My mind sees many things in 2 dimensions, not 3, and I'm struggling with the advice in posts, and the concept of maintaining a "straight line" from the reel seat to the last of the twisty guides. I'm not grasping the text everybody's using, as they describe the process.
How can a line be straight if it corkscrews, from 0-180 degrees? What did I miss? comprehension on this straight line thing is a looong way away, folks....thanks.
I'll be contacting R. Garbowski for a copy of the latest RM mag.... kd

Ken, you are right, it is not going to be perfectly straight since it has to go around the blank, but try inserting the tip of a thin blank through the spiral guides and see first hand. Have the back of the rod section touch the levelwind, and the tip go through to the first 180 degree guide. You will see that it can be a relatively straight line. There is a back issue of rodmaker that compares this method with a couple others you could order. The point of the straight line is to try to ensure that the line is redirected around the blank as gently as possible. If you have the blank through the guides, rotate the rod so that the spiral guides are now on the top and from that veiwpoint, the line will look straighter than when hold the rod in the normal position.

It doesn't really go around the blank, it just has to pass by it on one side. The spiralling of the guides does not have to spiral the line. You just want the line to move from the reel to the tip top in a fairly straight path. Line is very flexible - it will easily bend or curve a bit as it skirts to one side of the blank. You just don't want it to have to turn sharp corners.

......

Thanks, folks...I'm beginning to see how it goes. I'm trying my 1st mod this weekend, on a 6' -1-pce boat rod. kd

I had a little trouble with that concept at first until I changed from thinking the words "straight line" in referring to a spiral wrap meant like a ruler or straight-edge to meaning "as straight as possible".

The line has to change directions in two dimensions: Up and down (to get from the top to the bottom) as well as left and right (to pass around the rod). It has to pass around as least half of the width of the blank in order to go from the top to the bottom without touching the blank. This physically cannot be done in a straight line. The minimalists goal is to get the line from the top to the bottom with the least amount of deviation from a straight line as possible.

Try thinking "As straight as possible" and see if that helps the concept.

With the handle seat and reel on. Take the line, pull it to under the tip as if there is a top on it, or put the top on, take a look at the way the line WANTS to go.

Does describing it as a "smooth curve" or a "slight curve" or a "gentle turn" or "soft bend" help? Maybe saying "as reasonably straight as you can" helps. Whatever. Whatever it is, it is not absolutely-perfectly straight, from a mathematical / geometric view, and that's where the clash of views begins.

I'm going away now, because using slightly different views / definitions for descriptors on spirals and transition guides & zones generated a Thread on this subject over the weekend with over 70 Replies and 1000 Reads. I think I've recovered by now, ... but once was enough. -Cliff Hall, from la-la land in Utopia, Florida-

Have a shot and a beer Cliff. That will streaghten you out.

(BB - you were there for the whole wrangle yourself !)

Now I know why the other name for spiral wraps is "acid wraps." And when I see the acid roller rods, my head really spins. But like Mr.bb says, it ain't nothing that a little shot (or a nap) can't cure. My personal thanks and respects to Dean Veltman & Richard Carlsen for such a clear and cool-headed description of an easily misunderstood subject. "Relatively straight" (compared to a corkscrew !) is as close as my definitions will allow me to get to the vernacular of the acid-wrapper. And J.AkuHed is now laughing his head off, having confounded the confounders and newbies alike with enough double-speak to be one of the kings in this brave new world where:

the "cold-hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colours from our sight, so red is grey and yellow is white, but we decide which is right, and which is an illusion." *** ("If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"? "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" -The Who-) ... -Cliff Hall, from the Land of the Dazed & Confused (LZ), where curves are straight, and "almost" is close enough.-

** The Moody Blues -The Day Begins- from "Days Of Future Passed" 1967. [www.kaibab.org/moodies/mxdays.htm]