So, I am about to start on a 3wt glass fly rod. I started looking up some pictures of some other builds for some inspiration on thread color and what not. I have never built a glass rod before, and only actually built one other rod. The bright color blanks (usually) make for some pretty and colorful designs with thread wraps. But what I started to notice was a trend of people doing some interesting wraps. What it looks like to me is that they wrap without the guide on the rod. Then seem to place the guide over the wraps, and just epoxy them on. Are they doing wraps with like clear monofiliment thread to keep the guides in place before epoxying? Or are they just epoxying them on, without actually wrapping? What is the reason for this? Just a cool effect?

[rodbuilding.org]

I just finished a 3wt blue fiberglass rod; went with FishHawk silk color code: 212. Completely transparent after I epoxied them. If you do go for transparent guide wraps, I'd recommend wrapping your guides with gloves to prevent getting any oils on the threads that could effect the guide wraps from becoming transparent.

I just built a glass rod with the transparent wrap look. Just use natural silk and thin your epoxy.
[fiberglassflyrodders.com]

Shawn

Thoughts for you:

Never mono for wraps.

You can go for transparent (clear / invisible) wraps or translucent (light passes through the thread to the blank then reflects back) wraps. Regardless of whether you go for transparent or translucent, silk is your friend.

Definitely do test wraps first to perfect your process and technique for transparent or to confirm color choice for translucent.

Depending on the type of glass there might not be a detectable spine and the rod sections might have a slight curve. You get to decide whether to mount guides inside or outside the curve. Some manufacturers suggest mountain on the outside of the curve.

Glass rods sometimes have spigot ferrules instead of sleeve over ferrules. Remember to make ferrule reinforcing wraps for both the male and female sides of a spigot ferrule.