Thanks Andrew,
If you dont mind me asking, what does your source in Singapore charge per blank? Very interested in getting my hands on a few of the Seeds.
As far as United Composites goes, i've had a bittersweet time in dealing with them. Last year i ordered 4 of the 10' buttjoints 100XXH2J. It took them 6 months to get them to me after i had been promised about a dozen times that i would get them in "two weeks". Then once they finally came in, none of the joints fit remotely close to acceptable. The ferrules weren't built uniformly and the blanks just rattled around in them. I sent them all back, and then it took another 2 months to get my replacements. One of which was perfect, the other two still were unacceptable. Then finally after sending them back again, i received my blanks that were fit properly. UGH, what a nightmare!
But after all that, i have to say that the blanks are some seriously nice products (once they got the ferrule corrected). The 100XXH is an animal of a blank capable of throwing and popping up to 220g lures (170g is sweet) . It will blast the biggest poppers you can find, which is rare for a 10' blank of any standard.
Once United releases their 7'10" blanks i'm curious to see how they perform. From what i have seen from them so far, i feel that they will weigh in a bit heavy, but have enormous power through the back 2/3 of the blank.
What i am most impressed about with the United Comp line, is that the blanks have completely no detectable spine! Which should translate to uniformity of stress distribution throughout the blank = less breakage under high load. After building and handling hundred and hundreds of blanks, this is the first company i've seen that has produced a blank without a detectable spine. COOL!
Also interested in getting my hands on a Phenix Titan popping blank. Supposed to be a PE10 rod with a carbon/kevlar material made in California, USA.