Last week we posted a piece on an ABU-Garcia ad that was run in the 1980 bass magazines at the time. The subject of the ad was that ABU Garcia wasn’t going to play second fiddle to any other reel company and that customers should trust in the 30 years of ABU technology and breakthroughs. Well, today in ABU-Garcia 1982 we’re going to delve into another ABU-Garcia ad that might divulge a bit more of ABU-Garcia’s concerns at the time.
In last week’s article, it was apparent that ABU-Garcia had taken notice of Shimano and Daiwa’s new reels. They didn’t mention the companies by name but they sure did want their long-time customers to know that they’d taken action in their design and manufacturing to update some of their reels with new features.
The CA and CB series reels, based off the 4500 and 5500, offered a palming sideplate, which addressed the knob sticking out the side of the left sideplate. For the 4500-series reels, they added a levelwind that would disengage on the cast. And being the only company at the time to offer a ThumBar, they had that market solely to themselves.
But come 1982, ABU-Garcia must have been feeling some heat with respect to sales. This is evidenced by the introduction of the Ambassadeur 1000 low-profile casting reel shown in the ad leading this article.
Let’s go a little deeper into the ad.
Right off the bat the reader notices this reel isn’t round like all previous ABUs. It’s got a longer profile, somewhat oblong in appearance, but familiar. Second, ABU-Garcia is letting you know that they’re standing behind this new reel with a 10-year warranty. No other company had such a warranty at the time and with ABU-Garcia’s reputation for building bomb-proof reels, it stands to reason they’d offer something like this.
The next attribute of the reel they espouse is that it only weighs 8.9 ounces. That may seem light but the comparable 4600CB weighed 9.0 ounces and the 4500CB weighed 8.7 ounces. What makes this worse is the Bantam 100 weighed 7.7 ounces, but that might not be a fair comparison since the reel is so much smaller.
A better comparison would be the Bantam 300, which has the same size spool, and it comes in at 10.6 ounces. So, the Ambassadeur appears to win out on the lightness by a couple ounces.
More improvements that ABU-Garcia put in this reel was the “Thumb Rest” and a 4.7:1 gear ratio. There is no mention if this reel’s spool was supported by bearings or bushings. Going by their normal numbering system, I would guess it was a bushing reel, but I wanted to make sure.
To find that answer I searched my 1982 ABU-Garcia catalog and was surprised that this reel wasn’t in there. So, I got out my 1982 Bass Pro Shops catalog and happened to find it. Unfortunately, the full specifications aren’t listed here either. More searching
On a whim, I decided to check my 1983 Bass Pro Shops catalog and low-and-behold I found what I was looking for.
In that catalog they not only featured the Ambassadeur 1000, but they also had the 1000C, which came with stainless steel ball bearings. Yes, the 1000 was a bushing-supported reel. The other difference between the two years was now the 1000 had turned to ABU red from silver. This most likely was because ABU-Garcia had already set the standard between bushing and bearing reels and the silver 1000 probably caused confusion for customers.
At the start of this description of the new Ambassadeur 1000, I mentioned that the shape of the reel seemed familiar. That bothered me for a couple weeks after we first received these reels at the shop. Where had I seen that shape before, I’d ask myself. Then, one day one of our customers brought in all his reels to get line strung on them.
He plopped down a couple standard ABUs, a Bantam 300 and then his Ultra Mag I, which had the same shape as the 1000. Looking at the pile of reels on the counter it finally hit me. The Shimano was upside down and the Ultra Mag was right side up. The two reels had nearly exact profiles.
ABU seemed to have taken the profile of the Bantam series reels, turned it upside down and created the 1000 and Ultra Mag series. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Next, I wanted to check and see if ABU had really created a low-profile reel compared to their other reels. For that I took a 5000 I have and an old, worn Ultra Mag I and compared the spool heights. From the top of the reel foot to the top of the spool was the exact same distance. By making the body of the reel more of an ellipse, it looks like ABU used an illusion to sell a low-profile reel.
To me the shape of the reel never made it look low-profile. The center of mass appears higher because there is more body at the top. Not like the Shimano, where the apparent mass is at the bottom.
This era in the reel industry was one of the most fluid times ever. A couple of upstart Japanese companies were shaking the tree and the fruits of the giant amongst the industry were falling.
What saved ABU-Garcia from total relegation of the top was Shimano and Daiwa’s appeal to move forward with composite construction and too many bells and whistles. ABU-Garcia continued moving forward, but unlike the Japanese companies, they continued selling their standard reels that placed them on top to begin with.
Then in 1993, the reel world changed with the introduction of another reel that will forever be considered one of the best reels ever designed.
