I’m building my first rod using the New Concept Guide system and would appreciate some feedback. Rainshadow IST1084F Blank, Shimano Stradic 4000FH reel. It seems the angle of the reel spool stem is very sharp and my choke guide would end up very low on the rod (on the butt half of the blank) so I used the method of bending the blank 90 degrees to locate the choke guide.

Here is where I ended up for guide spacing (from the tip) 4, 9, 14, 19, 24 ¾,30 ½, 37 ½, 45, 54 and 71. This puts my stripper guide 19 inches from the reel face.

Guides BYAG 30, 16, 10, 7 BUNAG 7, BLAG 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 for a total of 10 guides plus a BFAT 7 tip.

Does this sound like a reasonable setup? It seems to cast pretty well and looks ok to me.

Thanks for your feedback, Roy

If it casts well, then it's okay. Remember to sight down through the butt guide and center the choke guide in the butt guide. What do the other guides inbetween look like? Do they each center within the preceding guide? Or do they form an up and down roller coaster for the line to travel through? The former is preferred over the latter.

It's fine if the choke guide in down on the butt section. Don't worry over this. In fact, I'd try setting the system up that way and casting it and see which one works better. What's an extra 10 minutes on a rod you're going to enjoy for many years.

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The guides are all concentric, this is how I arrived at the location for them (by looking down the row and adjusting them until they were). I think I will try setting it up with the actual intersect point and see how it works out. Thanks for the advice, Roy.

Sounds like you're on the right track.

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