spoonplugger1

A NFC 7600 wouldn't be my choice for light lures, I use mine for steelhead, coho salmon, bonefish, shad, etc. The lower the modulus the better for your needs though if you choose to go on be advised it's tip is far stiffer than the MHX 9600 blanks mentioned earlier, or the St. Croix. It was designed to back troll/drift crankbaits downriver. Tip closer to the MLF St. Croix mentioned in other post.

dv616, You need to look at the load chart again, the tip load section of the graph's first value is 2 oz for the 76 MLXF and 4 oz for the 70 MLF, the tip is far lighter on the 76MLXF, it is light enough to throw lighter lures well, is more sensitive because of the decreased tip mass in the blank, an also light enough to give you a visual bite indication that the fish doesn't feel as resistance because it is only their gill flaring to suck in the bait that you see. It is a completely different blank from anything you have used, or seen before. I love mine.

The same guides you use on your spinnerbait and Carolina rig rod will work here, the guides are much stronger than you realize.

Old guys use short rods a lot, use the smallest, least and lightest with minimum wraps and old school thread coating like Permagloss, you could get awful close. What isn't there doesn't weigh nothing and neither does a hole. No leaders, or knots cuts guide size way down, 6ea. 3mm guides weigh the same as one 6mm and I have used 2mm guides. If Gary Loomis can make a 4.4 oz. 9 1/2 ft steelhead spinning rod out of his HM material 10 years ago, I see no reason why it can't be done. Rod was weighed, fished and stress tested by Salmon & Steelhead Journal.

27 mm is the OD of most casting trigger reel seats to 20 mm, there are wierd ones like the Fuji SK2. Most cork, EVA, etc. grips are also that size so they match up. The 17 mm Aero spinning seat also uses this size grip, the 16 mm Aero seat is 1/10 inch inch smaller in the pocket the grip slides into so you need a smaller grip.

There are blanks that when I bought the last ones over 5 years ago would have fit the bill, "similar" light tips, but also just a bit less power in the butt I think, but they deserve note. The MHX SJ9000, comes one, or two piece. Another one from MHX, longer, but very similar, the HS9600-MHX. In my opinion worthless as a hot shot rod unless you are pulling the size 70 minis for trout, they match up best in lure ratings, 1/16 - 3/8 oz., I wouldn't use them as my 3/8 rod, a joke in line ratings to other hot shot blanks rated for the same line from G Loomis, or Raindshadow. Again a bit less butt than the St Croix I think, but I think they would get the job done. Of course right now they may be hard to find at Mudhole, but one of the dealers may have one, I got mine at Angler's Workshop.

The 5S76MLXF has an extremely soft tip compared the the standard St. Croix designs. Similar shaped, but more powerful tips were built into the Shikari P, IP, and PP 7000 blanks, and the G Loomis P8400. It has a soft ultralight like tip that has an abrupt shutoff. Many years ago Tackletour did a review of the finished rod.

No specs, location or presentation needs given, how would we know? What do you need vs what you can live with? The 5S76MLXF is a very specific actioned and tip powered blank.

Unless you are an very avid builder/angler with nothing else better to do I can't imagine why you'd build all those blanks for the same purpose. I wouldn't have a clue. None of my small stream smallmouth rods are built on any of those blanks, they do the job so well, I see no reason to build or recommend others.

The reason I started building rods 40+ years ago, if they can make something look and work long enough to get you out the door they'll do it, for just a few pennies more they could have had a reel seat that wouldn't give when it's supposed to ride a bit up the threads and jam when you tighten it. You don't want to know what they use to hold the reel seat on the blank sometimes.

Buy one of the guides that are the same size as the next guide toward the tip, the size of the guide will make absolutely zero difference on that rod.

Believe it or not, the blanks were the straightest G Loomis made because a bare blank shows everything. They sat in the warehouse already bagged and tagged, while the others were just bundled together till built.

Everything you need is on their warranty/expeditor website. Phone calls not necessary, do the paperwork and send in your rod, or use the Expeditor service.

Kind of hard to mistake a Fazite guide since the ceramic ring color is blue. You have something going on with how you treat, transport, or store that rod if you are taking out ring lock design guides, the next thing to go will be the blank, I'm surprised it isn't broken now.

You can also put a camo pattern of your choice on any blank you wish. Not hard to do if you can build a water vessel long enough to dip it in.

Going to need to know what size tip top you need on thar 30 + year old guide. Garrage sales may be the best option, got rid of mine over 15 years ago, today's guides are worlds better.

Lure rating are far more important than line rating, you gave us no info to form a base line, also you didn't mention what you're fishing from, I wouldn't use the same rod length if I was fishing from the floor of a john boat as I would the deck of a big bass boat. The longer bass boat rod would be smacking the water all the time. Also a longer rod moves the spook differently than the shorter rod, if you have been successful with your rod and developed good muscle memory with it, I'm not sure I'd want to re-learn the effective presentation you have now. I'd be thinking similar length blanks. Rod powers are arbitrary, a MH mag bass is nowhere near a MH popping or crankbait blank in power, that where lure ratings hopefully help in your selection.

The groove you mentioned is perpendicular to the fishing line's travel through the guides, how the line could produce a bend with an angle to trap itself in a groove 90 degrees to the guides the line is passing through would require some odd line travel, the guides are supposed to have control of the line with little ocillation, or loops by the time it gets to the tip top and a stiff line shouldn't bend enough to produce your result, hence my comment. I wasn't commenting on you, just the results and how to mitigate it.

You can try it, what could it hurt. You most have some gosammer line to get it the notch, I somtimes don't apply anything there and have never had a hangup on the blank/tiptop junction in 60 years.

Butt diameter has a huge effect on a blank's power, a blank with twice the diameter in the butt, with the same amount of graphite used, will be 9 times stiffer. So the MB 733 mentioned above simply increased the diameter to get the power they wanted without adding a bit of additional weight. Since the tip is the same diameter as any other blank in it's class it has very little change in the lower limit the blank can throw. This is why an XF blank of the same power as a less fast blank many times has identical upper lure limits, but can throw a lighter lower weight, it's right there in their catalogs.

There is a very good chance your reel seats, if you are lucky to get them off, which I doubt, wouldn't fit the new Xray blank you are using, that offset reel seat and it's corresponding special rear grip are all important in the feel and how much you like those rods. They are at a 15° offset, not straight like most rods. Ergonomically more comfortable. The Edge Black Widow spinning and casting reel seats also have other special features that Gary has used for 40+ years and they are also US made products.

Since you can't buy either as a blank, why bother with it? You can't hang your hat on sales speak, you can't buy a blank with RXT5 graphite in it, it doesn't exist. Worry about what you need that blank to do, than buy a blank that will do that job. Graphite modulus alone gets you nowhere, it is not where the rubber meets the road.

It's not alcohol, and if you remove as much as you can from the brush before dropping it in the bottle, it will last for over a year. Mine has.

The Fenwick Feralite ferrule was developed in 1962 and looks nothing like what you discribe. It looks just like the ferrules today.

IHopefully you can still find one and the blank is smaller than you think at the back of the reel seat. Them using a non exposed style seat makes me believe a 17mm exposed blank seat wasn't big enough. The Seeker and Lamiglas S glass I have used had this problem, I had to build my own exposed blank seats ala Rich Forhan style, but I have no idea how you could offset it, offsetting the arbors wouldn't do much.