Should have put this question off I suppose as I am sure people are getting weary of the spine.

I have read that if the guides are on the soft side of the rod.....the effective spine will be in play on the forward cast. This also seems opposite to my feeble brain. If I were to just take a cane fish pole and glue a steel rod on top....I would think that the guides on the bottom would put the steel rod or spine if you will....in play on the back cast. Garcia's book and others explain it exactly opposite to my thinking with my analogy of the steel rod. It is written....that guides on soft side put's spine more in play on the forward cast. I believe this is true....just don't understand the why of it.

Furthermore all the guides are mounted on the bottom of the blank only. But the TIP is a long tube that surrounds the entire blank. The tip is very small and has a metal tube around the entire tip with a ring on it. I would think the tubular thing around the entire blank would place the force on the entire circumference of the blank at the tip and no difference could be detected at all.

Sorry guys. If I build a rod I don't really care where the spine is. It is just that I want to know....ya know? I just want to know in my head that I think I know how it works.

I just don't understand everything I know anymore.