Fly Body (original)

[vjmanzo]

Status: Modeled


Body on Fusion 360

[GM]

Hi,

I am interested about the original Fly body as a starting point for a personal build. I do not have access to an instrument to assess its dimensions besides having to use photographs for analysis. For the moment, my main interrogations lie around overall, lowest point inside the ridge and neck area thicknesses. Pictures I have do not show clearly these characteristics.

I am lefthanded; it means I will have to depart from the original design to fit off-the-shelf hardware such as vibrato bridge (or going through the CNC route... but I am a newbie on this) In short, I'd like to keep the spirit of the Fly, and try a different approach to instrumentmaking.

I'd like to add to the debate about its construction. It reminds me more of a surfboard or a boat than a lute. Lutes were having a veneer glued onto a softwood core but it was mostly due to reduce wear, (and possibly weight) rather than having a structural reinforcement such as external skins of a surfboard. Strength increases to the cube of the thickness. A stressed skin, combined with a high Young modulus may increase "body" resonance frequency and better instrument's response too, if it works in the envisioned range, but my main concern is to improve stability over seasonal changes for which, epoxies and GF/CF have proven their worthiness.


Thanks !

[mmmguitar]

If I recall, the Fly was very much inspired by composite boat fabrication - just applied to lutes.

[GM]

Hi again,

What is the angle between the planes of the body and the neck ? Are they fully parallel or do they vary a little ? I do not mean a fingerboard relief that would induce a little curvature between head and bottom but a kind of very open "V", nearly 180 degrees.

[billy]

Almost nothing is parallel on the body.

The inside faces of the pickup routes and the bridge pocket are parallel to each other.

The rear surfaces are not parallel to the pup and bridge routes. I’m not sure what the angle is.

Even the inside of the control cavity is surfaced to match the front face.

[mattia_v]

Almost nothing is parallel on the body.

The inside faces of the pickup routes and the bridge pocket are parallel to each other.

The rear surfaces are not parallel to the pup and bridge routes. I’m not sure what the angle is.

Even the inside of the control cavity is surfaced to match the front face.

I'm actually tackling this as a modelling challenge - I build guitars, I'm going to start making them with a CNC soon, and this seemed like an insane thing to try modelling. Flys are incredibly scarce here in NL, and I wish I hadn't been a broke student in the days that you could actually buy the darn things. So I'm hoping to make one.

If anyone would be willing, I'd be particularly interested in the amount of drop from the 'pickup plane' to the corner of the upper horn near the waist - basically an impression of the curvature of the top along the top half of the body, which seems more or less constant, just angled/swept back towards the upper horn for that added flair/drama. Right now I'm just guesstimating based on pictures.

Below is a screenshot of my current explorative modelling (i.e. messing around with various techniques to see which works). I think I'm getting fairly close on the top, other than the recurved ridge along the treble half of the body which I haven't tackled yet. The back is going to be a bigger challenge.

[billy]

That’s cool- I have some surfaces started but have had lots of distractions. I do 3D surfacing professionally and it’s really not that bad aside from some tricky sections. The time consuming part is all the measurements and double checking.

Your model looks pretty good so far. Let me know if you want to work together on it?

[vjmanzo]

+1 for what Billy said: cool work, @mattia_v!

[mattia_v]

Thanks for the support guys! Fusion’s surfacing tools aren’t always the most intuitive/easy to use to get smooth results. I have an Initial full model of the top, but it looks a bit off here and there - I think I need a more aggressive sweep for the bass upper horn, because moving to modeling the back is getting a bit off.

I’m going on the assumption of a 1.5” thick body at the treble edge, and that edge looks more or less flat along the back on the outside contour. Hard to judge from pictures. Don’t know anyone around here with a fly to inspect. Bass side lower bout a bit over 1/2” (before filleting). The ridge on the treble side I’ve modeled as starting at a bit over 1/8” and widening to 1/4” before fairing into the top.

If anyone could give me a more or less measurement for the points circled in red (thickness for the bass edge, width and approximate drop/recurve for the treble) that would be super helpful.

[vjmanzo]

Hi @mattia_v—we have a Fusion project here that might be helpful, though we haven't had this model verified—for sure: many of these surfaces need further work and we have some 3D scan data that we're working with behind the scenes to integrate. I know you're interested in adapting these geometries, so hopefully measuring what's there will be helpful. DM me if you have specific questions about this and I can potentially loop in some of my students on this.

[waggerman]

Now THIS is a cool thread …..

[vjmanzo]

Thanks, @waggerman We’re hoping to make some better strides in this direction soon!

[Jpike10]

Very cool! I've been looking for a model to use to program and make on my cnc router.

[Ondoid]

Someone on reverb sold a genuine Parker body a while back and I was disappointed to have missed out on it. I had the same idea of trying to find someone to clone them. It only sold for like 70 or 80 dollars too! Had the correct curves of a fly and all! Before I got a Parker again and joined here I lurked for a while and was hoping someone here was the person who purchased it!