I'm going through the static guide placement for a 10' moderate action steelhead casting rod that I plan to simple spiral wrap. I already have 10 guides above the ferrule and just two below. Under a heavy load, the line just barely touches the blank at two spots roughly a foot and a half above the ferrule. But when I load test with the guides pointing down, I'm very happy with how the line follows the blank's curvature. Since this is how the rod will be used, (spiral wrapped, guides down), should I worry about the line touching the blank under load while the guides are up? I could add another guide, but 13 guides on a 10' med-light rod just seems excessive. Any words of wisdom?

You're on the right track. I'd take what you have now and flip them over and go with it. No need to add more guides. Flip them all except the butt guide, go back and add one low frame guide at 90 degrees, halfway between the first two and take it fishing. You'll love it. I think you have enough guides, for the very reasons you mention.

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It sure does seem like enough guides. Thanks for the help.

Lyman,
I would not worry about the line touching the rod in a couple of places if I were you.
The number and position of the guides should be mainly to uniformly distribute the stress that will be placed on the rod in use. In my judgment using enough guides so that the line does not touch the blank when the blank is at the max. deflection results in too many guides. The reasoning behind using enough guides and positioning them so that the line does not touch the blank was to insure that there would be no friction between the line and the rod. But if you think about it when the rod is at its max. deflection the line is not moving. The line starts to move when the rod starts to straighten when casting and when playing a fish. So if the line is not moving at max. deflection there cannot be any friction between the line and the rod.