I have been scratching my head and getting frustrated that I can not figure out why my guides on a 9 ft. 8 wt. SCII are making a chirping noise. When the rod is flexed or just shook it makes this noise. I did everything the same as all my rods that I have built but this one for some reason is doing this. With all my rods I use low temp hot melt glue to put my guides on. I slide them into place and press hard to push all the excess glue to the sides. Then I remove the excess with my thumbnail. That rod however seems to be different and the only thing that was different in building this rod were the guides. They were gold plated Pac Bay guides. I forgot to mention that I always use Flex Coat Lite on all my rods also. If anyone could give me some insight on this, I would be grateful. Also if you have had this happen to you please let me know. I just don't know what I did wrong if anything, and I do not want this to happen again. Thanks for your help.

Bill Foster

This sort of thing happens every now and again. If the naked blank did not make this noise (and some do because of paint or other debris on the inside), then the guides are the culprit. But not the guides themselves, actually. What happens is that epoxy finish will sometimes get around a leg or post and then detach. The leg or post moving within that little sleeve of epoxy will cause a squeak or chirp as you noted. Usually it goes away with some use or some very deep flexing. It should not be cause for alarm.

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Ok thanks...at least I feel a little better now. Do you think it would still make noise if I removed the guides redo them? I know that the rod didn't make any noise before I put the guides on. The reason I am thinking of redoing the rod is it might not sell if I makes noise.

use it as a marketing tool tell people its got a built in "fish caller" theyll flock to you for em

Try to determine which guide/s are the culprit and only remove those. Also, sometimes you can trim the epoxy on the guide leg with an Xacto knife and take care of the problem without resorting to removing and rewrapping them.

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One of the benefits of being an elderly one time heavy equipment operater is that is that I don't hear guides chirp so my rods never seem to have that problem.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"