I'm building a 7'6" heavy spinning rod using a KR concept guide layout and I have a question about the 4th guide placement. 90 inch blank with the spindle 14" from the butt 4000 size reel shows 20H,10H,6L with the following positions:

Stripper Position beyond spool axle tip: 21.5"
Stripper to Second Reduction Guide: 8.94"
Second Reducer to Third Reduction Guide: 7.81"
Third Reducer to Choke Guide:5.3"

The first three give me a damn near perfect bullseye. Fuji says the 4th guide should be a little higher than bullseye to help it turn the corner.

"As a final performance tweak, consider moving the choke guide slightly further out to obtain the position shown at left. This often helps line "turn the corner" as it reaches the blank and helps smooth the flow of line even further."

My problem is I have to move my choke guide (KB6) inwards to get this configuration and it ends up around 3.5" from the third reduction guide and it just looks wrong having that small space between guides in the middle of the rod. Did I do something wrong by chance? Should I just roll with the awkward looking spacing? Should I order a 6M instead of the 6L? I'm sure someone else has ran into this before so I'm just wondering the best way to handle it.

Thanks

I would recommend keeping the choke at approximately where the GPS wants it. . Moving it in toward the third reduction guides so it’s only 3.5” away makes for too short a distance. If anything I might move the choke out a little and adjust the other guides accordingly. Remember the KR GPS just gives a good starting point for your guide layout. I have done several 7’6” MH to H KR spin rods using size 5.5 or 6 runners for several friends, with all most the exact handle length as yours. Here are a couple of tentative layouts I have used based on the KR GPS as a starting point. These measurements are from the tip in centimeters.
For nine guides : 10, 21, 33, 46.5, 61.5, 78 (choke), 96, 116, 138.5
This layout puts the stripper about 21,5” in front of the reel spool and the choke guide about 23.8” in front of the stripper. It gives good progressive spacing and should give a good static test
For 10 guides: 9, 19, 30, 42, 55.5, 80.5 (choke), 97.5, 116.5, 138.5
This layout puts the stripper about 21,5” in front of the reel spool and the choke about 22.8” in front of the stripper. It also gives a nice progressive spacing and a good static test.
There is a lot of flexibility in laying out a guide train, and you can certainly move the stripper and/or choke guides in or out a little to accommodate the guide numbers and their spacing. Experiment a little and see what you get. I think you will be pleasantly surprised how well you rod will perform

Norm

Spacing is only 1/2 the means to obtain good spacing - guide ring size and frame height are the other 1/2. You have a lot of options. Exercise all that you need.

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