Yo, Mooki. The chap in the assy thread (where you referred him to the 01 Abu thread) with the 7001 has a unique reel. His 7001 is branded made in Sweden, but Pure Fishing Iowa indicates all 7001's were made in Taiwan, right around the time PF sent production to Communist China with the i type design change.
Abu as I understand it, is made up of two divisions: American and International. Can you see what you can find out about the 7001's history. Here in Canuck-land, all ~we~ ever saw was Omoto's Taiwan product, nothing from SE. The reel in question is a 12-00-13-04 mark. (designed in '02, made in '03, no revise, in week 4 (jan).
I have other queries out there, but you may learn quicker than they. Cheers, KD.
I've passed the question on, will let you know if I get a reply.
Not sure if I remember correctly, but I believe that when production was moved they also moved a whole bunch of parts.
My guess is that the reel is either assembled in Sweden from parts made in Sweden, or assembled in Taiwan from parts made in Sweden (or maybe a mix of where the parts were made).
Very Fine, M, appreciated. At the SOL forum, where it all began, the chap(4) is indicating he got the reel 4th-hand from a seller (3), who got the reel from someone in the UK (2), who got the reel from gosh-knows-where. (1) Thx, KD.
I am the ebay seller of that 7001. I purchased the reel, with several others, from a seller in the UK and had it shipped cross the pond to the US. It was smooth turning, and short of spooling it with line and taking it fishing, all functions seemed to work well. I had no reason to believe it was anything other than a nice reel, and no reason to disassemble it.
If the buyer is not happy, I also have a return policy and stand behind anything I sell. The images posted on SOL are from the listing, and not taken by the buyer/poster of that thread.