As we know, the early 33 reels made by Blue Grass Reel Works were the 33G (tophat in German Silver), 33A (tophat in Aluminum) and the 33 takeapart with the Carter Patent Pending marking. After the lawsuit by Milam, the Blue Grass Reel Works was folded into BF Meek & Sons, and the 33's were marked Bluegrass Reel made by BF Meek & Sons. Later versions evolved to BF Meek and Sons #33 Blue Grass. If you counted all the 33 versions from that perspective, I counted 6, if you consider the 33A and G to be different. I now see that there are 7.
I was not aware that the nickel-plated brass reel came in two versions, the first one being the Blue Grass Reel Works 33 and the second being the Bluegrass Reel made by BF Meek and Sons. For whatever reason I had not closely examined all the NPB reels enough, and I just assumed they were all the same. In my defense (my shortsighted one), this is a scarce reel being only made a few years and secondly, many examples are in poor shape, since the nickel plating wasn't very good and I probably passed many up.
The third version of the takeapart #33 would be the Carter Patent German steel model without the thumbrest and with no printing on the tailplane. This rather oddly marked reel sometimes goes for quite a penny since it is also pretty scarce. I am not sure when they added the thumb rest since these reels are not serialized, but they don't show up that often and if you need one they are hard to find.
These budget minded reels are still reasonably priced in the market and worth a spot on your shelves if you like the Kentucky reels but are on a budget. I have always collected variations and tried to complete the series, and for now, I think I have.
