Jigmaster 500S Red Aluminum Spool

[sandbar]

Hi.
Was this a standard issue Penn product or aftermarket/limited issue reel?
Wide Aluminum bars and red aluminum spool?
Thanks!
-Steve

[JasonGotaProblem]

50th anniversary

[Gfish]

Yeah. 1982 maybe? Has fiberglass side plates and a different arrangement for quick-take-apart via the tail-plate.

[Maxed Out]

 The 500S was a leap of faith for Penn. The solid spacer bars are chrome plated brass. The sideplates are not bakelite or fibreglass. They tried a new material called Lexan, and it didnt pan out, so they went back to bakelite. The 500S is the only "quick take apart" reel penn ever made that had the thumb screw quick take apart feature on the tailplate, instead of the headplate. The red aluminum spool happened at the same time frame. After the Lexan failure, the jigmaster switched to black bakelite sideplates, black aluminum spools, spacers bars with cutouts, and back to headplate thumb screw.

[Surfrat]

The Penn Jigmaster 500s core design flaw is its compromised frame system, which causes structural failure under heavy load. While the traditional Penn Jigmaster 500 utilizes six mounting screws on the side plates for rigid support, the 500S redesign moved the single-screw quick-take-apart mechanism to the tail plate side. This reduced the tail plate side plate to just four mounting screws, causing excessive frame flex, side-plate buckling, and reel-seat failure when fighting heavy fish.

I have seen a few people take all the 500 compatible parts from the 500S side plates into the traditional 6-screw Jigmaster plates or an aftermarket aluminum frame such as the Tiburon Jigmaster frame.

[cbar45]

I have seen a few people take all the 500 compatible parts from the 500S side plates into the traditional 6-screw Jigmaster plates or an aftermarket aluminum frame such as the Tiburon Jigmaster frame.

You can also go budget and replace the short 500-S tail plate screws with some longer ones. Ive done it and it adds a bit more strength to the frame. Penn part number 46A-704 (Pan Head) I believe.