Daiwa Reels-Made in Japan or Korea

[jgp12000]

I have a mini-mite that I bought from Fred,it has 2 BB made in Japan. It is probably the smoothest  of any spinning reel ever made.Even with an external bail trip,I have noticed some older Daiwa reels made in Korea are well made. It appears Daiwa reels were made in several countries over the years,is the quality the same throughout. The only 2 other Daiwa reels I have are Goldcast & Silvercast spincast reels which are great too.

[MACflyer]

I've had a few Daiwa SS reels from Japan and Korea. I don't see any differences in quality. The SS, GS, and BG are my some of my favorite spinning reels from the 1970s and 1980s. Pot metal gears for the most part, but used within their limits, they just keep working smoothly and catching fish no matter how bad they look. Bought this one new in the 1970s, and used it a lot in both fresh and salt water. Gave it to my buddy about 6 years ago, and he used it weekly in salt water, and never rinsed it unless it rained. Gave it back to me a couple months ago because it was broke. I replaced the bail spring, cleaned and lubed it, and freshened up the line. It's back in service with me.

[cbar45]

Bando in Korea was an OEM of Daiwa for many years. They made great reels in their own right, too.

The spool on my BG-90 sized Daiwa SS-9000C reads "Bando Daiwa Sports Co LTD".

Reel has a 1:3.3 gear ratio and incorporates features from the SS, BG, and GS/Millionmax series of Daiwa reels.

[MACflyer]

That is really nice! Rosewood knob is a nice touch too. Flashback to the 70s...

[oc1]

Rosewood knobs not only look classy, they feel better too.  Sort of a warm feel instead of the cold plastic.

[cbar45]

Another plus for Rosewood is that they're threaded, and pop off easily via wrench and counter-clockwise twist.

Reel is one of my favorite spinners to fish with—-a Bando ST-3000C running a Daiwa 4000-BL handle.

[work2fish]

There is a lot of praise for the 70s and 80s Daiwas in this thread and in the old reels in action thread. I have a Daiwa 1000C, but now I feel like trying out some of the larger models. The BGs with the wood knobs are very appealing.

[cbar45]

Can't go wrong with a BG/GS/SS series. Those GS-13's Fred is selling sure look tempting.

[Gfish]

The early Daiwa's made by Seiko were some of the best.

[bushleague]

 N

I've had a few Daiwa SS reels from Japan and Korea. I don't see any differences in quality. The SS, GS, and BG are my some of my favorite spinning reels from the 1970s and 1980s. Pot metal gears for the most part, but used within their limits, they just keep working smoothly and catching fish no matter how bad they look. Bought this one new in the 1970s, and used it a lot in both fresh and salt water. Gave it to my buddy about 6 years ago, and he used it weekly in salt water, and never rinsed it unless it rained. Gave it back to me a couple months ago because it was broke. I replaced the bail spring, cleaned and lubed it, and freshened up the line. It's back in service with me.

 Daiwa has always seemed to excel at producing reels that perform much better than the sum of their parts. To0, they never seem to have any fiddly quirks to them. On many other popular vintage makes I often need to tweak the drag, combat weird line lay or spots that the line is prone to catching, check componants that need extra attention... every Daiwa I've owned needed no considerations beyond a semi-anual lube job. Never had a Korean reel, but I do have a later BG15 that was made in Taiwan, as far as I can tell its just as good as the Japanese ones.

 Beyond the flagship models, most of the four digit "C" and "X" series fish about as well as BG's IMO, so long as you dont mind hearing the AR. The RG's are even closer, with silent AR and push-button spools. Heck... my kids ongoing use of the lowly 130RL and X's to catch big pike is fairly well documented here, and even they are holding up just fine.

[quang tran]

Daiwa whisker 1600 and 2600 ,some newer made in China and I hear some people complain about them .I don't have any of those but the price on newer also cheaper on Ebay