Braided line was immediately relegated to something your grandfather toted in his battered wooden box. During the late 1950s, mono pointed straight (even while stretching) to the future. An adjustable star drag regulated the tension on the outgoing line against the locked handle.Īnd, unlike the sputtering freewheelers, the Ambassadeur 5000 with its plastic spool and centrifugal brake was the first casting reel that could handle the introduction of springy monofilament line.

It boasted a patented centrifugal brake to control the windmilling spool during the cast and an anti-reverse mechanism to eliminate backspinning during the retrieve.

The import, distributed as the Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5000, incorporated a push-button free-spool design that disengaged the spool from the handle. I'm sure you will enjoy using it and knowing it's what a lot of us old timers used in the early days of competitive bass fishing.The red abu ambassadeur 5000, imported from SvÂ¿Â¿ngsta, Sweden, by AB Urfabriken, debuted in the United States at the 1954 New York World’s Fair (ABU’s European precursor to the Ambassadeur was the Record series). Later, ABU introduced a new series of reels with an entirely different spool. The word Ultra Cast was printed on the side-plate edge decal, and was an easy way to determine this new series of reels from old. They may make bearings now to replace the bushings but I've never seen the need on mine so I don't know if that can be done. The first use of Ultracast, was to described a new spool and bearing system used on the first generation of black and silver C3 reels. Once it's cleaned and lubed I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the smoothness of a reel with bronze bushings instead of ball bearings. Just remember it isn't going to get a fish away from cover with that low ratio like a 7:1 with a similar size spool. It should work well for any bait you want to work slow, as slow rolling a SB down deep. Blitz spinnerbaits that were designed for those ratios back around '70.

If you don't know, the red 50B have a low gear ratio, 3.75:1 if I remember correctly. That was they reel to have in it's day and I still have 4 and they are still going strong. Take care with the small springs as they can be stretched out easily. Be sure and clean under the yoke that the button is made on, and the 2 flat pieces on either side of them, and grease under them lightly. As posted, giving it a good cleaning and relubing with quality oil and grease should give you a great old reel to use.

Abu garcia ambassadeur 5000 spool