Hello all,

I am looking for some advice on the lenght of my guide wraps as compared to the size of each guide. Is there any rule of thumb or formula to determine how far you should take your under wraps past the guide feet? For example if I wrap 1 inch past the foot of the stripper guide, should I shorten the length of the next guide etc as they taper up? Obviously you don't want to leave them standard all the way up the blank to the tip do you?

DO what you want. What I do is measure a predetermined distance off the double leg side of a 2 foot guide - say 5mm. THenI measure the distance of the entire guide wrap on that foot, say 25mm. I then make sure the single leg side is 25mm. Several guides have longer feet on the 2 leg side than the 1 leg, and you will endup with unbalanced wraps if you got 5mm off each foot. Then again, that mightbe what you like.

Over the years I have settled on just starting each wrap about 2mm off the end of the guide foot. I do this mainly to save weight but it does reduce your ability to express yourself in additional colors and trim wraps. At least on the guide wraps.

If you simply want to keep things looking good aesthetically, try starting a single mm off the end of the tip-most guide, then add a mm on each subsequent guide.

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What Billy said.

Also, I find that things change depending on the diameter of the blank. I generally use 10 wraps, the metallic band, then the guide foot. But at the tip of the rod I find 10 wraps visually looks much, much longer than the 10 wraps on the stripper guides. So on the top guides I drop down to 5 wraps, the metallic band, then the guide foot so things 'look right.' And I do it because that looks best to me and nobody can make me do it their way. It's my custom rod.

This particular rod is a 10' two-piece surf rod that has a pretty wide stripper guide. Is it easier or better to start at the tip and work towards the stripper guide? Like you guys mentioned to start and maybe add a mm each guide.

After grinding my guides I measure the guide feet and lay-out my wraps on a index card,adding a predetermined amount of underwrap I then have a visual list of the wrap sizes

Brad, you basically have two main ways to go. Either you add the same amount extra on each guide....for example, take the guide and tape it to the blank and then put a 1/4" piece of tape at each end of the guide. The outside edges of the tape will be the ends of the underwrap. If you start the guide wrap an 1/8" from the guide foot that leaves an 1/8" of the underwrap as a trim band. Or.....you measure the width of the guide and make the underwrap a certain percentage larger. To me that is a lot more work. If I have a lot of the same size guides I just add the 1/4". If I have something closer to old "cone of flight" the percentage route looks better.

If you are going to do a lot of trim bands and such it might be best to start the layout from the tip. Do the smallest guide with as narrow a trim band as you can handle and then you have the ability to increase their width as the guides get bigger. If you start off with a five turn trim band on the butt guide you may find it a chore to make single turn bands on the guides near the tip.

Keep in mind what Billy said.

The way I do this is to use a set of calipers. I set a distance from the end (tip/toe) of the largest guide foot that looks good to me (I know not very scientific) that will accommodate any trim bands or over wraps that I want to do. Lock the calipers and use the same distance from each successive guide foot. As the guides get smaller their "footprint" also shrinks and I am able to maintain a similar "pleasing" distance from the tip of each guide foot.

Hi Brad,

I vary the lengths according to type of rod. I mean that I tend to use slightly longer lengths for heavier fiberglass/composite saltwater rods and shorter for graphite spin/casting etc. I also consider the diameter of the blank as well as the different guides being used. Foot lengths on most guide trains don't have a completely uniform reduction in the foot print per size. This means I may have to accommodate with slightly longer lengths to have the uniform "look" I want. I prefer a visual gradual taper down to the smaller size guides. This being said, in the '80's my wrap off the end of the guide foot was extremely long as was the trend on saltwater rods in those days. I suppose it's all personal preference but now I prefer the shortest possible wraps. It's good to keep in mind that shorter guides, shorter wraps, less physical weight w/less thread and epoxy can better preserve the blanks original action and recovery on lighter rods.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

I start from the tip of the rod after all spacing is done. I will wrap the first guide from the top. Then wrap the tip top minus several threads. This is for looks. less thread less finish, less weight. As i go down the rod I measure each wrap buy adding some distance using a compose, with a pointer on each end. Maybe 4-5 threads, depending on the looks and taper of the blank.

Bill - willierods.com

Brian-Son told me U were looking 4 me. Can contact me at carolanddave1@live.com. Dave Dunlop

Thanks guy's! All of you have very good responses.