I'm planning a rod for my daughter-in-law for Christmas - She's an Auburn Fan (2-grand sons - she HAS to fish, right?) - I have the decal on order but would like to see some pictures of other Auburn theme rods - I'm thinking a 2-thread decorative gold band, a 8 or 9 band strip of Orange and dark blue foot guide rap.

If you know of a picture, please share - if you have some advise about making sure the colors stay true, add those.

Happy Thanksgiving and Thanks

With lighter colors on darker blanks, use NCP to keep the colors true.

Otherwise you can use regular nylon for more sparkle but you'll have to use color preserver to keep them bright. And again, on darker blanks the lighter colors need to be NCP if you want to keep the color just as it was on the spool.

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Not only do you need to use NCP, pack and burnish very well. IF you do both, your results will be nice. BTW, when I do team colors, I tend to "overdo" my wraps in respect to length. It allows the colors to really "pop" off the rod. For example, I am currently doing several team rods for a Christmas order ... here's my formula.

Example used will be all A sized Gudebrod:

Butt guide (30) = Main wrap Garnet NCP, Inlay wrap 12 revolutions White NCP, Trim band 24 revolutions Matte Gold Metallic
Next guide (20) = Main wrap Garnet NCP, Inlay wrap 10 revolutions White NCP, Trim band 20 revolutions Matte Gold Metallic
Next guide (12) = Main wrap Garnet NCP, Inlay wrap 8 revolutions White NCP, Trim band 16 revolutions Matte Gold Metallic
Running guides (8) = Main wrap Garnet NCP, Inlay wrap 6 revolutions White NCP, Trim band 12 revolutions Matte Gold Metallic
Tip = Main wrap Garnet NCP, Inlay wrap 6 revolutions White NCP, Trim band 12 revolutions Matte Gold Metallic

Doing the step down of band size creates a nice visual flow, IMO. You can try various ideas to get where things where you want them, but that's my approach to making the rod look sharp.

Remember to pack and burnish ... it is SUPER important in keeping that a dark blank from stepping all over good thread work.