the Fly Clone Project

Hello everyone,
I think I read somewhere here the factory recommended string gauge for the different springs for the vibrato Flys. But I can not seem to find it, can anyone point me in the right direction, please?

I think it was something like :

for .009 spring - recommended gauge is D’Addario .009 > .042
for .010 string - recommended gauge is D’Addario ??
for .011 spring - ....
for .012 spring - ....

Thanks in advance
BR

rmrosa wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 9:20 pm 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.

mmmguitar is right on the money here I'll just add that during Ken’s time at Parker Guitars, they used D’Addario 9s and 10s at the factory (recommended in the manual) and Ken still uses and recommends D’Addario strings. The Flys shipped with round wound regular D’Addario sets and, as Marc noted, the springs correspond to the diameter of the first string.

#StringIssues

Thank you!
I am now officially part of the family: It has a 010 spring so I bought D’addario EXL110, had to rewire the mags volume and tone, I accidentally teared the ribbon cable when was trying to tight the potis that were dancing round and round. Are the potis still to be found new? I made a vibrato, bridge and truss rod setup and gave it a go…

I like it!
The neck is so tight so precise. Sustain, sustain and sustain. Very balanced lows and highs.
I am still trying to get my sound out of it, it’s nice! I use mainly the neck pickup only with a little reverb. It has a little Strat “quack” that I am not a big fan of, I wonder if a Seymour Jazz would be better to my ears. It is possible to order it for the fly, right?

Looking forward to play my Fly in the next days

Cheers

Looks beautiful, @rmrosa! Congrats!

Yes, the pots and other electronics info are listed on the parts page.

Yes, in principle, you could send Seymour Duncan that very neck pickup in your Fly and ask them to rewind it as their Jazz pickup—you could also ask DiMarzio to rewind (or send you new) any pickup in their catalog or something specific you’re after…but maybe live with the pickup you have for a bit before you do that? Adjust the height too!!

Congrats again! Fly Classic, right?