the Fly Clone Project

My stock fly classics sound different from one another. My '95 sounds more treble-y-ish which l am used too and fine with but my '98 stock fly sounds much thicker, warmer l guess you could say-not bad, just different. They both have the same PU's. My '98 weighs in at 5.5lbs and my '95 weighs in at 5lb so maybe that could have something to do with it. Or maybe the PU height which is a tiny bit different. Any thoughts?

jkore wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 5:35 pm Any thoughts?

I've never found two guitars to sound identical. Most of the money I've thrown at the hobby has been spent trying to get each one to bridge the gap between it and whichever one I felt sounded the "best" at the time.

That's funny because l like the tonal qualities in both Classics-wish l could meld them together. Lol. l really am partial to my original the most because it was my first and...well...we never really forget our first, right?

jkore wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 6:18 pm That's funny because l like the tonal qualities in both Classics-wish l could meld them together. Lol. l really am partial to my original the most because it was my first and...well...we never really forget our first, right?

Oh, yeah: Acquire one Fly, and suddenly all your other guitars sound like they're under a blanket. Buying the second one is the point where you're officially down the rabbit hole.

Have you checked if both guitars have pickups of the same Gen?

Does your 98 by any chance have Gen 2 pickups?

Both PU"S are the same. My 2001 has the second gen PU'S-totally different sound-hotter sounding and not my fav. The '98 and '95 are the same. The only difference is the '98 is about a 8oz heavier then the '95 and the PU height is a little different-the '98 PU height is a tiny bit closer to the strings...all 3 are pre-refined classics.

jkore wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 5:35 pm My stock fly classics sound different from one another.

@Ken Parker has told me and some of my students many times the story of him attempting to create two identical Fly Deluxes from the same batch of wood and to the same specs/tolerances—he made these two guitars himself at the factory as purposely identical as he could, and at the end of the day one sounded a little more mellow and one sounded a little snappier and in your face.

Yeah, I'd say thats a good way to describe it. The '95 sounds snappier/in your face and the '98 is more mellow...
Thx.

Trees Go figure!

I told a story about breaking my first "95 Parker in the 'Sow us your parker' section of this site. It doesn't sound any different now then before l mishandled it but l wanted to convey how strong these guitars are. They really are incredible...

The volume and tone pots are 20% tolerance units. That's substantial and could easily explain all of the difference you're hearing. In fact, I'd bet everything on it being the electronics loadouts. For example, see this thread:

https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/threa ... -load-pots

I had the same experience when comparing my two Deluxes (both with Gen 2s). The neck pickup in my ‘99 had a ‘tinny sound’ compared to my ‘98.

It just so happened that the neck pickup in the ‘99 was significantly lower than the one in the ‘98. I adjusted the neck PU in the ‘99 so that it was flush with the edges of the fretboard. The difference in tone was significant and yielded results that I am quite happy with.