I know the Uni knot is probably the best knot to tie while using braided line, and the albright is an awesome knot for tying mono to braided. Especially if you tie a mono shock leader on your braided line, as the knot passes through the guides with ease. (unless hotrod ties it
)
I never heard of putting electrical tape on your reel for the braided to "bite" into, I just always put some mono backing on, albright, then the braided. Braided is too expensive to spool 300 yards of it on one reel!
And splicing is something that I'll more then likely always stay away from. The only thing I ever spliced was very large braided rope.