Tom Kirkman,
Can you say more about why you prefer a blank with a gentle bend in it. I have read where you have said this several times. I have been building rods for a lot of years and it has always been my preference to have a blank that is as straight as possible. It seems to me that an ideal blank would be perfectly straight and also have no spine so that where one places the guides is not a compromise. If I have had my head up my you know what all these years I would really like to know about it.
I would like to hear more about this from you or anyone else who feels as you do. Thanks

The ideal blank would have no spine, but I'm afraid that with all the various anomolies that are part of this labor intensive process and the other various manufacturing and material aspects, you can't expect to find blanks that don't exhibit at least some spine effect.

On the subject of straight blanks, I think you'll find that if you take a perfectly straight rod blank and then hang guides and such on it, that it won't be perfectly straight anymore. One with a gentle bend, with the guides placed accordingly, will end up being straighter once it is finished out.

Now this also depends on how you orient any such bend in relation to where you locate your guides. As we know, the natural curve of most blanks is not going to be on the same axis as where the effective spine is found. So most of this will go out the window, unless you're building on the straightest axis to begin with.

I don't think you've had your head up anything. We all have our preferences as far as what we like in our blanks. The one thing most of us can agree on, however, is that none of us like a blank that has a sudden crook or warp near the tip or just forward of a ferrule.

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Spine: Yes, I agree that it would be virtually impossible to made blanks that did not have some spine. However, it seems to me that the blank manufacturers should attempt to reduce the spine as much as possible. And in fact, over the years the blank manufacturers have decreased the effective spine. This is particularly true as they have gone to smaller diameter blanks. I am pleased that you agree that an ideal blank would not have a spine. I have had a number of knowledgeable people argue that the spine is desirerable.

Blank straightness: If you take a blank that has a gentle curve and put the guides on top of the curve so that their weight will straighten the blank when it is held with the guides upright then the curve will be made worse when the blank is held so that the guides are down. Have you really accomplished anything to straighten the rod in only one axis. Plus, as you pointed out, the spine is rarely alligned with a curve in a rod so that the guides, if alligned properly with the spine, can be alligned with the curve.

I will still take a straight blank with as little spine as I can get.

If you build a spinning rod or fly rod with the guides down then you'd put the natural bend up so it would be straight while you're fishing with it. I ask Gary Loomis about this at a show a few years back and he said that's how he did it. He said it 'balanced' the finished rod. I don't know what he meant by balanced but it will bring it back to straight if the curve is not too awful bad to begin with.

It has been experience that blanks are straighter now than before though. I have some older fiberglass surf blanks that are off about 3 inches between tip and butt on 10' to 11' models.

I don't think you want to "straighten" a rod with guide placement.I think you want to be more concerned with spine location. What I do is put spinning guides on the inside radius & conventional reel guides on the outside radius so the rod always bends in the direction it naturally wants to. This way your not fighting the tendency of the blank to snap to a certain position while having a fish on. I'm not a pro I only build for my personal use but I never get any complaints. The ultimate would be to send back a blank thats so bent that your worried about it.