09-46 strings with a 9 vibrato spring?

[Deft Tungsman]

Hello, everyone !

This is my first post. I cannot believe how much detailed information can be found here and what a vibrant community it sustains. Heartfelt thanks to all who make this place possible.

I just purchased a 2005 Fly Mojo, which I'll be picking up this weekend. The seller says that the guitar has a 9 spring and 09-46 strings on it.

Is that ok ? Isn't the 9 spring for 09-42 sets ?

Any info would be most welcome.

I'll be back soon with fresh news !

[KenanJ]

Hey, welcome to the forum,

This should work for 9/46 as for 9/42, I think the spring rating is juste an hint to not put 11s on it, as far as I know.

But as alaways you should experiment for yourself and then share your experience here afterwards, that would be great

[vjmanzo]

welcome @Deft Tungsman!

+1 for what Kenan said about the 9 spring working for 9-46. If the bridge floats fully then everything works and you can adjust the tension on the spring to compensate for reasonable variances in tension. We have a detailed guide explaining that process here, which may look like overkill It's a fairly simple process once you get a sense of what does what in the vibrato system assembly, and that guide lays it out.

[Deft Tungsman]

Thanks, guys, for the info and warm welcome !

Waiting until Sunday to pick up the guitar has me totally distracted. But you all know how that goes…

[mmmguitar]

+1 to Kenan and VJ's replies (and welcome to the site, Deft):

can anyone point me in the right direction, please?

Standard gauges:
8-38 for 8 spring
9-42 for 9 spring
10-46 for 10
11-48 (or 49, in many cases) for 11
12-52 for 12

etc.

Understand that the spring tension rating is range: A 9 spring can balance an 8-38 set that doesn't exceed its tension rating, as well as a 9-46 set. You can even probably get away with balancing a 10-46 set with a 9 spring - But the purpose of the rating is to avoid exceeding it. Similarly, a 10 spring should counterbalance a 9-42 set with minimal fuss, as well as a 10-48 or even 10-52 set in drop tuning, etc. It’s a matter of ballparking the string tension being counterbalanced; rather than prescriptive string gauges.

You can use a string tension calculator to determine whether a particular mating of string gauges and tuning will fall within the range of a spring rated for one of the above typical string gauge packs in E standard.

Also:

Using different string gauge than tremolo spring

#StringIssues

[Deft Tungsman]

Thanks, mmmguitar, for sharing the deeper nuances of the vibrato springs. You guys are the best !

I've read vjmanzo's thread in its entirety. Twice. The amount of research and development he and his people have dedicated to this single piece alone boggles the mind. Ken's passion led to the Fly, and vj's passion for the Fly has led him down what seems like an endlessly fascinating path of perfecting Ken's original design.

By the way, I've only played a Fly once. 25 years ago. It was Majik Blue. It was expensive, but oh-so-beautiful. The neck profile was unusual, but not off-putting. I probably would have bought it, but there was another contender in the shop that stole my heart and remains with me to this very day.



I've never forgotten about the Fly. But they were always rare in my neck of the woods, and I really never gave serious consideration to getting one until now. YOLO, and all that. Peace.

[mmmguitar]

Thanks for sharing your Teuffel Birdfish with us, @Deft Tungsman. Many times, I have found myself tempted by it and the Tesla and Niwa (whenever I put one in my Reverb or eBay cart, I can never seem to pull the trigger). I rationalize to myself that I would never feel comfortable manhandling such gorgeous pieces of modern art - So please continue to do so on my behalf!

[Deft Tungsman]

Thanks for your compliments on the Teuffel, mmm.

Here's an interesting take on the wonderful work of functional sculpture that is the Birdfish.

Several years after buying the guitar, I went to visit Uli in his workshop in a tiny village in the Black Forest. I'd brought my Birdfish along for a little check up. When Uli took it out of the gig bag, he exclaimed, "but this is a new guitar!"

I reassured him that the Birdfish got plenty of play time and had even traveled to far off destinations without a complaint. "Of course," I added, "I'm sure all Birdfish owners are very careful with their guitar."

Uli laughed and said, "Are you kidding?" He then told me the story of a German client who played punk or thrash metal or something like that. He said that within no time the guy's guitar was banged up all over the place. We mused on that a bit, and agreed that it was pretty cool.

[Deft Tungsman]

I took delivery of the guitar this afternoon. I am a very happy plucker.

The guitar is in immaculate condition. Apparently, the first owner rarely played the guitar. The second owner was a collector. In 2010, he had some frets reglued and pleked and replaced a toggle switch. The guitar remained a case queen until last year when the seller to me acquired it. Shorty thereafter, he scored a player's grade pre-refined hardtail, which is now his number one, and this Mojo never left his apartment.

Everything functions as designed. I've raised the action and had to tweak the vibrato spring to get everything balanced. The step-stop gizmo is a bit loose, but I haven't taken the time yet to release the spring to access the stop step's mounting screw.

There is no 10 spring, but it does come with an extra 11 and a 12. Bummer, 10-46 is my comfort zone. No biggie, I'll be just fine with the 9-46 set until I get my bearings. Maybe I'll decide to move up to 11s. If that involves adapting the nut, I may just bail on that idea and get back to business.

Original gig bag, manual, COA and invoice for the work done on the frets, but not a single OEM tool.

Anyone know where I can get it (them)?

I'll be back with more news. For now, I just want to play the darn thing until our conversation begins to feel natural.

[mmmguitar]

@Deft Tungsman, though it's not guaranteed (due to production tolerances making each spring rating a ballpark figure), I've balanced a 10-46 set with an 11 spring without issue. Note that even a 10-46 set may require enlarging the nut slots for the sake of tuning stability with trem use (I believe they were all slotted for 9-42 at the factory unless ordered for a specific gauge).

Over my Fly-playing years, I went from using a set of 8s with a 9 spring, a 9-46 set with 9 and 10 springs and, currently, 10-46 sets with 10 and 11 springs. If it's within a given spring's capacity to counterbalance the string tension, it just works.

For the moment, Mike and Terry are the only commercially available sources for Fly springs. You might get through your honeymoon with the Mojo finding you don't need any additional springs.

Concerning OEM tools/case candy, I'm afraid someone else will need to pop in to help with 1:1 sources for all that. I recall it consisting of a TRS Y cable, manual, bullwinkle, hex wrenches for the saddle screws and rear bridge adjustment, a T27 torx wrench to adjust the truss, and an unremarkable, cylindrical rod with a T handle to insert into the step-stop and spring tension wheel. FWIW, the torx wrench is the only accessory I ever open the case to retrieve.

And, of course, congratulations! We'll all appreciate any bit of your new Fly you're willing to show off to us.

[Deft Tungsman]

One thing I just noticed. On the COA, it states that the construction of the guitar is "solid one piece". Does that mean that the neck is not a separate piece of mahogany joined to the body with Ken's ingenious neck joint, but that the entire guitar, neck included, was carved from a single board of mahogany?

[mmmguitar]

One thing I just noticed. On the COA, it states that the construction of the guitar is "solid one piece". Does that mean that the neck is not a separate piece of mahogany joined to the body with Ken's ingenious neck joint, but that the entire guitar, neck included, was carved from a single board of mahogany?

I'm not aware of any single piece Flys having been built (or there even having been a CNC program for such a thing); and would assume it refers to the body having been carved from one piece (which was the spec for all Fly bodies, so far as I know). "One-piece [tree species] body with [tree species] neck" was the language all the big box retailers used in their Fly marketing.

[Deft Tungsman]

Thanks for the info, mmm. I would have been surprised if Parker had ever made guitars + necks out of a single piece of wood.

I checked the strings on the guitar. 09-42s, not 09-46s. After some slight tweaking, I've got the action where I like it and the vibrato is nicely balanced.

Unfortunately, tonight I discovered that the bushing for the arm is broken. Somewhere along the way, it was glued back together with what looks like super glue, but the bond has broken. I've reglued it with model glue. and will let you all know how it holds up. In all likelihood I'll need to get a replacement. Any suggestions?

I'll be posting pics and such very soon in the Show Us Your Parkers section.

Peace.

[vjmanzo]

Congrats on getting this going!

Bummer about the vibrato arm bushing—that is a thing that happens on the USM-era Flys. Our very own @billy made some a while back that are great! Maybe he has more? You can DM him—great guy!

[mmmguitar]

Unfortunately, tonight I discovered that the bushing for the arm is broken.

Though not ideal for international buyers, I'll highlight that I just noticed Mike Gallenberger's listing for 3D-printed arm bushings for use with arms from the round era:

https://reverb.com/item/86133405-parker ... 2022-black

[Deft Tungsman]

Thanks, VJ and Marc. I've written a DM to @billy. I haven't heard back yet. No biggie, for the time being my re-glue is holding.

I've read here that 3D printed materials aren't robust enough to withstand the torque exerted by the vibrato arm. Maybe that is an issue that has been addressed by now.

Anyhoo, the more I play the Parker, the more I love it. Weighing in at 2650 grams, it's certainly not the lightest Fly out there, but compared to all my other electrics, it feels like a purebred flyweight of the highest order. I LOVE the timbre and acoustic resonance. The upper horn is something I found bothersome at first, but I quickly adapted to it. I realized that, in my case at least, the fact that the horn touches my rib cage at a narrow point just felt weird, not painful. Now, I don't notice it at all.

Here's an issue I've encountered. I have a Yamaha THR30ii and a TC Electronics Ditto looper, which works fine when I use a mono cable. I can also use the stereo cable to split the piezo signal and send it to the THR on an acoustic setting, while the magnetic pickups go into a standard tube guitar amp. It sounds awesome.

HOWEVER, if I then try to patch the looper into the piezo signal chain to have an all-acoustic backing track on the THR, there's a big, annoying pop at the beginning of every loop. I repeat, this problem doesn't exist when I use a standard mono cable from guitar into looper into THR.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Deft (actually, Marc, with a "C").

[mmmguitar]

if I then try to patch the looper into the piezo signal chain to have an all-acoustic backing track on the THR, there's a big, annoying pop at the beginning of every loop. I repeat, this problem doesn't exist when I use a standard mono cable from guitar into looper into THR.

Apologies for the late reply - I had initially hoped someone with a Powerchip setup would chime in (I don't currently have one to compare).

What kind of A/B switcher are you using to switch between the "mag" ("tip" plug) signal path and the "piezo" ("ring" plug) signal path? Because what you're describing sounds as though a mechanical switcher is disconnecting the "tip" plug as it switches to the "ring" plug in a break-before-make manner; which would power-cycle the preamp via the momentary ground lift disconnecting the battery current-draw switch the fourth lug of the TRS jack acts as when the inserted plug sleeve completes the circuit.

In the event you're not using a switcher (i.e., you're running the piezo signal into the looper input, but the output to the THR is muted until you start recording a loop), there may be a similar issue causing the piezo preamp to "wake up" when the looper passes the R/S plug signal on to the amp's input jack ground connection. However, the T/S plug connection's common ground should still be connected in its signal path - Which again raises the question of how you're A/Bing between the two.