Vince
That's a very impressive example of the ABU 6000 reel ,a 434 or 414 would be a great match for your reel

 

Appreciated John, at £45.00 I didn't haggle, I'm not sure of prices of old gear but the quality has to be better than anything bought new without spending silly money...I picked up an ABU 484 last week for a tenner. Hardly used but a couple of guides had been damaged in storage, an easy fix. I'll keep an eye out for the rods you suggested, hopefully a bargain will appear soon 😊

 

Excellent rod the 484 , for years i used it with the Mitchel 602ap. First class tip action and superb bite detection.
You will also notice a big weight reduction with the 434 or 414 , both brilliant rods.

 

I've picked this lovely little ABU 6000, it need a clean but from the serial number 020801, am I right in thinking it was made in 1972 (02) August (08) and it's a new model (01) ?

I think you will find on that one that the middle 2 give you the year - xx08xx - substitute the 0 for a 6 giving you 1968. The anoraks would back it up with features of the reel itself but the bulk of these 6000s were produced during the 60s. If it has 4 screws on the left plate it will be a 60s reel as ABU went over to a 3 screw design in the early/mid sixties.

This is from Fred Ribb's fantastic site

There are three types of lot number arrangements used to identify the month and year a reel was mfg 'd. They were used from mid 1964 into the 1980s. Identical lot numbers can be found on many reels within a given model. If you’re not sure the frame is stamped with a serial number or lot number, try breaking down your reel’s 6 digit number into 3 groups of 2 numbers each. As an example, lets use a known lot number of 73 09 02 or a random serial number of 71 13 09. Using the 3 types of date codes below, see if you can make the first two group of numbers represent a year AND a month. If you can not, it’s definitely a serial number. As far as I’m aware of, revision number “07” is the largest number carried throughout the 1970’s for an Ambassadeur reel and was issued to model 6000.

Earliest Lot Number

The earliest use of a lot number started in 1964, and is read quite differently than the second and third type codes. The 1750, 1750A, Abu 3000, Amb. 4000, 6000(C) 8000 and 9000 can be found with the earliest date code arrangement.

There will be 6 digits on the reel foot. An example might be 080400. Reading the numbers from left to right......The first two numbers of "08" are for the month of (August).....The third digit will always be a "0" indicating the number "6" for the 1960s decade. The fourth digit in this example "4" is the actual year of that decade, 1964. The last two numbers "00" would reflect the number of revisions made to the reel which are none in this example. Another example might be 120501. (12) December (05) 1965 (01) revisions.

How you read a lot number changed in 1970 with the second and third type date code. Now, the actual year "70" was used.

Second type: MMYYXX....month, actual year, revision. 1970~mid to late 72.

Third type: YYMMXX....year, month, revision. Late 1972 into the 1980s. (most common type).

Models listed here can be read by the third type: 1500C, 2500C, 4000D, 4500(C), 4600C, 5000 (A B C* D), 5001C*, 5500(C D), 5600C, 6000*, 6500(C), 6600C and 7000.

Asterisk * denotes the 5000C as starting out with serial numbers in 1966 when production started. Lot numbers for this model were available in 1971 and can be read by the second and third type date codes respectively. 5001C lot numbers can be read using the second and third type code respectively. The 6000 model was never stamped with serial numbers but is seen with all three lot number date codes.

 

@blakdog Much appreciated blakdog, there's three screws on the left side plate.

 

68 would seem correct then. Bear in mind that reels get altered and parts replaced so the only guarantee is that the cage was built as per the serial number ... the anoraks general check the rest of the reel's features to be sure.

 

just picked up an identical unit 050801 for $25 AUD a lot of cleaning needed but has come up beautifully, just caked on surface grime nothing more, fantastic condition