What's stronger? Guide wrapped with heavy thread such as "E" with fewer turns or smaller thread such as "A" with more turns?

Depends what you mean by "strength." You wouldn't be able to pull either off the blank. The one area where we don't have to worry about weakness is with our guide wraps.

The only advantage to using something like "E" thread, is that by virtue of it being thicker, it will withstand more abrasion on heavy duty rods when smaller diameter thread might be cut through if it's abraded enough in very heavy use. But "D" is really the limit as to how large you'd ever need to go.

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Martin,

In my opinion, lightness equals senstivity when building rods. This of course applies to finesse rods like lighter freshwater rigs, not heavy surf and boat rods. With that in mind, I'd always go with the lightest thread I can use, D weight on heavy musky rods and A weight on the rest. Similarly, I try to keep the epoxy layers thin as well. I put it on thick enough so the individual turns of thread don't poke through but not heavy enough to form those "footballs" on the smaller guides.

As Tom said in his reply, the guide wraps are not the weak point in a rod. The tip guide takes the brunt of the torque, friction heating, and general wear and tear. When a gide wrap fails, it is usually because of owner abuse, like over flexing the rod, stepping on it, or using the butt guide as a hook keeper and loosening it up.

Anyway, lighter is always better in my opinion.

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