremely rough life, I bought it specifically as a bushwhacking rod and it’s not so pretty anymore.  
 

I would say the worst rods I’ve seen in terms of fit and finish are some of the older Loomis rods. I’ve been slowly collecting up a little arsenal of old GLX rods and while I love the blanks, the build quality on them is pretty rough. 

[S Hovanec]

I see lots of rods come through my shop.  By far, the worst ones as far as fit and finish go are NRXs and Conquests.  Gaps in thread.  Excessive finish on the guides.  Gobs of useless epoxy under the reel seats.

[thunderblack]

Daiwa and Megabass are above the rest in my opinion.

Shimano in the middle.

The worst 'in my opinion' G. Loomis and Dobyns from ones I have seen or owned

 

[DN3]

3 hours ago, thunderblack said:

Daiwa and Megabass are above the rest in my opinion.

Shimano in the middle.

The worst 'in my opinion' G. Loomis and Dobyns from ones I have seen or owned

 

Just ordered a dobyns from tackle warehouse, their champion extreme HP split grip….hopefully I get a good one

[thunderblack]

I'm sure you'll be fine. I had a few with sloppy workmanship but nothing that was too major. They have a great warranty.

[dodgeguy]

On 2/26/2022 at 7:46 PM, lunkerboss923 said:

Dobyns and Dobyns and that company named Dobyns. All those companies have the best stuff! 

Dobyns !!!! 

 

[DINK WHISPERER]

Shimano/Jackall Adrena & Glorious are gorgeous!

Megabass P5 lineup

Dobyns anything

 

[SproDD79]

Major Craft, Nanoace and MS-1 are top notch in my book.

[BayouSlide]

Sad to say, as much as I love my many Dobyns rods, the cork handles on any of my $129 Falcons far exceeds the quality of the cork on my Dobyns rods, all costing well over twice that amount. ?

[Bankc]

Maybe I've been lucky.  But no rod I own that was under $50 has issues with fit and finish.  

 

Honestly, the worst rods I have are a $10 fiberglass Zebco rod combo that came with a 33 reel (for when I want to take someone out who's never fished before), and an old Daiwa Apollo with a crooked line guide.  But that rod is 30 years old and was stored in my attic for 15.  So I can't say that it came from the factory like that.  And that Zebco rod is actually fine.  I just remember I had to dig through like 30 rods at Walmart to find the one good one.  

 

Then again, I rarely buy rods online, and I inspect them carefully in the store before I buy them.  I know I've seen quite a few that were bad, but I can't remember what brands they were, since I didn't buy them.  

[Darth-Baiter]

They all look good to me. I don’t scrutinize for blemishes tho.  
 

 

[EWREX]

i like simplicity and my daiwa tatula elites are some of the cleanest and slickest rods i've owned. the few i have with the carbon fiber AGS guides are even a step above. 

 

another honorable mention are phenix rods. drooooool

 

 

1 hour ago, SproDD79 said:

Major Craft, Nanoace and MS-1 are top notch in my book.

they would be top notch if the reel seat wasn't so generic

[BrianMDTX]

23 hours ago, BayouSlide said:

Sad to say, as much as I love my many Dobyns rods, the cork handles on any $129 Falcon far exceeds the quality of the cork on my Dobyns rods, all costing well over twice that amount. ?

I only have one Dobyns. A 705CB. I love the rod, but the cork leaves much to be desired. My Falcon Lowrider is superb. 

On 2/26/2022 at 9:57 PM, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

From what I’ve seen, St Croix, Fenwick and maybe surprisingly ABU. 

My Fenwicks have some really nice cork grips and the rods look great. They fish well, too. 

[Boomstick]

Daiwa and Megabass typically have very good fit and finish across their product range.

[Randy Price]

I've never been disappointed with the fit and finish of my SC rods.

[Gigachad]

All 3 of my St. Croix’s are good. My Bass X (BAC710HF) has small clear coat smear on the label area (small blemish). My Mojo Bass (MJS71MHF) spinning rod has served me well.

My 2018 Legend Tournament Bass (LBC71MHF) is the most elegant rod at its price point and is very well built. In the aesthetics department, the 2018 LTB rods blows the new 2022 LTB rods out of the water.

[inferiorfisherman]

On 2/28/2022 at 11:47 AM, DN3 said:

Just ordered a dobyns from tackle warehouse, their champion extreme HP split grip….hopefully I get a good one

 I have several of these and several other manufacturers in the same price point.  In my opinion the megabass Orochi line is the only thing that can compete in the fit/finish department at this price point with the HP.  I am not trying to defend dobyns, but having owned several I am just shocked that anyone would mention them as being anything other than excellent in this category.   

If I was going to knock dobyns on anything it would be that they need to update their blanks on a line or 2, as they can't offer the same sensitivity as some others like the Expride or Orochi for example.  I do put U40 seal on all of my cork grips and haven't had any issues with the cork.