Xzoga Mastery "total butt lift"

Another request from a friend to do the total reconfiguration of his favourite rod. I was abit reluctant at first as I do not want to make a mess out of his favourite rod, but he insisted.

Said to him, " I'll see what I can do..." and I did ...

The rod in its' orginal condition.

Stripped....

and removed...

He wanted a comfortable spinning reel seat and a split butt. I came out with a rough sketch which looked something like this..

I got the AERO ( American Tackle) spinning reel seat  for this project.

Using back its' existing aluminium decorative trim and butt cap.

Mock fitting the butt before epoxy. Since the rod above the butt joint is metallic red, I decided to match the exposed blank at the split butt to the same color and wrapped it all up with metallic red thread.

And this is the finally outcome..

Below are the photos of before and after the "butt lift"...

Lightest UL spinning rod I have ever built

This is a one piece MHX-S781 rated at 2-6lb UL blank.
Using Fuji skeleton reel to keep this rod as light as possible.

Not sure whether to fix the locking nut in front or at the back and how to treat the blank section in between the skeleton reel seat.

I believe having the locking nut in front would be more comfortable to hold and decided also to have an EVA form insert between the reel seat.

Shaped the rear EVA grip and reduced the diameter of the EVA fighting butt for this UL spinning rod.

Completed butt section of this UL MHX spinning rod.

Fuji winding checks are use to finished off the split grip and the reel seat locking screw area.

K-guides are selected for this rod.

MHX S781

Completed rod and it weighs only 70 grams

Matagi Rod components & St Croix blank

As a request from a friend that he wanted a costumized rod with something special and I suggested to him to have a look at rod components from Matagi. He instantly felt in love with 'it'.

It's my first time handling rod components from Matagi and I must say it worth every cents for the price that you are paying for it... that is if you can afford it. Very nice components.

Top notch components was used for this light action St Croix blank.

Spiral guide placement setting up

Personally, I always preferred spiral guide placement especially on light action rod. It uses lesser guides to maintain a lighter weight on the rod and the line will not rub against the blank when the load is applied on the blank during hook ups or fighting the fish.

First thin coating of epoxy applied onto the wrappings.

 Poly urethane arbor was used to fit the blank into the carbon tubing.

Split grip carbon tubing handle.

Final step, placing rod sticker prior epoxy.