Bill I know that I can do whatever color thread I choose. I was asking for opinions on what others liked and thankfully ridderbos gave a beautiful example of a brown rod with red wraps that really looks good to me. I was leaning to red in the first place and that rod really looks sharp. Did you use color preserver on those wraps or let it bleed to blend into the rod. I would assume you used a preserver to get that bright color. Great looking rod.