the Fly Clone Project

The Fly manual is kind of confusion (yes, I read the _files/Guides/Fly_Vibrato_Guide.pdf too) in regards to fixed/bend down mode and I have a clarifying question.

The manual states that the bridge needs to be in fixed mode when one sets up action — does this mean that the step down needs to be down AND that the trem is tightened extra so that the trem is in ‘fixed mode’ e.g. pulled downward away from strings?

Hi @Gregsaab—no, as long as the bridge is not floating then you’re good. The thing you want to avoid is a scenario where changing the string tension while tuning changes the way the bridge floats. If the bridge is firmly touching the step stop, then tuning up or down won’t cause the bridge to unintentionally float while you’re adjusting intonation. You don’t need to overtighten the spring though.

Does that make it clearer?

Yes, thank you. Attached is example from manual which caused some confusion.

Totally understand, @Gregsaab. I feel that the original Fly manual is clearer about this than the USM manual excerpt you posted, but either way, I agree: it’s confusing. There are really only two distinctly different modes: the one where the bridge floats on the spring alone, and the mode where the step-step stabilizes the bridge.

The suggestion in the manual that an extra-tightened spring is somehow considered a different use-case “mode”, I feel, trivializes some important aspects of how the bridge actually works, but I understand why it’s described in the manual as simply it’s described. What they mean to say is: If you don’t intend to bend down the vibrato arm, you can tighten the spring a little more (or block it altogether) to improve the pitch stability when bending strings—it will still be capable of bending down, however, so, short of blocking it with a piece of wood, I, personally, would not refer to it as a “fixed bridge”.

Having said that, you already read a detailed vibrato guide written by a forum member, I wrote one as well as have a few others, so it seems that at least some of us would have been open to (and looking for?) a manual that explained the rationale and guiding concepts of the vibrato bridge in a bit more detail. The manual, I feel, falls short of capturing this nuance, depth, and magic.