Hey guys, I've got a flat charcoal colored blank which will have chrome nlg guides on it. Any advice on thread color? I have very little ncp colors. Thanks for any help.

Try black with a silver metallic trim.

I use an underwrap on most of my rods because I like how they look and I am doing mostly Inshore saltwater rods where weight and bulk are unnoticed. MAke a metallic Silver underwrap, and use any color Nylon thread as an overwrap - without Color Preserver. Make sure to put a light coat of epoxy on teh underwrap, and to burnish teh guide wraps. What will happen is the color of the thread stays the same, and you see a hint of the metallic silver show through. I use this method of bleeding on all the rods I've built, and the true beauty is not seen until you are out on the water in the sunlight.

Billy

Charcoal 441 and metallic gold. Pretty sharp.

With the post concerning the mettalic silver showing through, are you using NCP thread for the over wrap. Just curious as this sounds like an idea I would like to try. Thanks.

Billy, wouldn't the guide feet show when the coloured thread (say, red) bleed?
Henry

Justin - I use Nylon A for all my wrapping.

Hernry - yes it does show through. You would figure this looks pretty awful though, huh? What I've been doing is after grinding the guide with a 150-grit sandpaper disk, I quickly and carefully pass it over teh rest of the guide foot, removing the paint on black guides. Now when it bleeds through over the guide foot, you do not get a black stripe.

Here are 2 pictures of bleed through (although the Purple rod I did not use the above method to rid the black stripe - it did make me realize that something needed to be done.)

[momentoffame.com]

I'm with Mike, charcaol 441 with no CP and a metallic trim band. I have used just about every available metallic trim with this thread and it all looked good.

Agree about using metallic thread. Dark base, charcoal is good. For lighter contrast maybe gunsmoke. Garnet also looks classic.

But, a thought struck me. Wouldn't it be nice to have Titanium metallic thread, a bit less shiney than silver and toward matching gunsmoke or titanium metal colored guides or rings?
Sure, be contrary.... I know.

Rich
Solyrich Custom Rods

Rich - I have a metallic thread from Madeira hat matches Gudebrod color 441. Is that close, or too dark?