I was looking at a rod today while the Rod guides where still under tape nothing wrapped yet. on the layout they had pretty much included every guide in the spiral (6 or 7). Correct me if
I'm wrong here on my thinking. The intention of the wrap was to help relieve rod twist. It seems to me if I was to do a gradual spiral the complete distances of the rod I would be destroying the reasoning behind the wrap. I have always tried to accomplish my spiral in the first three guides from the seat. Is there an advantage or disadvantage in spiraling to whole rod?

Gulf Shores AL

Maybe and maybe not. With something like the O'Quinn wrap (slow spiral along the length of the rod), the line never turns any sharp corners. Surfcasters seem to prefer it. With the standard type Revolver wrap, you have something that is proven to work well in high power situations. It doesn't seem to affect casting for the most part, unless you're into the surf stuff with very heavy lines and shock leaders. With something like the Simple Spiral, you have no transition at all.

The bottom line is that different methods excel in different applications. The trick is in getting enough experience so that you know which one is best for which application.

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Tom K; With a progressive spiral from end to end like Tom W is describing;, I am visualizing a long twist in the rod when heavily loaded. Is this much of a possibility ??

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

No, once you put any decent load on it, it will flex along one axis. No twist. Try it for yourself.

Keep in mind that the O'Quinn spiral still has several guides on the 180 degree axis.

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I can see what your saying. This was the first of this type guide assembly I have held in my hands and it through me for a loop

Gulf Shores AL

I position my guides so that my runners are on the bottom or 180* when the blank shuts off.

The type of blank matters a lot here.

One of the reasons many builders, including me, prefer the O'Quinn spiral method for surf rods is that conventional surf rods, in both plugging and bait slinging varieties, are usually used with blanks on the heavy side (i.e. meat sticks), and the butt sections of these blanks are very stout, and bend very little under anything less than an extreme load. Because the section of the blank stays pretty straight most of the time, it gives you move flexibility, as a builder, to get the line to the bottom of the blank.

I'll give you a real-life illustration of this: I've been tinkering with a spiral on an American Tackle Viper 1089 blank for a few months; the finished rod will be a Big Wood Heaver, for throwing big wooden lures like pikies to stripers and blues in the surf. Because the blank is only nine feet long, I was unsure whether a spiral would be a viable option for this - I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough distance between the reel and the tip top to configure a gradual, O'Quinn-type spiral setup, and for the reasons Tom said, I've found that the quicker-transition methods, like the simple spiral, don't work as well on surf rods.

But in fiddling with guides on this rod, I've learned that as long as you get the line underneath the blank on the section of the blank that bends the most, you're going to end up with a very stable setup when the rod is under load, when a 12-pound bluefish is taking your $35 pikie towards Portugal. In other words, the torque from the guides underneath the rod on the most flexible part of the blank is very large, and this torque will overpower the torquing effect of any of the other guides (180 guides, transition guides, etc.).

Tom K. is right: this is probably more of a theoretical problem than a real-world one. All the good spiral methods will give you a rod that is inherently steady when under load. It might not seem that way in your head when you think about it -- at least it didn't to me -- but when you actually try the setups, twist just isn't a problem. Do some experimentation with guide setups, and you should be pleasantly surprised that with a spiral, rod twist in the transition area just isn't something that you have to worry about.

Good post Tom W. That's been a question in my mind for some time.
I have only built Simple Spirals on 7' Med Hvy Cat rods and loved the way they performed.
Good explanation from Tom K and Chris.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY