I'm a full time freshwater striper hybrid guide. I am about to build 6 livebait casting rods using Lamiglass SSP-844, 7 ft, glass blanks.Guides are fuji, low profile casting . I recently read a thread here wherin they touched on the subject of guide feet rubbing into the fibers of a blank if no underwrap is used. Can I receive the ultimate and definative conclusion on this? These are working rods, no frills. 8 guides per copy. I was not planning to underwrap. Bottom Line? Thanks Cap'n

The guide feet will not harm your blank. If they did, the millions of factory rods out there (and which have pretty lousy guide prep) would all fail pretty quickly.

But, it is important that you bend/align the feet so that they sit flat on the blank. And, you do not want any sharp edges or burrs from the shaping operation to contact the blank. Use enough thread tension to hold the guides snugly, but not too tight. You should be able to just move the guides with some moderate pressure in order to align them after wrapping. If they won't move or you have to really put a lot of effort into getting them to shift, you're too tight.

I have removed damaged guides that I put on hard used rods years and years earlier, and once you clean the blank off, you cannot find any hint of marring or otherwise. Smooth, flat feet won't harm your rod blank. Poorly prepped feet can and often do harm blanks, underwraps or not.

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Case closed! Thankyou Tom.