In reviewing some of the posts concerning concept guide setup and the different angles that various reel shafts approach the blank, I got to wondering if anyone has thought of shimming the reel foot in the seat to achieve the "correct" angle - might be a way to allow different reels to work well with one rod. Any thoughts?
==dave==

Several people have already done it with good results. I had started work on an adjustable seat that would allow you to aim the reel face where you wanted it, but haven't yet had time to finish it up.

It's a good idea and I you and others will continue to experiement with it. Just remember, too much spool upsweep generated from shims will result in busted knuckles as the rotor comes around.

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Dave is talking about "shimming the reel foot in the seat", Tom K about "an adjustable seat." I had been wondering myself and was about to post concerning the effect of imperfectly centered reel seat arbors (from imprecise reaming of bricks, or uneven winding of tape). I'm a real novice at this, but the spinning rod I just built showed a choke point much closer to the tip than I had expected. It occured to me that the real seat may have been installed just a hair out of true, a small change in angle makes a big differenece in the choke point location. Since this is essentially unchangeable once epoxied in, I was wondering if maybe checking the choke point should be a "last step" during reel seat installation. In the case of graphite arbors you could possibly rotate them to get the desired angle, though ideally they should be correctly reamed so that orientation is immaterial.

How about this? If you use graphite arbors you should be able to change the angle of the reel seat simply by reaming them out eccentrically, and then rotating the arbors around to produce the desired angle. I guess I should 'fess up: this has occurred to me often because I never can seem to ream those arbors out evenly!

I have done this on two rod's. One by useing masking tape and one with drywall tape. I spined the rod and marked it in two places for seat alignment, put on the but grip then wraped the bushings and aligned the reel with were I wanted the choke guide by building up one side and lowering the othe side, works great. I use the rods to cast plastic lures against rock breakwater walls for large trout and striped bass.

Purposely offsetting the reel seat is just one more way to achieve this. I don't think enough work has been done in this regard, to see how much difference it might make and whether or not it's worthwhile. Just one more thing that could stand some more testing.

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Gentlemen! I've been "canting" reelseats to get them pointed where I wanted them for about 12-15years. Works great, U can use masking and/or drywall tape, cork shims, fiberglas or graphite shims.
You just have to be careful about getting the angle too steep, knuckle busting from the bail( unless U use a manual pick-up, and leaving gaps that water can get into. Also it looks kinda screwy and feels a bit odd at first. Who cares if you get the results you want?
Have yet to have a seat come loose. HAVE gotten the angle too steep but not before I'd done my glueing. Go for it. It works really well. Warren