Fly Classic Pickup Height Adjustment

[lemmy999]

I have a 1996 Fly Classic that I purchased new. I still have the original Gen 1 pickups. I have purchased the Gen 2 DiMarzio pickups but I have never installed them. I was going to adjust the pickup height before I replace the pickups. However I'm a bit confused on the instructions. The Fly Pickup FAQ on this page states (paraphrased):

"just loosen the hex-head screws, pull up or push down the pickup, then when you get it where you want, tighten the screws."

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=89

but the manual that came with mine says:

"turn the screws clockwise to lower and counter-clockwise to raise the pickup"
_files/Manuals/Parker_Fly_Handbook_1995.pdf

So the FAQ makes it sound like you loosen the screws and the pickup is free to move up and down. Then you tighten the screws back down to lock the pickup in place. Almost like the pickups slide up and down and the screws are more of a set screw that just hold the pickup in place. The manual I have makes it sound like if you back the screws out one turn each and the thread on these screws is (for example) 0.5mm, then the pickup would be 0.5mm closer to the string. And if you keep turning the screws counter clockwise, the pickup would keep rising up until the screws were backed all the way out of the threaded insert in the guitar body, which would allow the pickup to be removed. After reading how the pickups are installed/removed, what the manual says makes the most sense to me. Which is correct?

[vjmanzo]

Hi @lemmy999—thanks for pointing that out; maybe I should revise it for clarity. What I wrote wasn’t intended to sound contradictory to what is in the manual; some people felt like the manual didn’t really explain how this works.

There is some foam padding on the underside of Fly pickups that pushes the pickups up a bit; loosening the screws allows the pickups to float up by way of the foam decompressing a bit and you can then tighten the screws a bit with the pickups at the new height.

[lemmy999]

I looked at the 2004 manual here

_files/Manuals/Parker_Fly_Handbook_2004.pdf

and the instructions are pretty much identical to what is written in the FAQ.


So I am supposed to tighten the screws back down? The older manual description makes it sound like you just back the screws out enough turns until the pickup is at the height you want, and then you are done. It would seem that tightening the screws back down would just make the pickup go lower again.

[mmmguitar]

@lemmy999, you're in good company; and this topic comes up any time a Fly owner is rightfully confused by the manual's attempt to describe the adjustment in detail (As you've seen, several of us have taken a whack at describing it):

There is a thin cushion material under the pickups. If you want to lower the pickups, remove the strings and pickup mounting screws from the threaded inserts in the guitar entirely, until the pickup can be removed from the rout and turned over, where the thin cushion material can be peeled off the pickup baseplate. The absence of the cushion material will allow you to remount the pickups slightly lower.

If you're trying to raise the height of the pickups, unscrew the pickup mounting screws until they come out of the threaded inserts, hold the pickup to the desired height with one hand, and then use the other hand holding the allen/hex key to thread the mounting screw until it threads back into the insert in the guitar body. Then do the same with the other mounting screw to set the mounted height of the pickup as you thread the remaining length of mounting screw back down into the body.

I promise that the process will make a whole lot more sense/be much more intuitive once you've performed it. Because it's a unique means of mounting a guitar pickup to a body, the adjustment process has proven very difficult to explain in a way that everyone can effectively visualize without having first tried it for themselves. We've all been there.