I'll be ordering Dan Craft GF/P4-90-4/5 and I need to figure out what guides I need and their spacing. Does it make a difference what action the blank is? I've seen different charts for 4 piece 5 weights. Is there a specific chart for this blank?

Kevin,
Spacing charts will only get you to a good starting point. You will have to static, stress test your blank in
order to place the guides at their optimum positions. There are a couple of articles in the Library here
that will help with guide placement. Dan could also help with suggestions if you email or call him. He
provides excellent customer service! Wish I could be more helpful but I am unfamiliar with that blank
and your perameters.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Sounds like your using the Sevier Tigereye blank. Nice blanks. Most of your questions are explained in the library article above on static guide placement. Just tell Dan you want a set of guides for that blank, he won't steer you wrong. You should be able to get everything there. He carries far more than what is on his site.

Sizing and spacing isn't critical at all if you just want something adequate - something that will work okay. However, if you want the best casting performance and longevity from your rod, they become very critical. Almost anything will work to some degree (plenty of low end factory rods have terrible guide sizing and spacing and people use them on a daily basis around the world) but if you really want a rod that works extremely well you'll want to spend at least a bit of time figuring out where best to put the guides and how to size them. But as I said, almost anything will work okay - you'd be hard pressed to do anything that would completely stop the line from paying in or out.

..........

Try doing a search on that blank and see what others have put on. This way you have a good idea of what sizes to get even if you do not use them all.

IMO, guide spacing/size is what separates an "adequate" rod from a quality, high performance rod

Mike

Kevin,
The number of guides, their placement and their size and weight is mainly a trade off between rod performance and stress distribution and line control. The more guides you use the better the stress is distributed and the better the line control. On the other hand, the more guides that you use the more weight that you add and the lower the rods resonant frequency will be and therefore the lower the performance, particularly in terms of casting distnce and ease of casting. Also the fewer guides the better the rods sensitivity and feel will be.
As mentioned above the static distribution method is a good place to start. But I would not put enough guides on that the line does not touch the blank when at the maximum deflection. In my judgement this is too many mainly because when the rod is at its maximum deflection the line is normaly not moving. I would use as small a guides as practical to minumize weight and place them using the static method but so that at maximum deflection the line DOES just touch the blank.