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I'm thinking I may have sold you that rod- in any case, it's good to hear that it's being recommisioned.

As I recall, the 8 1/2' Fly Queen I used to own was a middleweight rod, a fairly stout taper, like for a line between 6 and 8 weight. I'm thinking it had 8 guides on it, right? 1 stripper, 3 snakes on the mid, 4 snakes on the tip (or maybe only 3, for a total of 7 guides.)

In my experience, the heavier line weight rods don't necessarily improve with the addition of more guides. The more guides, the more friction- and most of the 6-8 weight rods want to shoot line out there, and don't necessarily benefit from the in-close line control that lighter and shorter rods like, from having a lot of guides that keep the line tight along the taper.

I have an old 8 1/2' glass rod that's an 8 weight- it has a total of five guides: a stripper and two snakes on the butt section, and 2 snake guides for the tip section. And it is a cannon. I was thinking of putting more guides on it before I cast it. I mean, 5 guides for an 8 1/2' rod, that sounds pathetic. But it simply doesn't need any more.

I've also read that tournament casting rods tend to have a minimum of guides, in order to reduce friction.

If it were a Heddon 8 1/2' #10 1 3/4F rod for 3-5 weight line, and only 6 guides on it- 1 stripper on the butt, 2 on the mid, and 3 on the tip- I'd be on the fence about possibly adding more- probably inclined to do it, if I were going to use it as a go-to fishing rod. The taper on that rod is so fine that I think the addition of 2 or 3 more properly placed guides would reduce the possibility of breakage around the ferrules or tips, as well as helping with the line control.

But if it's the Fly Queen model I'm thinking of, I don't think that the casting quality or the strength of that rod taper will be improved by putting more guides on it.