I'm building an old Batson RX8 9'0" 3-weight in 2 pieces right now for a client. This of course is a long 3-weight (actually a low-powered 4-weight by the CC), so it's pretty willowy. And those old high-end Rainshadows were nice but never TCR fast anyway, so I mean to say that it's action is pretty moderate. It wants to bend most in the third quarter of its length.
Because this fly rod bends very little in the top quarter of its length, I have the tendency to pull the first snake away from the tiptop. Right now I have it set at about 6 1/4" from the tip, and looking at it right now, I could move it FURTHER from the tip. Now this seems to go against convention wisdom. Everything I've heard says set the tipmost guide between 4" and 5" from the tip, period.
I have the tendency, for fast action rods, to put the first guide closer to the tip top. On slower rods, I want to pull it away from the tip.
Also, on more moderate fly rods, I tend to have more distance between guides in the tip section, where the rod doesn't really bend, and less distance between guides in the mid sections. This seems natural to me. Where the rod bends most, it's neccessary to stack the guides close together, to close and reduce the angle that the line takes between guides.
The fly rod doesn't lie. It bends where it bends and that's it. It's all about making the fly line follow that curve. Or maybe I'm missing something.
Perspectives please,
Josh
www.markvanheirloom.com

No, I think you're on the right track. The only thing to add is that the flex profile of the rod changes as you apply more and more load to it. All blanks have a progressive action. As the load increases, the tip and mid areas continue to flatten out and the flex transfers to the mid and butts areas. This is one reason why the static guide placement article in the online library here advises spacing the guides according to three degrees of load. This covers the expected load and flex on each area of the rod in a progressive fashion. If you simply put a heavy load on the rod and work from there, you miss what's taking place during the cast or the initial phases of rod loading. For best results, it has to be done in stages.

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I've always done placement in stages as you suggest. Thanks for verifying my method.