the Fly Clone Project

Greetings all!

So happy that this forum exists, thank you to those that run it and those who contribute to it’s content, so much interesting information here.

So after 15 years of drooling over various Parker models, I recently bought a Parker nitefly off of eBay. I was deliberate in my questions before deciding to buy it in regards to fretboard and function of the piezo pickups, I believe it’s from 2006. The piezo pickups have been functioning intermittently and, ane they seem to stop working after using the tremolo intensely, but if I set the guitar down and come back 30 minutes later they decide to start working again. I would like to eventually get this issue figured out, but when I received the guitar it had a bad high e string and I changed the strings to flat-wounds because that is what I typically use, so maybe it’s related to that.

Anyways, the more pressing issue is there seems to be some very minor damage on the fretboard, I wanted to see if I could get some feedback on whether or not this issue would be a deal-breaker for users on here. I am posting a picture of the “damage”, I am unsure as to whether or not there is a coating of some kind on the face of the carbon fiber. I can’t feel either of the 2 blemishes visible with my fingers, so they definitely don’t bother me as far as playability goes, I am just wanting to make sure they aren’t going to get worse.

The guitar plays phenomenally since I lowered the action and the truss rod works, I took it to a local luthier to have him confirm this. The neck is also very straight, so if the “damage” to the fretboard is inconsequential then I will more than likely want to keep this guitar.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

Congrats on the acquisition, @kidislegend. Firstly, the fingerboard indentation(s) are not anything you have to worry about getting worse - The most common chip locations are in the paint along the sides of the neck. It looks to me as though someone may have been using a crowning file on the fret when they bumped the board with it. Then again, a jab with the business end of an ordinary guitar pick at the right angle could also leave a scuff mark so superficial that it can't be felt with your fingertip.

One downside to how pristine these CF boards look is that each nick and scuff tends to appear worse than they are. As you continue to play the guitar, you'll likely start to see plenty more little scuffs like it pop up on the board as proof that it's been played on.

It's difficult to tell from the photo but, so long as your Nitefly was built after 2003, replacing any defective parts between the saddle and piezo preamp are straightforward. That the problem is intermittent and exacerbated by trem use suggests that the wires may be kinked and brittle with age where they connect to the underside of the saddles. This can be tested when you adjust intonation by loosening the screws securing each saddle. Be careful, however - If the wires are loose or brittle, your confirmation may be the intermittent short in the saddle element becoming a permanent one.

Awesome info, much appreciated!

The only other issue it has is the volume pot seems to dump signal when it’s in any other position besides wide open; if I turn the volume down and back up again, it takes several seconds worth of crackling before the signal comes back through. Not sure how to address this, but I’m also not sure that it matters much since I basically always play with the volume all the way up and can use my pedalboard to kill signal.

Today as I was playing, the issue with the piezos seemed to be mostly related to the low e string. I am going to try what you suggest in adjusting intonation to try and narrow it down, but if one piezo goes out completely, can that kill all the signal from all the piezo pickups?

Thanks so much again for your help!

kidislegend wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 8:17 pm If I turn the volume down and back up again, it takes several seconds worth of crackling before the signal comes back through.

Mag volume or piezo volume? The mag volume can be cheaply replaced with any common 500k pot if cleaning it out and checking the solder connections at the lugs yields no improvements, whereas the piezo volume is a 20k PCB pot soldered to the Fishman preamp; and is more delicate to replace.

kidislegend wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 8:17 pm If one piezo goes out completely, can that kill all the signal from all the piezo pickups?

It can if a frayed or broken wire is shorting to ground against any part of the bridge hardware (the Fishman saddles yours appears to have are all summed to one conductive track on the bridge, with another wire carrying this summed signal to the input solder pad on the preamp board). If the wire breaks internally or without shorting against anything, the symptom will probably be losing signal for just the one element.