I am building a 6'6" rod and I am using micro guides. I have spaced the guides as recommended by the manufacture. It is a casting rod and when I do a static load test the line touches the blank. I re-spaced them and even added a guide and the line still touches the blank. Will this be an issue while fishing. The person I am building it for uses mono. if he decides to go to braid will it damage the rod blank? will the mono chaff to much on the blank. Any help would be great. I am using 8 running guides along with a stripping guide and tiptop so 10 total. Thanks
Cory

With such low guides, it will be almost impossible to use enough to keep the line entirely off the blank during periods of extreme rod flex. Generally, a person that knows how to best use a rod won't be retrieving line while the rod is flexed - the rod is used to pull the fish towards you, then the reel takes up line as the rod is lowered back to straight. However, I know many folks just "pull and wind" so your concern isn't without merit. However, you can only do so much when using small, low framed guides. It is unlikely that the rod will be damaged by mono or braid, although over many seasons the finish between the guides could become dulled. Just use enough guides so that the line doesn't drop completely below the rod blank between any pair of guides, and you'll be fine.

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Cory,
If you want to avoid the line touching the blank problem with a casting rod, tie the guides onto the rod in a spiral fashion.

Then, as the rod is flexed more, the line moves away from the rod, rather than toward the rod since the line will be on the bottom of the blank during rod flexing.

You can also use many fewer guides with the spiral wrap compared to a conventional wrap.

Be safe

Thanks. If I spiral wrap how does that affect the casting of the rod. Will it still be a good for shakey head fishing? Soft plastics and light weight lures? Thanks again guys.

Cory,
Try a spiral wrap and see how you like it.
You can just tie on the guides without finish and do some casting and see how it goes for you.

You can then rewrap it with conventional guides and see if there is a difference for you.

Some folks love spiral wrapped rods, and some folks hate them.

Be safe

The line won't know which side of the rod it's on - casting will be just fine.

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If you look at some of the micro rods offered by factory manufactures you can tell just by the guide height and distance from each other that the line is going to touch the blank under load.

Was actually told by one manufacture that line touching the blank isnt a problem. This was after pointing out the guide train on one of his competitors models.

But, this is one the pros are gonna have to do without me. Just cant get behind it. Especially when spiral wrapping is so much easier with zero downside, imo.