the Fly Clone Project

I have often noticed that the non piezo fly standard models have metal knobs. Maybe I am thinking too far into this, but had anyone asked Ken about this? I have seen fly standard models in the pre refined era so I figure he may have some knowledge on this small detail. My theory is this…I saw a video where Ken stated that the fly was made to be perfectly balanced, weight-wise. Are the metal knobs there to make up for the lack of the weight from the pots that would be there on the piezo models? Or am I overthinking this and they just said “screw it..if they aren’t worried about the piezo, they won’t miss the rubber knobs either?”

Hi @Mike987—good question! To my knowledge, the metal knobs were a USM-era so called “refined Fly” decision. Ken wanted the Fly to be as light as possible and protested any decision contradictory to this (the metal knobs, the dual-action truss rod, thicker bodies to accommodate swapping pickups, etc.). All of that to say, if there are non-piezo Fly models from before 2003 with metal knobs, I am almost certain they did not leave the factory that way.