I currently am building a 9.5' spinning rod. That said, I also just finished reading the article on guide placement in the latest edition of RodMaker. Having just done the math on spool face diameter to 1st choker guide my numbers look like this.

Diameter of spool: 47mm
Distance from spool face to 1st choker guide 47x27=1269mm or 1.27 meters (36.5")
Length of handle to centerline of reel seat 12.5"
Length of reel centerline to spool face 2.5"

36.5+12.5+2.5=51.5"
Length of rod in inches = 114"

114-51.5=62.5" tip top to first choker guide from butt of rod

Guide every 4"= 62.5 / 4 = 15.63 guides needed
Guide every 5" = 62.5 / 4 = 12.5 guides needed

My first thought was, "That's a lot of guides!" I rechecked my figures and reread the article and came up with the same numbers.

One of 2 things has happened. Either I've made it through life not really knowing how to follow directions with lousy math skills, or the article wasn't designed for extra long rods and I will need to spend a lot of bucks for choker guides.

Help me out guys. (Ladies also). I don't know how much more the wall can take from me beating my head against it.

darby

Darby, If you do a stadic test you might get rid of a guide or two. I just did a 9' spining rod and used 11 guides not including the tip top. I might have gotten by with 10 but I didn't want to take a chance for what I'm using that rod for.

Terry

Darby I use 11 guides on both the 1 power and 3 power 9 1/2 ft spinning rods. I haven't tried the new math, I just lay it out new concept + static distribution.

You just didn't read closely enough.

The choker guide should be located about 49 or 50 inches from the face of the reel spool.

From there on out to the tip, use the same sized guides. Per the article guidelines, you can space the guides on heavier type rods farther apart than 4 or 5 inches each - according to the article "6 or 7 inches apart." And you can space them in a progressive fashion if you wish, but if you do so you will want to do a static distribution test on that portion of the rod to make sure you don't have any too far apart.

On a 9.5 foot rod, you should end up with about 11 guides total.

...................

No disrespect towards Darby is intended in what I am about to say next. And... he did the right thing; reading the article and then coming here for support and confirmation. However, the series on guide placement is in the "Beginner's Corner" and cannot cover every possible scenario that might be encountered at either extreme. We hope that folks who might run into such extremes can back up and take a look at the big picture and make slight adjustments or adaptations to enable them to do what needs to be done in those rare but occasional situations.

For whatever it might be worth, if Darby had put guides at every 4 or 5 inches, the rod would indeed work just fine, but it would most likely have had to carry a few more guides than it really needed. The text of the article mentioned that on heavier rods you may place the guides about 6 or 7 inches apart and this would be the tact to take when you have such a long rod that falls outside the criteria given for number of guides normally needed for a particular length rod. I probably should have added that the same would hold true for very long rods. I erred in assuming that most folks would figure this out on their own.

Static spacing of the running guides was not discussed in that article in order to make it more simple for the intended audience. But as previous articles on the NGC in RodMaker have mentioned, you can indeed space the running guides in a progressive spacing fashion if you wish. If you choose to do so you will want to run a static distribution test to ensure that you still have enough guides. Using the equidistant method for placement of the running guides, there is no need to perform the static test as it is very unlikely that you would ever have too few guides. But on very heavy or very long rods, you might end up with a couple more than you actually need.

This is the dilemma for every author that has ever penned an instructional article of any kind - cover every possible scenario and few will bother to read it, citing it as being "too technical." Make it simpler and provide a "paint by the numbers" approach and those whose project falls into an extreme just outside the information provided will feel lost.


.............

I will reread again. To me it was evident that I missed something but I just didn't know what. Thanks for the input on this.

d

Darby,

Take a look at your unit conversions again. 1 meter is a little over 39 inches, so 1.27 meters would be 50 inches.

With the change, you would have 114 - 65 = 49.

That might help get you a little more in the ballpark that you expected.

Joe

That will certainly help. And, something else that is forgotten is that you have a tiptop and a choker guide at either end of the remaining length, so drop two of the guides you thought you needed right there.

With 49 inches to span, and even using a 5 inch equidistant spacing, you'd only need 9 running guides to cover the distance.

Trust the articles, but do read them and figure your distances correctly. At least you won't need to bang you head on the wall any further... today.

................

I essentially set up my guides as follows:
These would be for a spinning rod.
For the first choker guide, I typically put it at 20 inches. A bit closer in a shorter rod and perhaps up to 24 inches in a longer rod.
Then, I tend to throw away the ruler.
I grab a roll of tape and deflect the rod. I make sure that I have one guide located at the spot of initial deflection near the tip.
Then, for most spinning rods, depending on how fast the tip is: I will put one or two guides in front of the first bend.
Then I will start going back toward the butt of the rod, increasing the bend in the rod to find the logical bending points.

Years ago, when I first started making rods; I used many more guides than were really needed.
Today after building rods for many years; I use many fewer guides than I used to use.

Recently I completed a 10 foot spinning rod - that was based on a medium action steel head blank. This blank is a bit unusual, since the first 1/2 of the rod is extremely stiff. For my particular application, this suited my needs perfectly. However, it did make for a slightly unusual guide spacing.

Beginning at the butt of the rod and measuring from the center of the reel seat; the guide spacing is as follows:
24 inches, 20 inches, 14 inches, 13 inches, 11 1/2 inches, 9 inches, 5 1/2 inches, 5 1/2 inches, 5 inches --- then the tip.

For this particular rod, these 9 guides do an excellent job in carrying the line and loading the rod. I also used slightly oversized guides on the first two guides to help with the casting distance.

-------------
Summary -
Take any blank, bend the blank and began putting guides where the bends occur. Increase the bend to pick up more of the blank, and add guides as necessary to distribute the load to the blank.
In general, you are better off with one or more fewer guides than necessary. Too many guides dampen the action, make the rod tip heavy and due to increased line drag, impede casting distance.
In general, the distance between guides should increase as you go from the tip to the butt. This simply follows the normal increasing diameter and power of the blank as you go from the tip to the butt.

Take care
Roger

Roger,

I think you're on a different page than we are. You are almost surely using the term "choker" instead of "butt" guide, which is what I think you mean. I can see putting a butt guide at 20 inches, but locating a choker at 20 and then having to put another 2 or 3 between that and the reel is going to be very hard to do.

I don't know exactly what you mean by "oversize." The trick is to use guides that are the correct size. Anything over or under that isn't going to work as well.

................

My 9' spinning rod has 8 guides plus tip and the measurments are from center of reel seat to first guide = 24.5", 13.5", 11.75", 10.5", 9", 6", 5", 4.5" Tip.

I spent a lot of time with this and still don't know if it is correct BUT this IMX rod casts like a rocket.

Does the distance from the reel to the first guide, a 25mm, seem to much & TIA?

Not necessarily too far - does the line contact the blank on the cast just in front of that guide? If not, you're probably okay. I don't know exactly what method you used to set it up, but it appears you have a reasonable number of guides on there and if it casts well then you've likely done enough.

............

Thanks for all the input. No wonder my checkbook is off! I recheck the math and also reread the artcle until it is clear.


darby

You're on your way. Good fishing.

............