The thought of a red fishing reel by a fine Scottish salmon river was a shock to them.'īritish erythrophobia might also explain why production of the black 5000 continued after 'Record Ambassadeur' was changed to ' ABU Ambassadeur' (around 1957) and why ABU also produced a black 6000. 'Only the conservative British continued to insist on black reels the first few years. Many years later, these reels found their way to a tackle shop in Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town) where local collectors picked them up.'Ī further clue to the 'proliferation' of black reels comes from Borgström (p. The sale did not go so well, however, and the remaining stock was returned to ABU in Sweden. It was intented that they would be thrown in as a bonus with the pruchase of an automobile. It is rumored, for example, that a number of black units were ordered in the mid-fifties by a car dealership in the USA. Others were manufactured as special orders. 'Some of these are early prototypes used by ABU in the early fifties in a market study of color preferences. Why the disparity?ĭaniel Skupien, in Vintage Fishing Reels of Sweden, offers one explanation (p. collector Mikael Risberg notes the relative 'abundance' of black reels compared to green reels according to him, as many as five black reels were traded in 2008 to 2009. Some say 20 of each color, others say 100, or something in between.

There is disagreement about the numbers produced of these test reels. But I have never seen even a photo of the 'fourth color' reel, and no Swedish collector or retired ABU employee I have spoken to knows the present whereabouts of such a reel. The black reels come to auction fairly regularly. Variation mostly concerns the fourth (and sometimes fifth) color. Everybody agrees about the red, black, and green reels. This story has been told and retold in coffee shops, books, and on websites over the years. By a large majority, the voters selected the green however, my father preferred the red, so the first Ambassadeur reels produced were red.' The visitors were asked to vote on a color, which we would then use in production. We displayed four different colors at the exposition: red, black, gold and green. In those days, ABU often participated in a Stockholm exposition, which was very well attended by the general public. We presented a variety of colour models and decided to let the sport fishermen choose which color they preferred. Since the Ambassadeur was made of aluminum, it suddenly became possible to manufacture reels in different colors. 'Until this point, all reels had been either nickel- or chrome-plated. Here's how Len Borgström tells it in his book ABU and Garcia: What Happened? (p. The story of the black version begins with a trip to Stockholm to test consumer preferences with respect to color.

The first units were produced in 1951 or 1952, marketing began in the Autumn of 1952 and the reel was first cataloged in 1953. As many will know, the Record Ambassadeur 5000 was designed by Åke Murvall, starting in the late 1940s. Some of these black record 5000 reels were among the very first Ambassadeurs ever produced, so I'll try to piece together some of the story. Notes the following in regard to the Black Record 5000

My friend Espen Olav Sjaastad from Norway,

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