the Fly Clone Project

Posted: **Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:48 pm**

Greetings - I just made this post on one of the Facebook groups but thought someone might have some insights here as well .. attached is a photo of the bridge to my 2004 Mojo- when I'm using the piezo and bending on either the E(1) or B(2) strings, I get a scratchy sound almost like it's cutting in and out.. It happens much more on the E(1) string even when I'm just using vibrato and not bending the note that much .. If I lift the string out of the saddle and reset it, it plays nice for a short while (~1/2 hour) but then acts up again. Any thoughts on how to fix this?
Thanks - Greg Matses

Posted: **Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:25 pm**

The piezo saddles are all connected to the bridge with a band of solder and its possible that those 2 strings need resoldering. That would be my guess. Its a pain because you have to take the bridge off, so I'd try a few more things first. Swap the battery for new, look under the hood to see that all the connections to the preamp are tight...

Posted: **Sun Feb 16, 2020 5:15 pm**

jb63 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:25 pm The piezo saddles are all connected to the bridge with a band of solder and its possible that those 2 strings need resoldering. That would be my guess. Its a pain because you have to take the bridge off, so I'd try a few more things first. Swap the battery for new, look under the hood to see that all the connections to the preamp are tight...

thanks jb63 - I'll give your suggestions a shot ..

Posted: **Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:41 pm**

JB63’s suggestions are where I’d start.

I’ve also heard recently (but have never really experienced personally) that certain strings other than D’Addario (recommended in the manual) have ends that can cause grounding issues. I have no idea what to make of that, but if your piezo seems to work sometimes, then that’s a good sign.

Once, while setting up a friend’s Fly Concert, we had a weird grounding issue with a piezo on only one string; I changed the set of strings to a set of D’Addario strings, and the issue disappeared and never returned. Again: that’s not enough evidence to suggest that the strings were the culprit, but, as you continue to explore, maybe consider the strings as well. Piezo elements are tricky little buggers sometimes!

Keep us posted!

Posted: **Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:08 pm**

vjmanzo wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:41 pm JB63’s suggestions are where I’d start.

I’ve also heard recently (but have never really experienced personally) that certain strings other than D’Addario (recommended in the manual) have ends that can cause grounding issues. I have no idea what to make of that, but if your piezo seems to work sometimes, then that’s a good sign.

Once, while setting up a friend’s Fly Concert, we had a weird grounding issue with a piezo on only one string; I changed the set of strings to a set of D’Addario strings, and the issue disappeared and never returned. Again: that’s not enough evidence to suggest that the strings were the culprit, but, as you continue to explore, maybe consider the strings as well. Piezo elements are tricky little buggers sometimes!

Keep us posted!

thanks VJ ..

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:21 pm**

I wonder if painted string ends would cause an insufficient electrical path?
Are D’Addario’s painted or brass? Inquiring minds might have a set on hand...

Could dirt or dust under the piezo saddles cause scratchiness?

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:37 pm**

Mr303 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:21 pm I wonder if painted string ends would cause an insufficient electrical path?
Are D’Addario’s painted or brass? Inquiring minds might have a set on hand...
Could dirt or dust under the piezo saddles cause scratchiness?

good questions - I haven't tried changing the string out yet but I will this week .. I am using D'addario's and they do have colored ends, the high E is silver - some interesting info on that here http://www.jmstaehli.com/guitar_css.html ..

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:23 pm**

For what it’s worth: I’ve been using the D’Addario XL110 strings on all of my Flys for many years and I’ve never encountered an issue; those strings do have the colored ball ends.

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:28 pm**

For reference, the relevant information on the link @hapsong provided is in the screenshot below:

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2020 9:39 pm**

Geez, that's bizarre!
Interesting, but bizarre!

Parkers often strike me as being a tad precious in the engineering department.

Too clever for their own good sometimes.

Posted: **Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:11 am**

vjmanzo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:23 pm For what it’s worth: I’ve been using the D’Addario XL110 strings on all of my Flys for many years and I’ve never encountered an issue; those strings do have the colored ball ends.

I like NYXl 9 gauge and don’t seem to have this problem.
It seems odd the tailpieces won’t or somehow fail to make contact between different guitars.
Do the piezo’s act up on other models?

Posted: **Sun Mar 01, 2020 11:43 am**

so I changed strings and replaced the battery with a fresh one - I even blew compressed air in and around the saddle .. but the scratchiness still remains - going to open it up this week and check connections..

Posted: **Thu May 28, 2020 11:41 pm**

Mr303 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:21 pm I wonder if painted string ends would cause an insufficient electrical path?
Are D’Addario’s painted or brass? Inquiring minds might have a set on hand...
Could dirt or dust under the piezo saddles cause scratchiness?

My first thought was that D'Addario has what appears to be anodized colors, not painted colors. Then I noticed that the linked web site actually mentions that the problem strings had painted ball ends instead of anodized. I wonder if these are counterfeit D'Addario, or perhaps their manufacturing process varied over the years.

If they are normally anodized, then I'm very curious, because I haven't noticed anodized brass before.

Posted: **Thu May 28, 2020 11:43 pm**

hapsong wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:37 pm some interesting info on that here http://www.jmstaehli.com/guitar_css.html ..

Thanks for that link!

Mr. Staehli takes credit for reverse engineering the schematic that we've all been using for the Parker Fly. I've written him with a request for more information on the transistors, since that schematic uses the strangest symbol for transistors that I've ever seen, and it doesn't indicate the emitter or the NPN/PNP type.

Posted: **Fri May 29, 2020 1:19 am**

rsdio wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 11:43 pm I've written him with a request for more information on the transistors...

Please let us know if he responds and what he says. I reached out to him a few years back, but didn’t receive a response. Many of us would like to know more about this as well.

Posted: **Fri May 29, 2020 10:17 am**

in the meantime, I picked up a spare piezo saddle on ebay as a replacement if it ends up being more than the solder connection..

Posted: **Fri May 29, 2020 10:19 am**

Smart thinking! Keep us posted!

Posted: **Wed Jun 24, 2020 1:07 pm**

I found the solution (pun intended) - sprayed and cleaned between the ball bearings and under the saddle and now all is working just fine!

Posted: **Wed Jun 24, 2020 1:13 pm**

hapsong wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 1:07 pm I found the solution (pun intended) - sprayed and cleaned between the ball bearings and under the saddle and now all is working just fine!

Great news!

the Fly Clone Project

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