The nomenclature for the wide selection of guides available is extremely confusing and seems to vary widely from company to company. Is there a place that students could use to easily identify the various "codes" that companies use so a person could compare "apples to apples"? I went to fujitackle.com and printed 13 pages of their product. I went to a place called seaisle-tackle.com and they list 23 Fuji guide types that they carry from BHNNG to DBSG/WDBSG!!! When a young new builder or an old foggie like me sees this, it is quite overwhelming. How can a person find what the individual letters mean? This is only Fuji. How can a person compare one guide to another? How can a person compare guides from one manufacturer to another? This seems like a article for Rod Maker Magazine.
I know experts in all fields have developed have developed codes for talking with their peers. In education it is EEN, CD, AP, ADD, ED, PHD, but mostly ends up with @#$%&! Computer guros have their own vocabulary. Doctors and pharmacists also talk in code. When educators talk with parents we have to break through this barrier and talk in understandable terms. How would you break through this code barrier with a rod customer or a novice builder?

Each company has their own nomenclature for their respective line of guides. RodMaker certainly can't force them to adopt a universal standard language for guide types and styles (although such would be very nice). We do have some universal language, however - SIC is silicon carbide, AL is aluminum oxide, etc., but each manufacturer goes one step further and renames the guides based on their individual frame styles and colors.

As far as an article on this sort of thing, I suppose it would be nice to have all the "translations" for these guides in one place. But most of the component manufacturers do not communicate with RodMaker in any way. (I'm afraid I'd have to go dig up all the info on my own and would wind up inadvertently leaving someone out which would then result in the usual hard feelings or accusations of bias.) I'm usually the last to know about any new products they may produce or offer. Quite often, I have to scrounge for items to put in our New Products Column. It's free, but most won't even take advantage of the free press available to them.

Don't ask me why - I've always found the rod building industry to be about the most backwards industry I've ever been involved with. Very little of what they do has ever made any real sense to me. It's almost as if they don't want any new business. Go figure.

Having said all that, about all I can suggest is to get a copy of the various manufacturers' catalogs and dive in. Keep them on hand for reference. You'll need it.

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