[Sandy Nelson]

HI Folks

Been a busy few months, which is why i've been pretty quiet, however i have found myself in a position whereby i'm finished all this years rod builds well ahead of schedule. So as i often get asked if i have a rod ready, off the shelf so to speak, and i have a few  extra blanks which i bought for stock then i thought i would build another 580 to fill this niche.

As its for stock and no-one else is picking components i thought it might be fun if i let you guys choose the bits (instead of me doing my own thing all time).

So the plan is i will post a poll with some photographs for us to vote on the build spec, e.g. the choice of blank colour, the wooden insert, the shape of grip, the agate guide and the style of whippings. I'll do a seperate poll for each aspect and i'll update this post as components are picked and as the build progresses, treating the rod the same way as i do all the custom builds but with the forum in the role of the customer. I hope you all join in as I think it could be quite an interesting project to see how design by committee turns out. I'll let each poll run for 5 Days, some i may run concurrently so i get the chance to have the rod finished for the start of the season.

The only things that are pre-determined are, its going to be a 580 and it will be dark nickel rings and uplocking metalwork.

So the first poll will be for the blank Colour.
NUDE


AMBER


I'll run the poll for 5 days

Cheers

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

What a great idea Sandy

[Euan Innes]

Sandy,
I have voted but I don't care either way. The amber looks like bamboo so that would probably upset more people so I went with that. Wood and glass, aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
When you build my next one  it will be a 580 so at least you will have one for me to try!
And coincidently, I was in Angus Angling today and saw the new Guideline Fario reel in the new #6 size. It now comes in bronze so I was fantasizing about that on a 580 and then I see this post.
It is a sign!

Euan

[Dave Robb]

I got one of Sandys builds prior to Christmas and was torn between nude and olive when I was choosing my blank.

I opted for olive which I think is really nice but it was 50 / 50 between the two.

So for this poll, it’s nude all the way as I think it looks ace.

Not had a cast with my new rod yet, can’t wait for winter to pass. 

Plenty of time for me to keep searching for a new reel though.

[Jeff Donovan]

Now this is a fascinating thread well worth following, to say I'm intrigued would be a very big understatement. I'm relishing the outcome. 

Edit: voted for the amber - just to make it a bit closer.   

[Eddie Sinclair]

Sandy,

I have two olive epics but I really like the nude one so it’s nude for my vote.

Eddie

[Kerry Jordan]

Sandy has kindly built 3 stunning Epics for me in salsa, olive and amber.
So I shall vote for nude!

[Sandy Nelson]

Thanks for all the comments and for voting

So its an Honorable draw, at least that keeps things normal for me, a lot of folk have difficulty deciding which colour they want, so my next move is usually to try and find out what sort of style they have in mind and that often suggests which colour we will build.
So i'll make the call on the colour when i see which way we are going. I'm afraid most of the choices will be on Nude blanks as i have only made a few ambers and have less pictures to choose from, but the build styles work well for both, we just might change the colours. We will choose the actually colours later in the process.

So the next choice is style of build.

A.    Semi traditional with wraps in light natural colours, to make the rod  look organic, this usually leads to softer colour inserts and lighter agates, often leads to wrap tippings to add a bit more colour, but keping the rod soft and natural.




B.     Again semi traditional but with strong bold colours, this can also look pretty fresh and modern, but is not for the shrinking violet. it can go with lovely strong agates and inserts too, rarely with tippings as the strong colours dominate. These rods really pop.




C.      Modern/Skandi style, clean ghost wraps for a minimalist build, pretty much a signature look for me and how a large percentage of builds end up. it shows off the colour of the blank and allows you to put the details in the agates and insert.  Very cool.






D.     A hybrid of the styles where the main bulk of the rod is done clean with ghost wraps, but some colour is introduced, either with tippings to the wraps, or by using a stronger solid colour on the stripper guide. This lends itself to any insert/agate style as you can pull them together in different ways, using the extra colours, if we do this style then that would be a additional choice later in the choices.



Again the Poll will run for 5 days and hopefully the style choice will inspire me with a blank choice.

Cheers

Sandy

[Eddie Sinclair]

Sandy,

version C for me. Tres cool.

Eddie

[Jeff Donovan]

Has to be an "A" for me..... keeping with tradition or sum such... 

[Hamish Young]

C all the way for me

[Dave Robb]

C just edges it, although A is a good alternative.

Heck I also like B and the bright wraps.

[Euan Innes]

And it's a C from me.
The invisibule wraps are so classy. This leads the eye to the agate ring and reel seat.
Like this little beauty,



Everyone that has seen it is drawn to the reel seat and not bright wraps. The bright wrap version reminds me on '70's American glass sticks and not these modern glass rods. Fine if you want a Pfluger but not so cool for a modern reel. Vintage can be cool but these new Epics deserve more.
I am changing my mind towards the nude though. More Katana than lightsabre, more scalpel than baseball bat. 
Loving your work Sandy 

Euan

[Mike Barrio]

I voted for the organic look this time Sandy, subtle with style

Cheers
Mike

[Dave Mundie]

It's another "c" from me

[Kerry Jordan]

Minimalist for me. Less is more.

[Sandy Nelson]

Thanks for voting guys.

So we have a clear winner this time, build style 'C' it is, so we are doing ghost style wraps with a minimalist look, so no winding check, no colour in the wraps, just a small band at the ferrules to pull the final design together.

As we are going for build style C i'm going to use the new Amber coloured blank as theres a high probability that i will use this rod as my demo for the next couple of years and i quite fancy an Amber one this time, plus it will possibly look better in the full minimalist garb than a Nude. 

So the strong details are going to be in the Wooden insert and in the Agates, so these are now our more important issue to get sorted, hence pulling the poll a little early so i can get the wood picked out and that then takes us to the agate.

So here's our next step, i've photographed 6 inserts with the blank and metalwork to choose from, all the colours work really well for our planned build, so it becomes personal choice and this is where it will be interesting to see how the poll goes. Please choose and vote from A - F as annotated on the picture, i'll run this one till thursday so i get a chance to do the agates for the weekend.



Cheers

Sandy

[Dave Robb]

B for me, although E would also work well.

[Kerry Jordan]

C would  go with the minimalist look,  although  agree that B would look stylish and is a close second IMHO.

[Jeff Donovan]

D for me, compliments the blank.   

[Eddie Sinclair]

C for me

[Euan Innes]

Its a B from me.
The dark figuring will go with the dark hardware and the light wood will go with the blank. It was almost C but I thought that was too close to the handle colour.
However, they are all really nice and would all look good.

Euan

[Sandy Nelson]

So we have chosen insert B which is the Spalted Aspen, its a stunning piece of wood that has a lot of bold contrasting figuring and a shimmer akin to Tigereye, Very nice.
Again it was quite close but a distinct preference for a couple and one that just edged it on the votes

So the next choice is which Agate to put with it, now choosing B has opened up another question, as i have 6 agates which will go really well with the insert and the style of build, however 3 of them are Smoked Nickel Silver and 3 of them are Bright Nickel Silver. The picture is split left 3 and right 3 along with the metalwork so you should be able to see the differences.

I have put the Smoked Nickel hardware and the Bright Nickel hardware in the picture to help you choose, i was going to use the Smoked Nickel hardware for the build, but the choice of insert has meant we can use either and there were some particularly good matching agates in Bright Nickel as well as the smoked.

So this time we are not only choosing which agate we would like to use, we are also choosing the rings and metalwork colour, so i will run it for 5 days to let you have a good think about how you visualise the build and then we shall see which way we are going.



I hope you are enjoying this, so far we are following the process for a customer build and funnily enough the results are proving to be roughly what i would have expected.

Cheers

Sandy

[Eddie Sinclair]

Sandy,

Smoked nickel silver and E for me.

Eddie

[Dave Robb]

As above, smoked nickel and E.