Just wondering what anyone finds is the most popular type artwork with customers. I seem to have a lot of customers that like the marbling jobs or custom grips, and less and less that prefer thread work. Feather inlays, decals, even colored guide rings - anything else that dresses up a rod?

For me, it would be grips then marbleand or thread

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!!

Mark; I have found more intrest in the custom grips than anything else. Also I have had quite a few that like the fish decal, it's cheap and looks good.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

1) Guide Wraps matched to Reel
2) Name Inscription
3) Guide Wraps paired to theme - NFL, NASCAR, NCAA, etc.
4) Grips
5) Miscellaneous - Marbling, Feather Inlays, Decals, etc.
6) Cross Wraps

#1, #3 are FREE
#2, #4 are almost always inexpensive
#5 is generally inexpensive
#6 is priced by the hour and therefore expensive ... this lends to the ranking, but I can't work for FREE.

Grips and marbling.

DR

Grips, matching reel seats, inlays & inscriptions.

Colin

Hi Marc. I am sure much depends on the area and the customer base but inside this community the numbers speak for themselves. Take a look at the photo board on this site and see what the numbers show you not only in pictures posted but also comments made. Take the time to look completely thru it and you will see what attracts the most attention in all areas the you can form some of you own conclusions. Of course asking me, the answer would be thread art. It is what keep my life and boothes busy for many a wonderful year and I have the feeling it would be much the same in the coastal areas with the larger cities and populations. In middle America it might be an entirely different thing. JMHO.

IMO a customer will only want something which he likes looking at. So if you are really good at grip inlays (on whatever level you do them), they will like it and want it. IF you are not good at something, say making marblized seagull turd splatter - they will not like that or want it on their rods.

For me, the grips do attract more attention than the wraps. A fisherman cannot tell a St. John's Cross from a Spider, nor do they care. They can see a Devil or Bart Simpson inlay and get a good laugh that it's sitting there in a grip. However, what fishermen like, they often do not like to pay for.

The series on pricing custom rods in RodMaker volume 8, showed that across the U.S. most builders find that customers are more willing to pay for things like wood accents and feather inlays than say, the normal decorative crosswrap. The builders polled also indicated that things like feather inlays, while still requiring skill and ability, are often quicker and therefore more cost effective to perform than many types of thread art.

If you're really interesting in this facet of rod building, you should get the article. It's very in-depth and has a ton of information from varioius rod builders across the U.S. The segment on decorative aspects was in Volume 8 #5. I think you'd really find it interesting.

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Marc - I live right down the road from you (well, sort of - I'm in Woodruff :-) I don't build for a living - but my customers (friends/family/and referrals) get the biggest charge out of custom name inscriptions, custom handle work, purty colored guides, and butt end inlays. I love feather inlays and do them on most rods - people like them, but they don't go as nuts over them as we builders do. When I show people examples of what can be done on a rod - well, I've never had anyone show the least bit of interest in decorative thread wrapping. I don't know if it's a Wisconsin thing or what, but I think most people just don't find it attractive. Custom handle work is very big for me as well, and I find that people really enjoy a bony fish pin inlay in the butt end, or a hook, or a coin, etc. However - the biggest sell for me is performance. People want a rod that performs - that's the bottom line. I build for a couple buddys, one is on the PWT and the other fishes the Wisconsin bass tourney series - they want lightweight, high performance rods. Even anglers that aren't as serious want high performance rods - performance trumps decoration every day of the week.

Hey Rich,

Didn't know you were so close. I have seen the same thing - residents of Northern WI don't much care for decorative stuff - ahhhh, but those summer tourists are another story. I have talked to many of the local guides and sport shops, and so many have no idea what really enhances performance and just repeat what they have been told. Talked to a shop owner last week that wanted nothing to do with my rods because they didn't say IM8 graphite. Didn't matter that mine was lighter, better balanced, better guide set-up, and much nicer looking. He told me if it don't say IM8 I don't want one, because it's what's underneath that counts. Those guys make me nuts!!!!!

Marc

Hey Rich,

I just updated my e-mail address if you ever want to drop me a line.

Thanks,
Marc

Marc,

If you need to play the game for that shop owner, coin your own term such as, say, HM12 or something. Tell him it's the latest thing and he really needs to try one of your rods in order to experience the difference. That might make him happy.

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Typically, and as the article pointed out, most customers would rather put their money into better guides, seats, material, etc., than cosmetic embellishment. But just like the guys who want nice wood and checkering on their guns, there are those who want some form of cosmetic personalization on their custom rods.

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Will do Marc -my email is up to date as well. I get through Phillips every now and then - I'll have to drop in and see your shop sometime!

Yes - tourists, where would we be without them? ;-)

Yep, uninformed guides/shop owners, etc, pretty typical everywhere. I have no idea how many people I've had to explain about IM rating and how it's only a piece of the puzzle. I always ask them if they really think that Bass Pro's IM10 rods can possibly hold a candle to any St. Croix blank. They go to the trade shows and just spew out the same garbage that got them to buy the products they are re-selling.

I'll have to try that Tom! Reading that made me laugh and smile, because I can just see that guy soaking up something like that HM12 idea. He would probably brag to all his customers that he's the only shop that carries it.

Talk to you soon Rich.

Marc

For spinning and casting I'm finding that the "aesthitics" of performance are getting a lot more demand. Attributes like split grips, no foregrips, split seats, cut back reel seats, real small guides, ... that is all the things that I've learned here to improve performance but viewed by customers as being "too odd" are now being asked for along with the old standbys like personalized custom built for ______ inscriptions. I think one reason is the obvious move by manufacturers to follow custom builders' lead, e.g, the new Shimano and Daiwa rods high-end bass rods. They even appear to be ratcheting it up by using their buying power to get a new generation of components like some of the new seats. I guess there is some vindication but it is going to be harder to up the standard across the board. The big guys are learning the advantages of fast moves to market as a competitive strategy. For me I still think that solving any specific problems the angler has such as grip size and shape or building even more technique specific rods is a way to create a niche.

Of course the fly rod guys are still holding on to their desire for high performance but in "traditional" packaging.

Instead of using a made up "HM12" why not use real CCS numbers? Promote a good standard and you would also be able to measure another rod to show what number it would coorespond to.