the Fly Clone Project

Looked around a bit, didn't find an answer, hope it's ok if I ask again.

So I picked up a Parker Nitefly, April of '98 it looks like, and overall I'm really pleased with it. However, the seller did not disclose, and apparently was not aware, that the saddle of the B string had lost its little ball bearings. Not only am I getting some kind of electric sitar sort of buzz on the B string through the magnetic pickups, but the piezo pickup doesn't give signal at all on the B string. I contacted him, he's prepared to pay for whatever it would need to fix it, so that's good.

Question is, WHAT do I need to fix it? Do those things just kinda sit down in the holes? Are they glued in, or does the shape of the hole hold them in all on its own? If I can just replace those with any old ball bearings, what size do I need to get, and what's the process to make sure they stay?

I'm really glad this place exists, is all I can say. I knew the risks of buying a discontinued instrument, but I wasn't expecting to have issues immediately, and it's good to know there's still a community I can (hopefully) turn to.

Best regards, any help is appreciated.

Hi @The_Doctor,

I believe these will do the trick replacing the missing saddle parts:

Team Associated 6581 14 Carbide Diff Balls 3/32"




I haven’t done this myself, but others here have, which is why I have the link to that particular part. Two of them should fit in that empty space so, presumably, you can glue them in place.

Happy to report that the ball bearings listed worked like a charm. Glued them in, the B string piezo MIGHT be a bit weaker than the others? But that could also just be, you know, the placebo effect of knowing I had to do the repair.

With the right string gauge now, it's an absolute wonder to play. Happy to be part of the community.

This is great news, @The_Doctor! So glad this worked out, and thanks for sharing this update!

I do know that the piezo elements really need to be as close as possible to the vibrating string so, if you end up not living with the perceived weak B and unglue the balls, maybe try making sure they’re really pushed down when you re-glue them. When we did the 12-String Fly mod, we had issues with the piezo elements and @Ken Parker gave us some helpful tips along the same lines of getting the string as close to the vibrational action as possible!

Of course, as you noted: it may all just be placebo, so pardon my info dump! Very glad you’re up and running!

I ordered those little ball bearing from the link about and dropped them into place with a dab of super glue and it worked like a charm.

I just replaced the original saddles on my blue, NFV-SA with GraphTech and I'm really pleased with them. They sound great and hopefully eliminate the ball bearing problem. The whole job, including restring, was a little more than $200. I'll keep the stock saddles in case I ever want to revert, but the new ones work beautifully.

MileHighPicker wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 8:03 pm They sound great and hopefully eliminate the ball bearing problem.

I certainly hope so; with no bearings to worry about, anymore. I’m happy to report never having experienced issues with the Graphtech Fly saddles over the past seven years of using them in three of my Flys. Occasionally, there will be piezo signal dropout from a string not making strong surface-to-surface contact with the saddle after a bend or trem dive - But that’s happened with every piezo-equipped guitar I’ve played, and is resolved by wiggling or popping the string at the saddle.

Welcome to the site. Many happy years of Swamp Ash Nitefly goodness to you.

Hi first post to this forum, figured id start by replying here rather than starting new thread.

Im the original owner of what i guess is an NFV4. I thought i bought it in ‘97, but it has the onboard mixer for the piezos. Anyway, long story short the saddle ball bearings started popping off recently. Ive been replacing them, no prob. But my piezo is busted anyway and i also dont care about the piezos. But i love the guitar and dont wanna keep gluing new ballbearings.

I tried buying a new bridge unit on reverb but i guess its a later model and prob a fly bridge- it was slightly too wide to fit. Then i thought id just appropriate those saddles (dogbone is the term for the saddles that dont have the bearings?). Anyway got 5 saddles swapped but realized with the 6th one that these saddles are also slightly too wide, the sum of all 6 saddles was maybe 2mm too wide.

So the question is, are there known reliable bridge or saddle replacements for NFV4 so that i can put this ball bearing drama behind me? Thanks in advance, sorry if im doing this wrong.

MileHighPicker wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 8:03 pm I just replaced the original saddles on my blue, NFV-SA with GraphTech and I'm really pleased with them. They sound great and hopefully eliminate the ball bearing problem. The whole job, including restring, was a little more than $200. I'll keep the stock saddles in case I ever want to revert, but the new ones work beautifully.

I saw the graphtech saddles but im assuming these will also be slightly too wide for my nfv4 bridge…

MileHighPicker wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 8:03 pm I just replaced the original saddles on my blue, NFV-SA with GraphTech and I'm really pleased with them. They sound great and hopefully eliminate the ball bearing problem. The whole job, including restring, was a little more than $200. I'll keep the stock saddles in case I ever want to revert, but the new ones work beautifully.