Mr Kirkman thank you for the great article on 27x. I am now on my third rod in 2 weeks and can honestly say that I have been amazed with the performance of each one. Thanks again to you, and the other knowledgable and dedicated posters here, I feel that my technical knowledge far surpasses my rod finishing skills. My question is: I built a 7' P842-MDX (4-10) 1/16-3/8,Fast/Med Lt) for a Shimano Symetre 1000 (40mm).The 27x rule puts the largest reduction guide at 17 1/2" from the reel face. The tape casting tests are, as usual with this setup, great. Since this is new territory for me I want to be sure that #1 I have maxed the performance of this combo and #2 am I not creating a problem down the road that will cause me to do a rebuild which at this point terrifies me. One last question re: 27x. Do you place the reel spool at position full back on the winding spindle, middle or fully forward for the "distance from reel face" dimension? Rod building.org has been a great place to hang out and learn. Thanks again all!

An inch here or there isn't going to make much if any difference. I would just put the spool at the middle of its travel and locate your choker guide from there.

It only takes a moment to test or tweak to see if you can do any better. For instance, on the rod you have now, the choker and running guides are set regardless of where the butt and transition guides go. So you're only working with perhaps 2 or 3 guides in any testing or tweaking you wish to do.

17-1/2 inches might be a tad close for the butt guide. Assuming you're using very light line, even braid, you could drop down a size which would effectively move that position out a few inches. Try that and see if anything improves. If it does, go with that set up. If it makes no difference, or you feel you're losing something, stick with your original set up.

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