I was about to plunk down nearly $60 for a set of SiC concept guides for a 7' spinning rod I'm going to build (30-16-10-8L-7-7-6-6-6tip) but then I had this weird idea. What about replacing the 30, 16, and 10 guides with alconite, the choke guide out to the tip with Ti-frame SiC guides, and the tip with a top-of-the-line Ti+gold cemet model? The total cost is . . . $1.00 more! If you forego the extravagance of the gold cemet tip and just use a SiC tip with Ti frame it drops the price of the set to $40, nearly $18 less than the SiC + stainless frame set.

My thought is that this rod will actually cast BETTER because it's lighter, especially in the tip section which I imagine controls damping. As for fish-fighting, I also thinking it would no worse than the original setup, given that the line bends most sharply through the tip so reducing friction there might compensate for the extra friction in the alconite butt guide and its neighbors.

I'm a novice, so this may just be plain wacky, but does anyone else think this idea has merit? (It's a custom rod, afterall, so I'm going go give it a try!).

Tom: I don't see any disadvantage to mixing and matching other than the colors of the guide rings and frames will probably differ. I certainly don't think performance will be affected. John

It does have merit and the performance of the rod will not suffer. I often mix and match frame styles, only trying to keep the ring material and frame color the same for cosmetic purposes. But I may use two or more different style guides on the same rod to get it to do what I want it to do. As long as you keep the same frame color, it will not look out of place at all.

Just a comment on the set-up you suggest - you should let your reel and line dictate what sizes you will use. Also, if you are going to drop down to #6's, you can leave out the 7's and possibly even the 8. You'll have to see where the intersection point is and will probably be able to put your first #6 right there. Then carry the #6's on out to the tip, as many as needed.

.....................

Do it man. I think a proper guide selection matched to the application supercedes the dictates of staying with one type of guide. Look at Fuji's Concept in SiC, that's 3 different frame types to minimize weight and height, the LN, the U and the L.

I spiral wrap my conventional rods and for rods 40# and under (depending on other factors as well) I will use single footers on the tip and heavier framed double footers on the spiral. Here's a pic of a Graphite USA SW70(15-30#):

[www.momentoffame.com]

The spiraling guides are HNSG, there's a TLNSG and then TLSGs topped off with an ICMNST. That 4 different families of guides, 2 materials, 3 different finishes. But it works.

Hey thanks for the encouragement guys! I'm going to give it a try, I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

One followup question: what does everyone think of using the gold cermet tip? Is it just a waste of money, or do you think I'll actually see some noticable difference in performance compared to SiC?

Other than the fact that it is said to be more durable and less prone to cracking, I don't think you'll notice any real difference. Be aware though, that the SIC rings do not commonly crack or fail unless they receive extremely rough handling. I have used hundreds of SIC tops and rarely have a problem unless someone is doing something with the rod that they really shouldn't be doing.

.................