Castaway rods are still made in america. We the original series on up. The cheap ones are china i believe. Anyway to the question asked. The micro guide are great except for a few problems. If you fish in the winter and have ever had a problem with your guides icing then you want to stay away from micros because they are really bad. The other problem is if you use line with a lot of memory the coils will catch up in the guides and you will backlash more. the guides do make a rod lighter and more sensitive though.