Hi,
I am building a 9 ft surf rod for fishing the beaches here in the Northeast. I was wondering if a spiral wrap would be good for this application, or just stick to the regular way. If the spiral wrap does apply the butt guide would be on the 0 axis and the next at 45 and the next at 90 and the rest at 180 or is there another way to do this. This is going to be used with a conventional reel and plugs from 1-3 oz and with about 7-9 guides.

I would go for the "Bumper" spiral wrap. It's so simple that it's scary! Do your guide placement in the normal way and then move all of the guides except for the Butt guide to the bottom (180) put a small "bumper" guide exactly halfway between the butt guide and the first 180 guide (it's only purpose is to keep the line off the blank so make it a low guide)

Works great!! Do a search here for bumper and select All Dates and you will get a ton of info on it!

Mike

The only rods I have wrapped so far been spiral wrapped with a bumper guide. They hold up well and fish beautifully.
My opinion would be to place all the guides, mount the reel with the line weight you intend to use and preload the rod with a quantity of weight that would simulate the rod under load.
For my blanks when loaded, the bumper guide did not fall exactly between the stripper guide and the second guide on the blanks that I chose to wrap, it was a little closer to the stripper guide. I think this is the result of the blank being a fast action that shuts off quickly towards the butt.
Experiment, play around with the placement for optimum distribution, you can get by with fewer and lighter guides.
I've had so many sceptics tell me that the tiny little # 6 bumper guide just isn't going to hold up because it won't take the load.....not true!! When properly located the force on the bumper is towards the feet and the center of the blank. It should not be under any torsion or torque.

My 2 cents worth

Curtis Beers

I find the easyest way after the handle and seat are on, I glue the tip on. Then run line though the tip from the reel, add a little weight. This will tell you where to put the guides