That’s a very complicated question. Of all the spincast reels I’ve worked on, the Shakespeares have a marvelous design, great workmanship, and beautiful styling. That said, they are heavy to use and seem to break often. The knobs on most of them are inferior due to disintegration. Some of the designs are very complex and difficult to service. Early Johnson reels are well made, though not elegant. The drags work well, but are not all that smooth. The retrieve rates are fairly slow and the reels, while not as heavy as the Shakespeares, are still pretty heavy. The Abumatic reels are well made and most thinks that can be said about the Shakespeares, can be said about them as well. My big downfall with them is the star drag. It seems to either slip too much or not at all. Now let’s talk about the bastard child of the spin cast world, the Zebco reels. No self respecting angler of the 1960s and 70s wanted to be seen with a Zebco on their rod. As the years have passed, many of us have come to appreciate their lightweight construction and durable plastic design. The 202 and 404 had a less than desirable drag system. It functioned but it could never be called smooth. The 33 with its drum brake was much better and the mostly metal body gave it more credence in the angling world. As the years have passed, like almost everything else, production was moved to China and the quality decreased. Each of the above manufacturers produced great reels and junk reels. Each reel design needs to be evaluated on its own merits. They say that the Zebco Bullet is a nice reel but I don’t plan to buy one to find out. I did purchase a 75 anniversary Zebco 33 to evaluate. It’s due to arrive on Thursday.
WD40 and a toothbrush. In a few places the grease had turned so hard that it would have taken days to dissolve it. It those places I scrapped the grease off with my screwdriver first, then I scrubbed. I’ve found that few things clean as well as WD40. I never use it to lubricate but it’s a great cleaner.
