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I have some 8 1/2' South Bend rods that I like a lot.

The two immediately below are unmarked- I think my ID of them as South Bend is good, though, based mostly on the reel seats and the ferrules. They both have full wells grips, which I'm guessing puts them in between the South Bend Cross era and the Comficient Grip era. If anyone has any idea of the exact era or the model number, I'd be interested to know.

Just from eyeballing it, I'd say they use the same blank and taper- probably the same rod, different years- with the one on top being more recent. It looks to me as if there was a noticeable shift toward a more inexpensive cork grip and reel seat in the rod on top. And the ferrules, which look similar and are for all intents and purposes the same size, got the chrome plate treatment, which I gather was a fad with some production houses for a while. The rod on the bottom has a full nickel silver reel seat, and the cork is higher grade, with a lot less pitting. Both of them have noticeably swelled butt sections, although not as pronounced as a Heddon, they taper more gradually.







I've cast them both, and they're quite similar in action- on the fast side of medium, nice progressive action that starts loading right away, as soon as the leader and a couple of feet of line are out.

Below is the South Bend 346 for HEH line, which has much the same action, although it doesn't have the swelled butt taper of the rods above. Another 5 weight.







All three are very nice casting rods. I like the old one with the nickel silver seat the best, but as can be plainly seen, it's going to require a complete restoration before being fishable. The guides are too rusty and abrasive to be trustworthy. The newer swelled butt rod I've fished for enough hours that I feel very at home with it. I bought the 346 for HEH a while back because it was in nice near-mint condition, and I wanted to compare notes on it. I still prefer the newer rod in the top photos, with the full wells grip and the swelled butt taper, although I'm not crazy about the chromed up ferrules. But all three are fairly similar in how they handle line.