Like Gary said the Veritas is a pretty good rod for the money, but if it was me and with your budget get yourself into a Sonik or AFAW, I have a Sonik Continental and its just an absolute beast, I am told the AFAW are even better. As far as the backup is concerned Mark has looked after me well, even to the point one day I broke the top section while fishing (my fault) gave the guy a call while I was fishing, and he sorted me out with a replacement under warranty, no questions asked, cant get better than that.