My first adventure in to Micro-guides and Spiral wraps was nothing short of extraordinary! I was utterly impressed with the performance of these little buggers, and the weight savings that they allowed. The entire guide set weighed .9 grams!!!
The simple spiral also amazed me at how easy it was to arrange and tie, and how well it did what it was supposed to do.

For this build I used Fuji Alconite Guides in the single foot fly (BLAG). The first guide was a size 7; placed at 0*. The bumper guide was a size 6, and was placed on the left side of the blank at 270*. The first 180* guide was a size 5, and the running guides were all size 4. I ran these to a Fuji TFST 5.5 tiptop.

I have not fished with this rod for a months, or even weeks. I have only fished with it for about 12 hours. The little time I have spent with it has shown me that micro guides do not affect casting distance, or casting accuracy. The reel that I mounted to the rod for its first time out is a Pflueger President Wide Spool with 50# PowerPro. The micro guides and simple spiral performed flawlessly with this combination. I was able to flip a jig to a pin-point location, or cast a spinnerbait upwards of 100 feet.

Thanks to those of you who shared your experiences and knowledge with the rest of us. Without your willingness to share I would have never have experienced my new favorite rod. I think it is awesome that you all are willing to share this knowledge and that you don’t feel the need to keep it to yourselves. The industry can only grow if builders such as us continue to feed it ideas.
This will not be the last time I use this setup on my own casting rods, and I will certainly recommend it to customers in the future

Thanks again!
Brian Morrow

Glad to hear it works well for you. From the photos I can't tell if you have a Simple Spiral or a single 90 degree transition spiral. The distance between the ) and 180 degree guides isn't plain to see. Both will work, but with the latter you will have some side load on the 90 degree guide.

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I placed the bumper guide at 90*, exactly half way bewteen the 0* and 180* guides. I thought it was the simple spiral I was doing... but if not, the name makes no diffrence. I still performs very well.

Tight wraps!

How far apart are the 0 and first 180 degree guides? If they're less than about 9 to 11 inches, or so, (Bumper falls 4 to 5 inches between those) then you have a Simple Spiral with a Bumper guide that will keep the line off the blank but not experience any side loads.

If those first guides are farther apart than that, you have a single 90 degree transition system. It also works well, but the guide at 90 degrees will carry a side load. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's something that the Simple Spiral dispenses with by not requiring any transition guide/s.

These 2 systems may seem similar, but in reality, they're quite different.

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Glad to hear you had a good experience with it.

Joy Dunlap in Destin Fl was the first person I saw use a single 90 transition style spiral wrap. It does good but on heavier rods that guide can twist out of place. This would be worse when used with a single foot guide. For that reason the simple spiral might be a better choice on a rod that you think will have a lot of pressure put on it beause there is no load on the 90 degree guide. It may not matter with a bass rod.

I I have rebuilt a handle for an old fibergalss "fly rod" an about to install the reel seat. Question: does it make a difference which way the threaded end faces, toward the tip or toward the butt end?

Reggie,

What you're referring to is an "up-locking" or "down-locking" configuration.
To the best of my knowledge it is all a personal preference, and will have little if any effect on the finished rod. It all boils down to what you, or your customer wants.

Tight wraps!
Brian