many moons ago (20 yrs) i bought 3 -Loomis 661 UL blanks , i built myself, Matthew and my Buddy Rick all a nice UL.. i have broken mine twice but still use it .. Matthew snapped his into about 5 years ago.. sent it back to Loomis andfor 50 dollars they sent me a factory built GL3.. now there is no comparison in these 2 rods,, I'll take my 20 year old blank over the new one any day... way more sensitive than the newer one