impressed you (or maybe just surprised you a bit) with their quality of assembly or components in their factory rods? Or is this just not happening?

Ed,

I was killing some time in a sportsman's whse store one day....they don't sell rod building stuff . I decided to look through some of the manufacturers rods for quality and was surprised....this is a big box store and they had hundreds possibly a thousand rods from most big manufacturers.

I found that the St Croix rods where very well built....also Shimano had nicely assembled rods. I did notice that many of the G Loomis fly rods were poorly put together....wraps not packed...guides misaligned...and these were among the highest priced in the store.

As far as components......many are made specifically for that manufacturer and aren't available as after market stuff....except maybe the guides.

Many years ago, perhaps twenty now, I took apart a Fenwick HMG graphite surf rod. I was impressed with eveything about it. The care they had taken in various areas was beyond what I was used to seeing on commercially made rods.

Other than that, I try not to compare any of them to good custom rods. The commercial makers are working under time and budget constraints that most custom makers are not.

...........

I'll vote for St. Croix factory Legend Ultra fly rods, especially since they are about half price of some other fly rods that I don't think are as good. For my money, if I were buying a factory rod, I'd choose the lighter aluminum reel seat St. Croix uses over a heavy nickle silver one. That's the decision I usually make on my personal customs. Plus, St. Croix uses nice, slick TiCh coated single foot wire guides where many top-end fly rods still use chrome snakes, the cheapest guides available. I build rods because it's one of the things I enjoy doing in my free time but also because I like ceramic guides and no factory rods I've seen have those, except some in England which I don't have access to.

I have occasionally even bought a factory legend ultra on one of the discontinued 2pc. blanks because I like the handle components a lot and it's a quick operation to remove the wire single foots and replace them with ceramics. They are really great rods.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2007 03:11PM by Steve Kartalia.

After building rods for several years, it is impossible to pick up a factory rod without all of the small defects jumping out at you. Admittedly, I really don't look at factory rods too much anymore. In the fishing catalogs, I'm just starting to see some of the high-end rods use higher grade guides than Fuji Hardaloy. Still almost all use lower grade filled cork grips and very standard reelseats. Most have glue runs, excessive glue lines at the junctures, bubbles in the finish, crooked epoxy application at the edges of guide wraps, no hookkeepers, and none of the innovative techniques developed and used by custom rodbuilders on a regular basis, including locking wraps on single-foot guides, guide placement based on individual blank requirements, flocked grips, balance, and in particular spiral-wrapping of almost all casting rods. Also, most of the factories that sell blanks to the custom builders, sell their very best blanks to the custom builders and use a somewhat lower quality standard for their factory rods. It will be interesting to see if the rod companies can even maintain their current standards as they move production of their rods to the Far East. But to answer your question, I would rate Lamiglas and St.Croix as the best in general, with Sage and Winston on flyrods in particular, although I don't like Winston's football-shaped finished guide wraps.

Ed,

I think it's all a matter of context if we were speaking about the choice of components. For instance, a "cheap" reel seat assembled on a low-end rod that provides years of use without failure, can't really be considered a poor quality choice if the rod does what it's owner expects it to do.
Basic ceramic guides are not the best in terms of weight and maybe even sensitivity, but I've read posts in this forum over the years from builder who also perform repairs. In their opinion. some of the cheapest guides are the best in terms of durability.

I can walk into any given rod shop, large or small, pick out rods in a random fashion, and pick out something I like or dislike about the rod. I've seen some low-end rods which appear to have been assembled with quality components, far better than I would have considered for that particular blank, and with as good a care as I would in assembling a rod. I have seen some higher-end rods that do have some "slop" in their assembly, but as most commercially-made rods are still built individually by hand, and by different people, I wouldn't begin to judge a rod manufacturer based soley on one guy or a few guy's work. I just don't think it would be a fair assessment.

I believe that for the most part, most commercial rod builders do their best to provide good quality rods to their targetted customers. Those that don't, well, they probably just don't last too long in the market.

Overall, I think that the manufacturer's do a pretty good job. Like any other product, ou occasionally get some that slip through. I don't think that all custom rods are superior either.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

I have to agree with Mike. Most of the manufacturer's rods are built alot at a time for the average public. Most of the anglers that are buying those rods are buying on a budget, and that is what they, the manufacturer's, are targeting. Most of us custom builders aretargeting the angler that is looking for the high quality,well built rod made JUST for Them.

Mark Syck

SYCKO Custom Rods
There Are No Limits To The Imagination

The Allstar Austin factory rods are a fine compromise of components and construction. The blank definitely makes this rod exceptional. I can speak of the AF's in 864-2, 866-2 and 8610/11-2. Based on these I would expect the rest of the line to be of similar quality. They are a joy to cast and have great power in their designated ranges. I have not taken any apart but I would be very surprised if corners had been cut in their assembly.

As we know the Allstar company was bought by Shakespeare. Time will tell what becomes of their operation and product lines. I just wanted to note what I believe was a noteworthy offerning among factory rods.

I must also add that I much prefer to fish an Allstar Austin blank I custom build. I like single food ceramics, customized thicker grips, feather work and personal wrap colors and designs. The experience is far more gratifying to me, but that is not the issue here.

I encourage Shakespeare to reinstate the blank program of Allstar Austins.

Dave

Lynn, That's interesting that you believe blank manufacturers reserve their best blanks for custom builders. I was under the impression that the opposite was the case. In the rod shop where I hung out and built rods from the late 1990's through early 2003, I had been involved in discussions with the shop owner and managers that companies such as GLoomis, Sage, and a few others, were pulling many of their high-end blanks from the blank catalogues because customer rod builders were undercutting the costs, and causing the manufacturers to lose sales.

As I understood it, part of the issue was that builders could purchase a high end blank such as a GLX 10812, for instance, at half the cost of a factory-finished GLX; build the rod for a customer for less than the cost of a factory-finished rod, and still pocket a profit over and above the cost of materials. The manufacturer was still on the hook for honoring warranties should anything happen to the rod.

I build myself some spinning rod(10'-12') using ALL STAR AUSTIN fly blank W5,W8 and i am very happy with this rods,the only problem i can't find more blanks(very sensitive blanks and big reserve power)