i am new to making rods and i dont know what guides are the lightest. i think they are the titanium framed ones right? i want to know what guides and what size of guides i need for a 6'1 light action scII rod. it came as a 6'6 but i cut down 5 inches.
im also using a BPS Pro Qualifier 1000 reel for it. the spool on this reel is wider than most 1000 reels. its actually as wide as a 2500 reel.
i want to make this rod as light as possible ofcourse, and im using flourocarbon so i dont think i need high quality inserts on the guides.
any thoughts would be appreciated! thanks!

I just built an ultra light rod this weekend using our A-Frame NCA guides on a 6' 1pc . Our Titan Spinning Guides are the same height, so it should work well for you too.
I ended up using sizes 25,16,10,8,7,6. I did some test casts last night with a little shakespeare microspin reel and I was very happy with the results.
If you are interested, the model number on our Titanium Guides would be NIA.
Let me know if i can help in any way.

Chase Foster
American Tackle
www.americantackle.us

Miles,
If I were you I wouldn't spend a lot of money on guides if this is one of your first few builds. Use less expensive fly guides as running guides because they are light and not expensive. Use plain spin guides from Batson's or American Tackle so you can order extra sizes and do a better job doing the static gude placement. I built an ultralight a couple of years ago and used titanium guides that cost much more than the blank and the rest of the components. After getting a better understanding of the static guide placement I now think I did't do a very good job on placement and even though the rod casts very well, I now would have done it differently with possibly better results.
If your reel has a wider spool then your choker guide location is going to be well up the blank. I don't know if this will be a problem for you but it might be something to consider.
Since you are new to making rods the best thing I can suggest to you is to order the several different issues of RodMaker, if you don't subscribe, that deal with guide placement and pracitce the technique until you get it down. The library link also has some good stuff about guide placement as well.
Hope this helps!
Lynn

Okay well it sounds like i will just go with the fly guides idea and use the 25 16 10 8 7 6 sizes. the titanium guides are really expensive and thats why i was hesitant on buying them. i bought the scII as a kit through mudhole but the guides it came with seem really heavy. i have done some snooping online and know that there are better options, like the fly guides mentioned. Thanks!

If you build spinning rod ,for your rod the best guide are match guides model"M"

Miles, if you must change them out ... look at Fuji Alconite guides. Available down to 4mm fly guides. They are great guides and very reasonable. Anything past that is overkill and would be a bit mismatched on an entry level blank (SC2).

I would suggest you consider building the kit "as supplied". You have plenty to learn at this point and there is no need IMO to spend a whole lot on the first couple of rods. Take your time, wrap and rewrap, make your mistakes and have your successes. At this juncture, learning technique is MUCH more important than the components involved.

well i got the alconite guides. They were not to badly priced.

Alright, I put the guides on the rod with surgical tubing to do the static placement thing, and it went good. When I look at the rod, though, it doesn't look right. With the bottom two guides being spinning guides and the others being fly gudies. the jump from the spinning guides to the fly guides seems like it will dampen my casting distance. the spinning guides have a long arm and the fly guides have no arm at all. I got the 25 and 16 size spinning guides and then the 10, 8, 7, and 6 size fly guides. It may just be me looking at the rod. I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing before I epoxy them. Thanks.

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