spiral wrapped

[the ohh face]

im looking for a new rod to go w/ the reel im getting for christmas.  was leaning toward a g loomis or another st croix.  It doesnt seem that either sell any spiral wrap rods though. i was doing some reading on the spiral wraps and am interested in getting one. where can i get one with comparable quality/pricing/warranty as these manufacturers?

[Raul]

You won 't find a spiral wrapped rod from a mass producing rod company like GLoomis, StCroix, Falcon etc. The only ways to get a spiral wrapped rod are either from a custom builder ( like our very own RM ) or from a small rod manufacturer like Megabass ( and even them don 't have all their rods spiral wrapped ).

[Grey Wolf]

You'll probably have to get someone to make you one.

[Alpster]

I am replacing all my baitcasters with spiral wrapped rods. I am doing the work myself. DG Custom Rods AKA Reelmech can build you what you want and you won't be disappointed. Check out his work on his website. Here's the link... http://www.rod-crafting.com/

Good luck with your search

Ronnie

[OkobojiEagle]

Why aren't you re-wrapping the existing rods you have in spiral fashion rather than looking for new?

[Lightninrod]

This one is spiral-wrapped. It's a Megabass Shiryu and the blank is fiberglass, designed for cranks.

Here it is again:

Dan

[Raul]

Why aren't you re-wrapping the existing rods you have in spiral fashion rather than looking for new?

Because to spiral wrap the right way you have to find the rod spine in order to make the spiral wrap perform the way it should, which means dissasembling the rod to get to the blank to find the spine; you don 't spiral wrap just beacuse it looks nice or out of the ordinary, spiral wrapping is not a cosmetic thing, it has a function, to reduce the torque and the tendency of the rod to rotate.

[Guest DavidGreen]

Why aren't you re-wrapping the existing rods you have in spiral fashion rather than looking for new?

Raul is right. But let me also add, that on some blanks with glossy finishes. When you remove the guides to re-set them into another configuration. You tend to remove the finish from the blank. Now if the guides were going back into the same place this wouldn't be to much of a problem. But if the new configuration moves the guide spacing then you are going to have to re-finish those spots on the blank as well.

Tight Lines All!!

[OkobojiEagle]

Raul... I understand your point of view.  I don't believe having the rod's spine lined up perfectly is as important as you do.  I am more concerned that a rod is straight.  I've been tempting myself to have a favorite rod I use for jigs & worms re-wrapped as a spiral... just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Rods I fish pointed downward, such as crankbait rods, I've decided I'd prefer keeping traditionally wrapped as the bait is pulling away from the rod in this position with a traditionally wrapped (guides on top) rod.

[jayhawkfishin]

I don't remember which rod but some of the Quantum sig. series rods have a spiral wrap. I couldn't tell you which model's do but i remember looking at Cabelas and seeing some spiral wraps.  

I haven't used any of the rods and don't know how good they are but they did feel good.

[Guest DavidGreen]

The only Quantum Sig series rod I know of that is spiraled is the Gary Klein PTC808FGK        

[castaway]

Tatical assault rods were spiral wrapped.I haven't seen them advertised anywhere lately. Ivan

[Catt]

Question, my little pea brain is having a problem with this spiral wrap thing   :-/

I have 2 ea. Bass Pro Shops rods that have the name Spiral wrote on the blank and it is my understanding that these rods have a outer wrapping if fiber from the butt to the tip hence the name Spiral. Is this the same spiral of which this discussion and others is about?

Tommy T.

[Raul]

Question, my little pea brain is having a problem with this spiral wrap thing :-/

I have 2 ea. Bass Pro Shops rods that have the name Spiral wrote on the blank and it is my understanding that these rods have a outer wrapping if fiber from the butt to the tip hence the name Spiral. Is this the same spiral of which this discussion and others is about?

Tommy T.

Nope.

Spiral wrapping:

[Catt]

The little light has came on  

So what if any is the advantage of the rods I own other than a sells gimmick?

[castaway]

I apologize for spelling tactical assault wrong.Here is their site. Ivan  http://www.bassrods.com/Assault_Rods.html

[justtrying]

Raul... I understand your point of view. I don't believe having the rod's spine lined up perfectly is as important as you do. I am more concerned that a rod is straight. I've been tempting myself to have a favorite rod I use for jigs & worms re-wrapped as a spiral... just haven't gotten around to it yet. Rods I fish pointed downward, such as crankbait rods, I've decided I'd prefer keeping traditionally wrapped as the bait is pulling away from the rod in this position with a traditionally wrapped (guides on top) rod.

steve,

you're correct on the "spine" theory.  ..there is an on-going debate amongst many rod builders whether or not the spine has ANY effect on the rod.  i won't get into it here.

i'm no expert, i have, however "modded" about 20 rods in the last few months.  i changed the grips to split grips & took the fore grip off.  i also spiral wrapped the rods.   ...i had No Problem, whatsoever.  

i even took some of my old pistol grip rods & put split grip on them & spiral wrapped them (for the grandkids)

personally ...and, i repeat, Personally, i Love the split grip, spiral wrapped rods.  they make a LOT of difference in a days casting...   if you want to have a favorite rod "modded"...go ahead, & do it.  you'll be glad you did!

and, btw,  ..i've read a lot of pros & cons about building rods, cleaning reels, etc., lately & i know that we all have opinions.  the one person, however, that i think, is qualified to give an "expert" opinion on the matters is David Green.   you know him as ReelMech.

ronnie

[lubina]

I apologize for spelling tactical assault wrong.Here is their site. Ivan http://www.bassrods.com/Assault_Rods.html

Impressive rods

Wonder about warranty, they don't metion anything in the site. :-/

[castaway]

Their warranty is kind of blunt and straight  to the point. Ivan  http://www.bassrods.com/Rod_Construction.html

[Alpster]

The little light has came on  

So what if any is the advantage of the rods I own other than a sells gimmick?

The main advantage of spiral wrapped guides is that they make a baitcasting rod behave like a spinning rod. If you want to feel the difference, take a conventional BC rod with no reel and run a 10' piece of line through the guides. Tie one end to the hook keeper or trigger and the other end to anything solid. Hold the butt end of the rod gingerly and lift the rod with your other hand to load it. Notice that it wants to flip over in your hands and point the guides down. Because your muscles do it without thinking about it, you don't notice how much energy it takes to constantly correct for that tendency for the rod to turn over. Especially if you fish all day like some of us do. This is especially true of spinnerbaits and deep crankbaits that load the rod during the retrieve. Also spiral guides distibute the load along the rod better and there is no chance for the line to touch the rod when flexed hard in a fight.  I am so impressed with the performance that I sold a $1000 worth of factory made G-Loomis rods to make all my baitcasters spiral wrapped. JMHO

Ronnie

[Guest DavidGreen]

The Tactical Assault is the brain child of the owner of Everything Bass Inc. Brad Tharp. He is a long time build just south east of my shop here in Kansas. The reason you don't hear much about these rod is that he Mr. Tharp has gotten himself a bad reputation amongst the rod building and retail world. There have been many negative discussions on other forums about the way he does business. While an innovator in the split seat and spiral wrap area's of building, he still seems not to want to take care of his customers.

If I were to be searching out the best in the business as far as spiral wrapping rods, I would be looking at the Revolver Rods by Rich Forhan, he is one of the true innovators in this area. Many rod builders doing any type of spiral wrapping these days has at one time or another studied his techniques. He is one of the builders I have studied since he came onto the scene in the late 90's

Steve_IA,

If you were to check out the rodbuilding.org site and did a search on spining a rod you would be reading about 130 replies to the question on the pros and cons of the task.

Here is one reply that the owner Tom Kirkman made not to long ago..

Spining (or finding the "spline" of the rod)

Posted by: Tom Kirkman (Moderator)

Date: November 22, 2006 05:09PM

This is from a similar post I made last week. No, it has never been important to find the spine of a rod. It has little to no importance under practical fishing situations. What would make you think that it does?

First of all, the spine is an effect, not a thing. So at best all you are doing is referencing a specific position of the blank. The outside of the curve when the blank has been pressured and allowed to roll to its desired location is considered the "spine." But again, you are referencing that position, not any physical thing, so where you mark the blank really doesn't matter as long as it allows you to reference that specific position.

The spine is almost never in alignment with the stiffest axis of the blank. You often hear people talking about the "soft" and "strong" sides of a blank and making statements that would infer that these two locations are 180 degrees opposite each other. They're not. In fact, they are usually anywhere from 90 to 170 degrees apart. When you simply locate the natural curve of the rod by sighting down it, what you're locating is usually the stiffest axis of the blank - it will be opposite any natural concave warp or bend in the blank. But it will not be opposite of the spine - okay, rarely it may be. But not usually.

Beyond that, you have to understand that all this hand flexing and bending is fine, but in no way does it way approximate what happens when you load a blank by the action of a fish or load placed on a line that is running through the guides attached to the rod. This is why all the worry and bother over rod spine is much ado about nothing. Fish don't jump out of the water and grab the rod tip with a fin and then flex our rods. They load the rod by pulling on a line which is running through the guides attached to the rod. The lever arm effect this creates easily overrides any spine effect both when casting and when fighting a fish. This is why spine orientation cannot create a stable rod. It should also be noted that any twist on the cast (rare) does not affect accuracy because you are rotating a cylinder around a central axis, not taking it out of the casting plane.

There is no right nor wrong way to "spine a rod." For the most part, rod spine is immaterial and insignificant in terms of practical fishing applications.

I personally spine every blank I build on, and have for 15+ years now. But if the natural bend falls shy of it the rod is built on the bend.

Tight Lines All!!  

[Lightninrod]

"The F4-610GT3 Shiryu sports titanium framed, SIC guides in a spiral wrapped configuration - an arrangement that makes a lot of sense on a glass rod where the flexibility of the blank lends itself to line rub in a conventional guide arrangement."

" Spiral wrapped guides are a smart move on glass sticks."

Just some additional thoughts(not mine) on "why" to have spiral-wrapped line guides on some(certainly not all) rods..............................

Dan

[flechero]

Regardless of where you fall on the spining debate, and regardless of the locations of guides on a factory rod... re-wrapping a factory rod as a spiral (even with same locations for cosmetic reasons) will do exactly what Alpster said. (it most likely won't static test perfectly but it will still do the trick, just not quite as good as a fresh start, IMO)  The question each of you has to answer for himself is- would you rather just re-wrap some guides or start over and customize everything along the way?  Without question, I fall on the "start over" side of that question.  ...lol  

And as far as spining in general goes... until someone can prove that it is a detriment, I will continue to spine each and every blank I build.  Even if it was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it doesn't help in any way, I would still do it, simply because it is a matter of consistency in my build routine and the final product, the mere possibility of a difference made is worth the small effort required to find and use the spine.

[Catt]

I've followed this and other topics on this subject with great interest but was confused on some points. In my younger less intelligent days I was a boxer and fought full contact karate causing irreversible damage to my wrists in both hands. While it has not been a problem when fishing as I get older it will and this spiral wrap concept would help.

Merci Beau Coup

Tommy T.

[Alpster]

And as far as spining in general goes... until someone can prove that it is a detriment, I will continue to spine each and every blank I build.  

AMEN!

Ronnie