Simon Lush
Senior Member
Apart from the red slash on the badge they are identical Mike.
I had at one time 4x 54s, 5x 55s and two 57s, some had garcia badges, some didn't and a couple were hand built from spares in the ABU factory after they went out of production, quality and component wise they were all on a par, ABU bought Garcia i believe, thats why they added the Garcia logo to the company, all were built in Svangsta factory in Sweden.
Steve, 82 models were late ones !! think the first ones were 78 or 79 from memory.
If you want inferior ones then the 154s are the way to go, they are garbage (for an ABU that is)
Oh, and there was a bewildering anti reverse thing,most early ones made a noise, some were silent and some went round so the line was always deposited at the top (for spinning i was told).