As a complete rookie and in my continued reading here trying to decide what components I need to order for some NFC blanks, I have a couple more questions. Do you all like carbon grips? I saw NFC has a sale on theirs and it looks like they are pre glued and just need to be reamed out to size, is that correct? If that is correct, what size do you recommend and what else does an idiot like me need to know about these grips to do it right? (How do they butt up to the reel seat, do they require tape or arbors, sealing them or soft touch which are not on sale but maybe worth it, etc.)

The other question is, I like hidden reel seats because the way I hold my rod, exposed threads bother my fingers after a while. I was looking at the Fuji PTS hidden thread with the locking backstop. Is this a good option or are there better ones out there?

These would be for a NFC SJ736 and an MB 708.

Thanks again for your expertise.

Shawn,

For the NFC grips - we have a few different types.

The soft touch grips as you have mentioned have arbors that are NOW pre-glued (as of this month) We received A LOT of feedback of what would make their assembly easier, and a pre-glued arbor was one of the recent upgrades.

The IPS and VSS grips fit the reel-seats perfectly, with the VSS designed for the size 16.

The split grips are made to press up against ANY casting seat (Fuji, ALPS, Seaguide, etc.)

The arbors are pretty easy to ream.

Best,
Alex

Personally Aleks I think being able to ream the arbor to fit is much easier when you aren't trying to do it down a length of empty tube, but that's just me. You also could get away with much shorter reamers to handle while you're doing it on a long grip.

Spencer,

Fair enough. We can definitely send you a set (or a number of sets) unglued, just let us know in the account notes when ordering.

Thanks,
Aleks

Personally, I really like the soft touch grips. Lately I’ve been using American Tackle ccf reel seats with the 1k iinsert and the 1k hidden hood, which is a great match for the nfc grips.

Will do Aleks, still have a couple 14 inch grips of both kinds left with pre-black foam arbors to go through. If your still there what length grip are you guys using on the STR 741?