number of guides

[batten]

hi everybody, i recenty inherited an old Jarvis Walker Black Queen, a beaut little witting rod, unrfortunately the guides need replacing. now the rod only has 6 quides including the tip over its 7" length. should i add another guide in somewhere or should i just replace the guides, leaving it with 6?please help.

[lrrrrr]

The rule of thumb is to take the length of the rod in feet (7), and add one, giving you a total of 8 guides (including the tip). but in this case, it will depend of whether you will remove and of the gloss coating of the rod when you remove the guides. if you get really bad "scaring", you may want to bind over the exact places where the old tips were...

[Stuart]

Lrrr is right, that systm is very good rule of thumb.

Stu

[CreelReaper]

The guys are generally spot on. How does the rod perform now when loaded.....Does the line look as though it follows the curve of the rod when loaded?? I tend to experiment a bit and just tape the runners to the blank and load the rod to check the curve, I also have a couple of practice casts as well. If it is an especially whippy rod or the top half is really soft i tend to put the top runners a little closer and add an extra runner as needed.

[Charlie]

Four or five guides was fairly standard back in the solid glass era, of your happy with five I’d leave it that way.

[Noelm]

I kind of reckon that for Whiting and the kind of Fish that rod was designed for, then it has more than enough guides on it now, but when you replace them, go for a much better quality than what it currently has.