If I had 2 identical 7' MH worm rods built with the same components except one being built with micro guides, and the other with a standard SS alconite fuji set with 1 double foot, and the rest single foot,...what would a ballpark weight difference in ounces between the 2 rods?
It won't be ounces, it will be grams.
I'll weigh both sets tonight for shits and grins. Call it 9 guides (size 8 double foot BLNAG stripper and 6mm BLAG's for the runners) plus a tip for the regular and 10 plus a tip for the micros. I know you said stainless but I think all of the LAG's I have at home are black.
I can tell you one thing with almost certainty. Assuming that both are set up correctly the one with the double foot stripper will cast better because it's higher off the blank. I don't like micro set ups for a lot of reasons but that's one of them.
A hodgepodge of 10 micros that I have for repairs is 1.7g and the regular set is 2.5g
So, probably not even 1/10 oz difference with them installed.
I have identical rods one with split handle winn grip, one with full handle carbon grip, and the carbon grip is lighter by 1/10 oz on my postal scale.
So .8 grams different = 0.02821917 ounces. Or about 1/35th of an ounce difference in the guides.
Even being identical set ups i bet you will see a weight difference not comparable to the guides. The other factors will be amount of glue, finish and to a lesser extent thread amount on each wrap will contribute different weights in grams. Even the other components will weigh different in grams from item to item sometimes. You could even see the heavier guided rod come in lighter because of the other variables.
Yeah, what DOC said. Every little bit makes a difference. I always try and build as light as possible but I pretty much draw the line at micros. Just don't like them. The smallest I go is 5's on a spinning rod and 5.5's on a baitcaster.
The smallest micros may be lighter, like I had said they were a bunch of different ones that I had in my misc. bin. Only two of them were the teeny ones I think the rest were 4's. My little Harbor Freight scale is finicky with super light weights too. All that being said there isn't much of a difference.
When I first started building rods I got too caught up in the weight of components and building rods as light as possible. This came often at the cost of some ergonomics of the rod. When you go to micros you can forget using braid to fluoro leader. Also up here in the north we get a lot of cottonwood and in early summer that builds up on your line and doesnt want to go through guides very well and the smaller the guide obviously the bigger the problem. I dont build many rods with a guide smaller than a 5 anymore for the reasons stated. If you are dead set on putting micros on make sure that you get ones with an extended foot.
1/10th of an ounce is 2.8 grams. The difference in the weight of the guides is less than 1 gram.Originally Posted by mossie3
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It's not as much the overall weight of the guide train, as it is where the weight is in the guide train. Less weight in the running portion of the blank is going to increase sensitivity and rod responsiveness. That's where micro guides provide their advantage. That and better line control.
What I like about micro guides (I use 4.5's as running guides) is that with the same weight guide train, I can have the line's path follow the natural curve of the blank much closer than I can with say, a #6. The closer the line's path is to the natural curve of the blank, the more of the blank's power is used. It also has the benefit of helping to protect the blank during poor fish landing practices. Micro guides also normally have a shorter frame height, which helps alleviate some twisting of the blank in the running portion of the blank on a conventionally wrapped casting rod.
Micro guides aren't for everyone or every situation, but they do have definite benefits. Every rod I have built where I have used 4.5's as running guides, out cast any of my factory rods. Now that could be because of the micro guides, or guide placement, or both. The biggest difference I see in using micro guides on my casting rods versus a more factory type guide train, is on my flipping and pitching rods. The micro guides perform much better.
I also use micro guides on my spinning rods, but I doubt the micro guides are the reason for the huge increase in performance I see between a factory rod. The difference in the spinning rods is the KR concept that Fuji came out with. It is the bomb on spinning rods.
The answer to your question is the weight difference would be negligible. PacBay Minima 4.0 guides weigh .077gr while PacBay fx 6.0 guides weigh .27gr. Eight running guides would make a difference of 1.544gr total.
How would the two compare in feel, action, performance; different questions.
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