[jbecker]

Hello,
I just got on this forum looking for some information and found you all to be very informative and very civil.  So, I thought I could pose a possibly loaded question.  I had been under the impression that the spine was the stiffest section, or "high spot" before the blank rolled into the preferred plane of bending.  I placed my guides opposite that which ends up being 90 degrees to the PPB.  The epoxy is cured and I'm wondering if any of you that think spine is important would think it worthwhile to redo the guides and orient them with the PPB?  The rod is a MHX 10' 5 weight.  I haven't even had a chance to test cast it yet.

[Mike Barrio]

Welcome to the forum Joe

I'll leave your question for some of the other members to answer, it's not my forte.

Best wishes
Mike

[Derek Roxborough]

I have always aligned with the spine, it's just what I think is right, at rightangles would be a bit like stringing and bracing a bow from the edge,I think there would be a tendency for the rod to twist in your hand,Sandy would be the man to answer this  but that's my take on it, easgach 1

[Sandy Nelson]

HI Joe

Welcome to the forum

The short answer, leave the rod as it is, the difference is not worth changing anything for, it will cast just fine, go and enjoy the fruits of your labour

The long answer, A few years ago i ran a series of experiments with the PPB/Spine conundrum , we used one blank and re-built it 4 times with the rings moving 90 degrees each time,  The first was on the inside of the PPB.
There was very little difference in the action of a Carbon rod, which is why the big rod builders all whip the rods for straight and do not bother with the PPB. The rod tracks true with each position as long as the section all align, if you have the rings in different planes on different sections the rod is very slightly prone to twisting, but again its not much. It sounds like you have all the sections aligned so this won't be an issue.
Our findings were:
With the rings on the inside of the PPB the rod has the best feel and with the rings on the outside of the PPB the rod has the most power, but again its very slight differences and you would only notice when testing them side by side or by doing the same set of tests each in a very critical way. With the rings at 90 degrees to the PPB on either side it felt exactly the same and was still the same to cast as the other two positions, the only change was the feel, but again you would only notice if you were particularly anal and had something to compare it to directly
A lot of fuss and hassle for not much information

With Cane it is noticeable when you whip off the PPB and the same for some of the softer glass rods, but with Modern Fast glass or Carbon blanks i tend to whip for straight these days (although i have also found 8/10 times straight is the PPB anyway) And the rods are always spot on

So i'd take your rod and fish it it will be absolutley fine , if you do feel that it does not track true then you could look at rebuilding it, but i very much doubt you will find anything wrong with what you have done.

have fun and let us know how you get on

Cheers

Sandy

[jbecker]

Thanks for the welcome and replies.  I will take Sandy's advice.  That is what I wanted to hear and I appreciate the research that he did.  I will put the guides on the PPB in the future, but I really didn't want to start over on this one.
I'm hoping to get a chance to fish the rod this weekend.  I'll let you know what I think of it.
Tight lines,
Joe

[Derek Roxborough]

See, I knew Sandy would know,    easgach 1

[Rob Brownfield]

I would agree with Sandy.  I used to be very particular with splining a rod but on modern blanks it is no where near as critical.

Most of the rods I build are far heavier than the delicate things Sandy builds and are subject to much more twisting and pulling from heavy lines and BIG flies (and bad casts!!). I too have built rods side by side with different ring positions...now I build for straightness.

[jbecker]

I was able to fish the rod and it seemed just fine. Caught a nice 19" brown on the second cast and that was it for the day.  I'll have to do a side by side comparison with a couple other 5 weights. Very glad I got  your opinions before rebuilding the rod. It had turned out fairly well and it seems like things never look quite as nice on the redo.
By the way, I looked at Sandy's rod page.  Elegant rods!