Hi guys, I need some encouragement to give me the confidence to take the plunge and break with tradition.. I’m very seriously thinking of doing a spiral wrap-its for a deep jigging rod. It’s a Jigging Master Terminator 400g blank, only 5’ 8” long mostly being used in 150 meters plus of water for dogtooth, amberjack, groupers and snapper, using 50-80lb braid with jigs that average over 300g. The reel will be an Avet JX 2speed. I’m hoping of course that every fish will be of dream stature and allow me to take the rod to its limits.
I have never seen an acid wrap in real life, let alone handled one, so I have to take your encouragement with blind faith. The literature and writings that I’ve seen on the spiral wrapped rods inform me that this project is probably very well suited to this type of build and I shouldn’t regret my efforts. But !!!
There is the simple, slow, and Forhans “revolver” build style and then there’s guide patterns and sizes that I should consider, apart from the guide spacing to maximize the power of the blank and distribution of the load on the blank-and its this last aspect that really holds me back.. My logic gives me the feeling that there will be a week spot of load distribution at the guide’s transitional area on the rod. This region of the blank will be under some considerable stress when fully loaded with 30-50lbs plus of lift.- this blank is supposed to be able to dead lift 27kg !!! I don’t know that I want to do that, but I know I can handle 25kg if I had to as I have done that, but that’s about my limit. However I do expect to put some beef behind the rod if my fishy dreams are to be realized and I max out the drag on the JX.
So my questions would be; what style would best suite this type of rod, a simple, slow or revolver style. What guides should I use, and what sizes and how do I space them correctly.
I do have a set of Fuji MNSG guides that I bought for this originally, but the 16 is not there, and in three months I have not been able to get one when I have put an order together-all has to be shipped in from overseas so I need to get a good sized order to offset the shipping costs to the Philippines. This is the fact that woke me up to the “Acid wrap” possibly being very suitable for this project, and that given my predicament of finding a 16 guide, then mabe I can take a leap of faith and benefit from the situation by doing a spiral wrap. I may be able to step from a 20 down to a 12 and on to 10’s without needing the 16 and have the correct guides !…20’s, 12,s and 10’s I have !
And finally, will building this as a spiral wrap get the best out of this blank ?
Earl Hamilton.

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This sounds like my exact project I am working on currently. I was given a friends broken production rod from which all I did after looking it over was scavenge guides. My rod is MUCH lighter however so I do not know about the stress you may be causing to the blank. The blank I am using is a 12-20# blank with which I intend to fish 15-20# line. It however still is my first spiral wrap. I went with a 0-60-120-180 style wrap in a relatively short space, but not so short to inhibit casting performance. I ended up with all 4 of those guides in a 20" section with the first 180 being about 8" off the 120. It looks weird but the blank I am using is a Med-Fast Action so what intended to do was try to get the line around before the main bend/action in the rod occurs. I am still playing with it a bit, but what I have now performs quite well. I like to fish for big powerful fish like AJs on light tackle. Another reason I would like an Amberjack to be the first fish caught on this rod is that it will test the performance of the rod I built to the maximum limit.

Use the Simple Spiral and you won't have to deal with any transitional area. There are no transition guides in the system and the spacing of the first two guides is not changed by the addition of the bumper guide. It was designed for rods such as you mention and you will reap tremendous benefits from it.

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Check out my posts on the Sprial demo just below here.
I have been using spiral wraps for deep jigging for a long time and once you wrap one of these you wonder why, except for tradition and tradional looks, you did not do it years ago. You are on the right track of setting your guides to match your rod blank and that is no different on a spiral. My favorite jigging blank is a GUSA mag 7 foot and I used a Fuji Silicon Carbide heavy boat guide size 20 for the first guide at 21 1/2 inches from from the reel seat at 12 degrees, 2nd guide, a 16, at 168 degrees, 3rd a 12 at 180 degrees and so on.
I have also started wrapping new rods with the single foot boat guides from Fuji and they are even better with rods showing a lot of flex. (LBSG's) If you choose to do that, make sure you use a double Forhan Locking wrap.

If you have 20's, 12's, and 10's then you have enough for a spiral.
I'd suggest playing with the config and spacing a bit by taping or velcro'ing the guides and stress testing. Do it with the line and reel you plan to use.
As Tom said, with the Simple you have no transition guides, but you do have a transition area.
Try this in a mock-up:
* do distribution tests to nail down the 2nd 180 thru tip guides
* With reel mounted and full spool, run the line thru all the guides, including the stripper, bumper and first 180 with will be loose.
* Holding the line down in the bottom of the 2nd 180, slide the stripper to the position where the line contacts the ring, and tack down the stripper there
* Positioning the 1st 180 you can play with a bit. Start by spacing it from the 2nd 180 about the distance there is between the 2nd and 3rd 180 guides. Then start doing static distribution tests to see where you can position it to load earliest and not end up too far from the stripper.
* To position the bumper, mark where the line crosses the blank under minimal load and then again fully loaded. Bumper should fall between those two marks. Can play with it a bit, but try positioning the ring right between the marks you made, and with the rod half loaded, put it at the angle where the line is pressing it directly into the rod.
* Then go back and static test the who thing and see what you think.

From the guides you have, you can try a few different configurations:
20 stripper, then all 10's for the rest (should be good)
20 stripper, then 12's and 10's (will have the most trouble loading the ist 180)
20 stripper then 10 for first 180, then 12 for second 180, then 10's on out (try it,,, I think you will find the 1st and 2nd 180 guides load a bit more linearly, rather than sequentially)

Thanks guys for the tips and encouragement-I will have a go.
Earl Hamilton.