How Many Is To Many?

[Heelman99]

Curious to see what everyone thinks is to many guides on a 7 ft 9 in Med Heavy Power Fast Action rod blank? Normally I go with 9-10 guides.

[willwork4fish]

Eh, really depends on a lot of things. 10 should be fine with the guides on top if you space them right. Like a rod you're going to use 90% of the time for pitchin/flippin you can put the stripper guide further from the reel and get away with less guides that way (like you can do 24 or 26" if you want...some people will say nooo you shouldn't do that but take a look how far stripper guides were away on telescoping flip stick way back when, they pitched just fine)...you could probably get away with 8 that way. If found that if you want to do that use a little bigger stripper like a size 12 (maybe 10) ring. You can also usually get away with less guides if you build it spiral.

Are you looking to put fewer guides on to reduce weight?

[Ryan]

Spiral wrap it and use even less.

[Heelman99]

Thanks willwork4fish. As far as mounting the guides in a spiral formation, I don't think so. Here is an idea thrown to me at this years ICRBE in Winston-Salem, NC. After installing split grips, reel seat, and hook holder I'll have 77"from front of reel to tip top. Starting at stripper guide 13", 18", 24", 29", 35", 39 1/2", 44" , 47 1/4", 51 1/2", 54", 57 1/2", 60 1/2", 63 1/2", 66 3/4", 70", 73", Tip Top. Damn 16 guides, but when rod is placed in a loaded position and guides placed at the listed positions the line doesn't make contact with the rod.

[willwork4fish]

So am I reading it right? Your stripper is going to be 13" from the reel seat, the 5" to the 2nd guide, 6" from the 2nd to 3rd, 5" from the 3rd to 4th and so on? Making your spacing between guides starting from the stripper 5, 6, 5, 6, 4.5, 4.5, 3.25, 4.25, 2.5, 3, 3.25, 3.25, 3.25, 3, tip? Honestly that just seems kinda weird to me and unnecessarily close together. All that being said, 90% of what I build spirals so maybe I'm just not thinking about it from the right point of view.

[clearwater]

I always add 1 more guide to the length of the blank. If it's a 7' blank I will use 8 guides. If you are using Mico guides add 2 or the 3 extra guides

[Bassbme]

Heelman, realize that I am simply asking a question ... are you sure you understood exactly what the person suggesting that spacing, was saying, and that you wrote it down right?

I only ask because as will kind of said without saying, that spacing makes absolutely no sense ........... It's a casting rod, once you set up the position of the butt guide (stripper guide) you can pretty much space the guides using static loading. You want to space your butt guide from the face of the reel, and 13" is wayyyyyy too close. You should be looking in the range of at least 21". Even though I don't personally place them this far out, but you could go as far as 24 from the face of the reel if you want to.

After that use static load to place the remainder of the guides. If you don't want the line to touch the blank, just use enough guides so it doesn't. The size and type of guides you use, and what position the different types of guides are in, is going to play into how many guides you end up with. The power and action of the blank are going to play into how many guides you use. And your preference in the path your line follows in relationship to the blank are going to play into how many guides you use.

16 guides on a 7' 9" rod may not be too many if everyone of your guides are low framed micro guides, and if they are, a low framed micro guide a mere 13" from the reel seat is NOT going to work well at all.

[pearlandtexan]

http://anglersresource.net/StaticLoadTutorial.aspx

take a look at this.......I was also at the icrbe this year. What did I you think about it?

[Heelman99]

http://anglersresource.net/StaticLoadTutorial.aspx
take a look at this.......I was also at the icrbe this year. What did I you think about it?

Guys I read the note from anglers resource and to me it sounded a bit complicated so I reverted to my old method of finding and locating guide placement. I placed the guides 180* from spine. I placed the blank under a load by running line from reel to the tip attaching to a 1# weight. I then placed each guide starting 13" from face of reel to tip so to not let the line contact the rod while rod under load. With this 7'9" rod and 63" of length to place guides. The spacing from tip to the face of reels are; Tip-3"-3"-3 1/2"-3 1/8"-2 7/8"-3 1/4"-3 5/8"-3 1/2"-3"-3 1/2"-4 1/4"-5 3/4"-5". From the tip to face of reel are 10 guides with 04 ring size then 2 guides with 06 ring size then 1 guides with 07 ring size. Have used this rod casting A Rig and pitching a 3/8 oz jig & Pig with casting and pitching results. Now, as suggested, removed three of the running guides which may improve the performance of the rod.