I'll start with a thanks to all of you that provided input and advice on my first guide wrap topic:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71211It drove a significant improvement in look and technique and resulted in a much cleaner-looking finished rod. Here's a few pix of the improved wraps after I switched to kimono minkimoto, shortened my starting position to just a few wraps in front of the guide feet, and adopted the CA glue method for single wrap trim band when targeting clear wraps overall. The trim bands are black NOCP nylon.
Oh, I nicknamed this rod the "Two Hundred Yarder" because that's about how much silk I went thru wrapping and cutting and re-wrapping, and cutting . . .
All worth the effort and the obvious improvement I saw with every re-wrap was good motivation to not settle and try one more time.
Pix of the finished rod follows. Close up there's still a lot of room for improvement but overall I'm really excited about how it turned out. I'll be gifting this to a good friend who won't notice or care about a blemish here or a little bit thicker epoxy there. He'll fish it hard, gouge the cork with panfish popper hooks, and leave it in his boat every night next to two oars that don't match. I couldn't be happier about that.
Another quick plug for Matt Proof's tutorials - laid it all out in a very succinct manner. He already is processing an order for my next build's components.