Guide placement inside or outside

[RS1]

Ok, first a little lesson of 2 commonly misused terms, spine & spline. Very simple, a "spline" is a thin flexible strip of wood, metal, etc. A strip of bamboo used to make a bamboo rod is a "spline". A spine is a backbone. A graphite rod has a spine, not a spline. So by definition the spine(backbone) is the side opposite to the guides. I made the same mistake before being corrected by a top bamboo rodmaker.

Tomato, tomatoe. Same thing.

The rods I've built I've gone with the spine and against it. I haven't noticed a difference like a lot of the other posters have mentioned. Now days, I find the straightest line of the rod section and put the guides there.

[thorarinna]

I have been thinking, the back cast is always worse, so wouldn't it be a goog idea to put the guides on the outside of the curve. Then you get extra help with the back cast, but you have the extra strength to cast forward.
The loops back and forth need to be symmetrical to give a good cast, don't they?