‘99 Fly Classic Trem Problem - Help!

[mmmguitar]

@mmmguitar - received the 9 gauge spring today. Thanks! Will work on restringing and set-up over the weekend, unless you need my 10 gauge spring sooner than next week.

Best,
Oscar

No rush. I’ll just shame you if I don’t receive it.

[vjmanzo]

No rush. I’ll just shame you if I don’t receive it.

this forum needs a “cone of shame” function!!!

[THN]

@mmmguitar - Finally received the rings bushings yesterday and proceeded to take the bridge apart. It all looks as it should. No post leaning issues. Didn’t need the bushings afterall. Replaced the 10 gauge spring with your 9 gauge, and will be mailing my 10 gauge to you by Friday.

Thanks again for all your help guys!

[mmmguitar]

@mmmguitar - Finally received the rings bushings yesterday and proceeded to take the bridge apart. It all looks as it should. No post leaning issues. Didn’t need the bushings afterall. Replaced the 10 gauge spring with your 9 gauge, and will be mailing my 10 gauge to you by Friday.

Thanks again for all your help guys!

Glad everything worked out. Had I known what you were waiting on, I probably would have included some bushings with the spring!

[vjmanzo]

This is great news! Love how this all worked out!

[THN]

@mmmguitar - thanks! Yeah, it made sense to have the bushings at hand before disassembling the trem, in case they were needed. You both had done enough, and I found some on ebay. Glad it wasn’t a leaning post issue.

@VJ - thanks for your note and willingness to always help.

Let me know if I can return the favors!

On a side note: while taking the 10 gauge spring out, I noticed that the distance between the 3-ridge plate and the step-stop decreases as the bridge hight increases. The spring would not fall out, even with the trem fully up (and the step-stop in the floating position), unless the bridge is raised. As the bridge is raised, the 3-ridge plate progressively gets closer to the step-stop, and the spring eventually falls out by itself. Is that your understanding?That may explain things!

[THN]

That is with no tension from the strings, as I had already removed them.

[mmmguitar]

Seems "normal" - I typically have to turn the wheel to retract the T bar cylinder and pull up on the trem bar until there's enough space for the spring to fall out (kind of a "three hands" situation). In most cases, I have to work the spring out of the cavity. That's one reason the Belew model's piezo circuit board mounted over the spring is so scary for an acquainted Fly fan to look at and consider.

[THN]

Hi mmmguitar - The 10 gauge spring was shipped couple of days ago. Thanks again!

Will now be working on fret-leveling the Classic. I have done fret work before, but not with a compound radius. Will figure out how to do that best, considering that there are only 5 or so frets that are higher than their neighbors.

I think it is 10” on the first and 14” at the last fret. Does that sound right to you?

[mmmguitar]

I think it is 10” on the first and 14” at the last fret. Does that sound right to you?

10-13 inches.

Conical fretboards are no more difficult to level than a constant-radius board: You just angle your sanding beam along the fan that the strings follow (from the narrow nut-end of the neck to the wider body-end), rather than try to keep the beam totally straight. To be frank, leveling the frets on a Fly with regard to the conical shape doesn't make much of a difference; and is why USM eventually went with a constant 14" radius - By time the frets were leveled, the radius of the fret tops were 14" regardless of how round that section of the fingerboard was.

The trick with a Fly is to take extra time to level with nothing rougher than 400 or 600 grit, and then take your sweet time sanding your scratches out with increasingly fine grits starting at 800 before you start polishing. Two of my Flys have a bit of "grit" to the frets when bending, because I underestimated how much harder they are than Jescar stainless frets; and I need to go back and repeat a couple of steps to smooth them out.

In case you're not using a gauge to make sure the neck's as straight as truss adjustments allow before you start leveling, I urge you to obtain one - A notched straight-edge for 25.5" scale guitars can be found much cheaper and easier than replacement Fly frets can. Note that almost no guitar's neck can be made *totally* straight with truss adjustments, and Ken more-or-less produced a neck too rigid for the truss wire to take all the relief out of - So just check to be sure it's as close as you can get it three or four times before you start leveling.

[THN]

Awesome advice. Thanks a lot! I do have a professional notched straight-edge w a 25.5" scale, and will make sure the neck is as straight as possible. I considered using a Stewmac Fret Kisser instead of a fret leveling beam, but after working on one fret and realizing, as you also did, that the frets are much harder than standard SS, i stopped and will go w a beam instead. Will get finer grade sand paper to follow your direction. The finest I generally use is 320 grid.

Thanks again for all the advise and help.