I'm going to be starting on a Phenix TJX-63MH slow pitch rod for a customer. Nice blank. I've never made one before, but it's pretty straight forward. I have all the components. Here's the dilemma: Phenix spiral wraps their slow pitch rods. I'm in complete agreement with the concept. I have a spiral wrapped Phenix 700X3H which is absolutely amazing to fish. I told the customer that I highly recommended using a spiral wrap, and why, but he's skeptical and wants it to be conventionally wrapped. There's nothing I can say or do to change his mind, and after all is said and done, it's his rod. We all know that a rod wants to rotate to the "soft" side, so I'm struggling with just mounting the reel seat and all the guides on stiff side to try and mitigate the torque somewhat, or mounting everything on the soft side like a conventional rod. I've watched some 40# + yellowtail caught on the slow pitch, so I know what that rod is going to do. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Dave Sytsma

You offered and explained the benefit to the customer, you can't beat him or wound him, so the only choice you have is to build it the way he wants, or decline and send him else where. Because if you change his mind and he is not satisfied with the results you will never see him again or get a good recommendation.

I know this statement is tiresome and over worked and not always true, BUT, " The customer is always right"

Just my thoughts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2023 03:54PM by John DeMartini.

Thanks, John. He's a young guy and likes my work, and said there would be more orders in the future. I did tell him that if I had the time, I've got an old Calstar 610 blank that's gathering dust and I might do a no-frills spiral wrap on that and let him take it along on his April trip and try it out to see if the difference is meaningful to him. I've been threatening to do this for a while, but with all the sexy thread work I see on the boats I'm going to close my eyes, grab the needed number of spools of the same size thread, and have every wrap different. Maybe I'll name it "The Mutt".

If the guides are on top the rod will rotate towards the direction of pull regardless of how you orient the blank itself.

..........

If I could go back and wrap my saltwater rods over again, I would spiral wrap ever single one rated for 30lb or heavier.

Tom is spot-on, it doesn't matter which side of the blank you put the guides on, once you have any pelagic species over 25-30lbs on the other end it's going to pull that reel around once the fish gets remotely close to the boat.

It's not just Phenix that acid wraps their jigging rods, most of the custom saltwater rod community does it. If you want to see some art-level jigging rods, check out Infinity Structure's work - they have some simply amazing builds.

David,

I built a spiral wrap rod as a gift for a buddy (not a business deal and I did not lose money so this may be different from your situation). I gave him the same talk about spiral wrapped rods. He said that he never fished the blank because the line 'pooled up' behind the rotated guides....Hmmm.

How did he experience this 'pooling' if he never fished the rod!? (Answer: He probably read something on the internet, or decided this on his own before fishing the rod because it looked odd...)

So, I re-wrapped all the guides to a 'conventional' set-up. He was thrilled!!! But still has not fished the rod, in either guide configuration. I felt like I volunteered to be the sucker in all this. And I probably did.

Go figure! Do what you feel is right? Are you willing to accept the consequences of your convictions? IMO: Make the decision YOU can live with today....and don't chase promises for future business you may not want when the dust settles.

You are the PRO here, not him. So, give your advice confidently, and then charge him for your expertise and craftsmanship. Shout, 'Next!' after you complete the build (or not) and move on.

Just my take, and I wish you the best!

I built my friend that goes fishing with me a spiral wrap on a lamiglas blank that he had a factory rod with the same blank the reel on the spiral broke and he had to go to the factory rod for back up and said what a difference he just had me spiral the factory rod i don't know how to change someone's mind but you could always change it back to conventional wrap if he doesn.t like it

I'm probably going to do something like David suggested, and spiral wrap it with the caveat that if he doesn't like it I'll offer to change it to conventional. If he wants his money back or doesn't like the rod, I'll buy it back from him for myself since I intend to build one before I fish in October. All I'll lose is the labor because the components cost the same either way. As far as losing a customer and business, right now I'm blessed with almost more than I can handle anyway.

Dave