bulldog1935

Keep your thumb in constant contact with the spool. Make short casts and work on accuracy. You are required to stop the spool at end of cast, and always will be. Learn how to lift your thumb and rely on the brakes at mid cast, and your thumb should again be adjusting the final accuracy in the cast by feathering and stopping the spool on the fall. Eliminate all jerk from your wrist - it was rewarded with distance on Zebco - on baitcast, jerk is only backlash. Backlash is one of those words like Braid- there are 3 different types of backlash that are all different and different causes - start-up overshoot caused by jerk; mid-cast backlash caused by gravity and wind; end-of-cast overrun caused by dumb. Identify the type of backlash and go from there.

I've always found the best set up for Daiwa SV is adjust mag high, and get through mid-cast without backlash using the lightest thing you want to throw. Dial it down to find incipient mid-cast backlash, and dial it up 2 notches. You're set - moving SV rotor will take over for heavier stuff. If you're casting into the wind, add 2 more mag notches. Zero Set is for incipient side play and should never need adjustment. If you change it. open it up, click the clutch to freespool, slide the spool side to side, and dial in the Zero Set just to where side play disappears. If you're getting start-up backlash with heavy weights, eliminate wrist snap from your cast - follow through with smooth acceleration and no jerk. FWIW, I have never backlashed one of these reels.

@Recurve1 Ultegra is Shimano's best locomotive drive reel. Stradic is entry-level worm drive copying Stella design. oops ----- yes, that's news to me. Ultegra is worm drive. I would have to chase spool numbers to figure what is different, but the gear support and pinion are different different You can take it to the bank Stradic and Stella interchange parts, and '23 Stradic is $140 from Digitaka.

4 years - '18 Stella followed by the variant models using the same design and different MOC '22 Stella followed by newer variant models using the same design While it may sound like planned obsolescence, Plat does show Shimano supports Stella parts going back to 2001. So if you buy a worm-drive Shimano, you can always repair it with Stella parts. This should make JDM Stradic look more desirable than Ultegra. Also shows the makers are banking on N+1 hunger.

@FishTax where it's useful is flip/pitch into heavy cover such as hydrilla and duckweed, expecting an instant take. Since the clutch is never disengaged, you're instant retrieve on big fish turning into heavy cover. On Super Duty, the clutch button becomes an added A/R lock.

@lastmanstanding https://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/

@redmeansdistortion Fred Ribb's lore on the 1st Ambassadeur 5000DL (and subsequent CDL) https://lurelore.com/freds/abu.html#section14

Really nice things can burn a hole in your pocket. I figured out early on that Ted Godfrey had a superior design on the old-style conventional frame fly reel. Aside from a really good externally adjustable click pawl, he invented the only design you could easily open up at streamside if your leader got between the spool and frame. I custom-ordered my Westminster for $450 through rodmaker JD Wagner, right after Ted had his first price increase. I fished it for 5 years and sold it for $900 Here's what they sell for now. I did basically the same thing with half-a-dozen quality fly reels, limited edition Hardy to 1917 Hardy. The first c. 2000 St. George reproduction /500 was only offered to cane rod builders, and used c. '30's MOC and finishing, including ebonite grasp and brass foot - another score from JD - they were much nicer than the reels Hardy reintroduced 10 years later. The original St. George - one of these was the 1st thing Hemingway bought when he came home from WWI.

Here's what happens when you step up to Ambassadeur CDL (Deluxe Limited edition) these are sold listings, and you'll note UK market is stronger for these reels than US market. The empty wood box sells for as much as a mint T5600C.

Everything you've showed us of this reel is a macro of an embossed fishing scene in the side plate (ala engraved Moscrop reel counterfeited in India for half a century). We haven't seen the overall condition of the reel, box, paper and tools. If your reel has been used and doesn't include the above, $70 value is spot-on - might be able to stretch that by a few $ on ebay. The embossed fishing scene is less important to people who want to acquire Ambassadeur, and it could add a few dollars to the mechanical value of the reel. What you've showed of yourself is a desire to make a killer sale, and no desire to go fishihg - we mostly fit the latter, though some of us figured out how to work-in the former along the way (which also meant acquiring the right stuff). We have no alterior motives - none of us want to buy your reel. Tougher to understand is why this thread returns to fraud values, especially when I linked sold prices above. Any collectible, from Barbie dolls to fishing reels, loses collector value when removed from the original packaging. $350 is a reasonable price for a used c.'30s Pflueger Medalist. One or two reels still sealed in the original velum inside the box have sold for 10x that. It's a normal desire to want more for what you have - people without knowledge may see a CDL sold for collector price, and consider their reel to be worth the same - that doesn't mean they can sell it. If it cost money to list on ebay, i.e., newspaper classifieds, they wouldn't be listing for that, but would first identify market value.

Vanquish stock handle is definitely magnesium (so is the spool) - you can verify this by comparing parts prices on https://www.plat.co.jp/ adding a ps - both Shimano and Daiwa formed magnesium parts are so fine-grained (clean) and heavily anodized (they feel soapy) that both can rate their magnesium reels salt-safe (not true for die-cast magnesium parts).

"Braid" gets used like it means something specific - it doesn't. If you're interested in higher grade coatings with improved abrasion resistance, check Varivas and YGK.

Lew's love in Texas goes back to the '80s and fishing Mecca Roy's Bait & Tackle in Corpus (also Larry's Tackle Town in Rockport before Larry sold it), and the number of small pro shops that popped up around the state before BPS moved in. We fished these for decades and wondered why anybody would want to buy a Revo, though we understood the $400 Calcutta urge. That said, Lew's love is alive and well, and it simply defines baitcaster for many. The only thing that ever sent me to Daiwa was the range of aftermarket spools made for SV reels, and the total dearth of equivalent spools for Lew's reels. I'm also beyond Meh on Lew's centrifugal brake, because I don't fish the weights that need it. Specific to the OP's question, Lew's builds off 2 basic frames using different MOC, 3 different brake systems, different spool capacities, finish grades including use of ball bearings to replace bushings. While Doyo builds Lew's reels, and many parts interchange, you'll note many spec differences between Lew's reels and Doyo-built reels for other marques. Backing up to 1973, Lew's BB-1 was one of those paradigm changes in reel design that happen 3 times/ century and sent every reel maker scrambling, though he didn't patent it before he asked Shimano to build it for him. If he had patented his design, Shimano (and Every other maker) wouldn't have copied it for 18 years.

I'm a Livre fan - their titanium knobs come in at 11 g. My favorite EF30 has pentagonal facets that grab your knuckle and thumb. Taken to next level, Livre Union handle counterbalances and adds finesse to Vanquish low-inertia drive. Livre Union is packaged with their version of a fat I-shaped titanium knob - Fino. https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/2776 Since I shop in Japn using a broker, I buy Livre from SquidMania, who offers every Livre handle combined with your pick of their knobs at slightly discounted price.

@lastmanstanding, what you have from limited photo appears to be an excellent condition example of the 75th Anniversary Commemorative Ambasssadeur Pro Max. It you compare to Sold ebay listings, mint boxed examples of Pro Max stand out and bring about $175. The mean for used reels is about $50 - the Tournament embossed fishing scene adds $10 to $20 to overall value. A note about myself, there was a time when I set the market on antique fly reels, and people still trust me to clean and restore their valuable antiques. I'm also breaking a personal rule by posting a $ value. Your reel is different from Ambassadeur CDL versions with gold-plated trim and sold in a wooden box w/ gold-plated tools. These reels were made for collectors, and mint reels bring collector prices. Note there was an EX-condition T5600C like yours sold in '05 on Stripers On Line for $100 shipped. There's a dearth of internet buzz from Ambassadeur collectors about the reel. You do find people talking about Silver Max, Black Max, and Pro Max, but Morrum rises above as the reel people want to fish. Of course, the biggest Ambassadeur audience for selling your reel is ebay. Old Reel Collector's Association bulletin board is a more focused audience, with at least a few there who might be intereted - you'll find them a pragmatic and possibly frugal lot, but a good source for elusive history. Compare prices to Sold listings. @lastmanstanding Why do people list inflated asking prices? - (1) Lack of Knowledge combined with Avarice. (2) Fishing for a sucker. (3) Mint boxed reels may bring somewhat higher prices in Japan collector's market, but anything less won't. Your questions have been generously fielded by the people who know these reels and market.

hmmm, Japanese work-hardened brass = 175 HV work-hardened stainless steel = 430 HV

The other thing that can happen is bend the spool spindle.

that's some obtuse sh, but if you're worried, wrap your line a few times around something solid and pull with that.

yes, if your pull is hard enough and your gears are soft enough to "brinnell" (mar and change the gear teeth shape and contact pattern). This is the reason stainless steel gears are used in UK surf reels to permit higher drag loads (also in Stella - gears that improve with use and never wear). You see brinnelled pinion gears in many old Penn spinners pushed too hard

As long as we're hijacking here, I have a very specific niche that needed very specific rod specs. After exhausting JDM for the multipiece rockfish casting rod I wanted, I chased absolutely everything on Ali Express. This is an 8-1/2' 7-pc rod to fit in a bicycle half-frame bag, and pedal to a fabled snook hole at a dam that forms a tide-basin limit. It's a half-day kayak paddle, and the only other way to get here is an hour on a bicycle. It's a winter activity shore fishing small glass minnows and poecilids for bait, using equally small lures. So I saw this in a cheapie, and knew I could make this work before I bought it. Note the rod has exactly half the number of tip guides that a casting rod requires. The only way to make it work is assemble the 7 pieces as spiral guides, with rings down on the 3 tip sections. Note that the shorter 6-pc versions don't have enough pieces to assemble this way. Best thing about it, the reel seat accepts the long foot on my custom 4500CT built for shore micro-jigging. I wrote my honest review for this rod on Ali Express, and was almost surprised when they published it - doesn't reliably cast its 2-g-rated low-end, but makes up for it casting 3 g - also, only the 7-pc casting rod can be assembled spiral-guides to function as a casting rod...

They're deep in the A/E fishing market, listing the most entries in every category. They're either really good at sourcing their products, or they do make their reels and completed reels or parts for other brands. Logically, they're building off something that's already in their manufacturing capability, and applying quality cuts to get here. Reviews on their spinning reels are smooth out of the box, non-function in a few months. "Out performs" a 4-y-o entry level reel to me is less pertinent than how it will perform in 4 years. My first ebay-buy $120 Super Duty is in its 6th salt year - its brake fits my distance niche better than most, I'd put it against any reel for light-lure distance, and it's still going strong with only a magnet swap for onset of corrosion.

Technology is a convenient word that deserves thought on its own. Paradigm changes in function of fishing reels happen about 3 or 4 times/ century. Most all are patents that belong exclusively to that maker for 18 years (you called out MagForce - fits right here). Technology is how to package it, reduce labor assembly steps, and, especially, how to build it cheaper to increase profit margin. In the case of spinning reels, technology in the last decade included CAD/CAM to overcome their inherent bad design. While technology can include how to make them better, it always includes how to make them cheaper. It can be Material of Construction choice, because some materials, e.g., hard-anodized alloy gears, are cheaper to manufacture, and the technology of the hard anodizing process has caught up with properties needed in gears, etc. Another MOC is plastic/composite frames. Consider the subject reel is a cheap knock off of another entry-level reel - just how many quality corners do you think they cut to get this product out the door. What suffers the most is MOC that may not have the mechanical properties needed for the long run.

@nso123 Vince Cummings Water Witch (St. Croix blank taper-shaped and polished by Vince), c. 30s Medalist. Of course, this was stealthy sight-fishing, leading and keeping steady while the bucket-mouth followed and flared on my cats whisker.

None of my friends can load a rod, except for the few who came from fly rods. My dad's cast is entirely swing. My buddy Lou is swing + wrist-snap. Even when they bring the rod back in a rod-loading motion, they stop static so that motion is lost and doesn't load the rod. The last edge is follow through and elevation. Finish with the rod tip high and aim up. In a 2-hand cast, you pass the rod to your rod-butt hand and stretch that arm - in addition to higher speed from 2-hand swing, this final follow-through can add 20% to 30% to cast distance.

The Royal Express has the advantage of high-speed gears. Note that both are C3 drive, and all the parts interchange. Both also take this Avail spool, which has the same line capacity as the EF spool I posted above. The spool swap is simple - move everything from your stock spool to the upgrade spool. This is also a good time to upgrade your spool bearings (1040 size) @redmeansdistortion mentioned the plastic worm gear sleeve on Royal Express. If upgrading the LW to ball-bearing is in your sights, the new worm drive comes with a metal sleeve - you can also order it with the alloy rider and zirconia pawl. https://www.mikesreelrepair.com/abu-dual-bearing-worm-kit-4000-6000/ if you go this route, I recommend replacing the idler with BB also https://www.mikesreelrepair.com/reel-tuning-upgrades/wormshaft-upgrades/ My Royal Express below also has Avail mag brake, which you would want mainly for casting UL to 1/8-oz lures - not all upgrades are necessary. Consider if you make the LW upgrades, you have a reel that performs as well as the $500 Factory Tuned bench reels.