In a recent review of the KLX 7' Medium, The folks over at Tackle Tour had some great things to say about one of Kistler's latest Made in the USA rods. As always, Tackle Tour puts products through the paces of field testing as well as exhaustive lab testing. The great news is that Tackle Tour has awarded the KLX 7' Medium (KLXBBC70M) their Best Value Award. Here is an excerpt from the review.
Are you familiar with the adage in reference to certain ethnic cuisines that you can only have two of three things: good; fast; or cheap? In the current market for bass rods, if you're searching for a rod that retails for under $200, the same principle applies but of course, the factors are different: 1) good, proven components 2) a solid blank 3) built in the United States. In November of 2012, we previewed a rod line by one manufacturer that promised to change that paradigm. Today, we take a closer look at one of the rods in that lineup. Here now is our review of Kistler Custom Rod's KLXBBC70M (7'0" medium).
Quality/Construction: The KLXBBC70M is a one piece, seven foot (7'-0") medium powered rod. It features a sanded, but unfinished blank. Our review specimen was very clean. The split rear grip is a good grade of cork with little to no filler to hide the natural gaps and pits in the material. Aside from the split rear grip, it's actually a very old school style wrap with rubber or plastic checks at the ends of the cork rather than the decorative aluminum rings. There is a foam butt cap and matching foam hood over the reel seat mechanism. Overall, it is a very simple and very clean build.
Looking down the rod's length from butt to tip, alignment of the blank and guides is very good although admittedly, I had to strain a bit to dial my eyes into those micro guides. As mentioned previously, the blank is unfinished so there's no where to hide irregularities in the graphite material, but fortunately our review specimen had none. Epoxy was used sparingly with no excess build up around the guides.
