ABU 444A Did I do well?

[Kingfisher]

Just won on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Fishi ... 120wt_1174

[Kingfisher]

Is £12 a good price or have I been stung, knowing that the bale arm is faulty?

[Loop Erimder]

I suppose once the bail has been sorted it will be ok .....maybe. However, I know its only cosmetic and it may work wonderful after a service and that bail sorted but I'm a bit of a snob and like the reel to look nice not into messy scratched up lots of paint loss, unless it was something very special. Hope it works out for you Mattyboy if not its only 12quid

[Dave Burr]

Matt, get in touch with Ray Moss - ray-moss@hotmail.co.uk - he's the top man when it comes to Cardinals and is very reasonable. He has serviced one for me even touching up the paint work, he'll have the bail springs (there are two on Cardinals) and will make it sing again. It will be well worth it.

[SeanM]

Only one bail spring on the 444A Dave. I like these reels - decent clutch and a nice smooth retrieve. The paint on them is very fragile so unless you're very careful with them it does chip. You might well find that once you've given it a good clean and made sure the bail arm isn't bent it works OK.

[BeechmereLake]

These are very good early reels and although the more budget end of the range for Abu they are nice to use.
Does the reel have SVANGSTA on the name plate and date from around 1965? could be a first version reel.
Cosmetically I would of avoided the reel as I would normally say the outside gets looked after better than the inside on most reels and going by the cosmetic condition and broken bail arm I would of struggled to spend the £12 buying it, but hey If it costs you a couple of quid to fix it and your not to worried about its condition then you haven't done that bad, if you use it and it works then all the better, you could actually re-paint it yourself and treat it as some sort of winter project.

[Kingfisher]

These are very good early reels and although the more budget end of the range for Abu they are nice to use.
Does the reel have SVANGSTA on the name plate and date from around 1965? could be a first version reel.
Cosmetically I would of avoided the reel as I would normally say the outside gets looked after better than the inside on most reels and going by the cosmetic condition and broken bail arm I would of struggled to spend the £12 buying it, but hey If it costs you a couple of quid to fix it and your not to worried about its condition then you haven't done that bad, if you use it and it works then all the better, you could actually re-paint it yourself and treat it as some sort of winter project.

Exactly what I bought it for Beechmere Sir, a winter project. I will be servicing it and repainting it at some stage. After I've cut more firewood, restored my Rudge rod ad Lucky Strike.

Why on earth did I buy it I have too much to do as it is. HELP!!!

Thanks for that Dave, if I need any parts I'll know who to ask.

[Loop Erimder]

These are very good early reels and although the more budget end of the range for Abu they are nice to use.
Does the reel have SVANGSTA on the name plate and date from around 1965? could be a first version reel.
Cosmetically I would of avoided the reel as I would normally say the outside gets looked after better than the inside on most reels and going by the cosmetic condition and broken bail arm I would of struggled to spend the £12 buying it, but hey If it costs you a couple of quid to fix it and your not to worried about its condition then you haven't done that bad, if you use it and it works then all the better, you could actually re-paint it yourself and treat it as some sort of winter project.

Exactly what I bought it for Beechmere Sir, a winter project. I will be servicing it and repainting it at some stage. After I've cut more firewood, restored my Rudge rod ad Lucky Strike.

Why on earth did I buy it I have too much to do as it is. HELP!!!

Thanks for that Dave, if I need any parts I'll know who to ask.

Send it to me if thats any help

[Aitch]

My 444a has Svangsta on the side plate and there is a number on the reel foot.... is there any way of dating the reel from the number....?

[BeechmereLake]

Yes there is, what is your number?
In the 1950's the initial numbering was a little bit of a guess as to how it worked but many collectors esp of the ambassadeur had their theory's, that was until 1963 when things became a lot clearer.
If I take for example an ABU 505 for example the first dated reels started in 1964 even though they came out in 1962, so a number like 030400 would mean the 03 = March, 04 would = 1964, and 00 would = the first production run of this model.
This went on until 1971 when Abu changed the dating system stamped on the reels, you would now look at a number for example 710801 and this would mean
71 = year of manufacture 08 would = the month of August and 01 would = the reel has become a variation of the 1st model, the initial model having 00 on the end of its serial number.

Hope this helps date your reel