Nfv4 bridge mods possible?

[jserrins]

Hi all, i have a feeling there arent great options here but i dont see this explicitly addressed anywhere. I have a late 90s nitefly, i think its an nfv4 based on the presence of the stereo button. Its from 1997 or 98. Im the original owner, genuinely love this guitar.

But i just went thru the matter of replacing all the ball bearings on the bridge and id love a more permanent solution to this issue. The piezos dont work anyway and i dont care about them tbh. But i tried buying a replacement bridge with the ?dogbone saddles and its like a millimeter too wide. Tried just swapping the saddles but theyre also slightly too wide. Im guessing the graphtech saddles are the same, slightly too wide.

Has anyone figured anything else out for replacing the nitefly bridge to remove ball bearing saddles from the equation?

#SaddleIssues

[jserrins]

Im guessing the lack of responses is my answer…

[mmmguitar]

Im guessing the lack of responses is my answer…

I had been following your issue since seeing it in the other thread; and was hoping a NiteFly owner with firstand insight would chime in. Are you willing to post photos? Please correct anything I'm getting wrong:

*You have a '97 NFV4 with a non-functioning piezo circuit - But just want the "dog bone" saddles replaced; so you don't have to worry about replacing bearings.

*You purchased a replacement bridge which has different saddles, and both the bridge and saddles are slightly too wide to retrofit either one onto your NFV4. You suspect this is because you bought a Fly bridge.

*You're understandably wanting to confirm whether the Graph Tech saddles will fit your NFV4 before you waste any more money.

Here's the nomenclature for distinguishing between the different eras of saddle used in the Ken Parker bridge (click to enlarge); with the "dog bone" saddles being the only ones with the bearings:

Here's what the underside of your NiteFly bridge should look like; because it mounts strat coil springs:

And here's the underside of a Fly bridge utilizing the flatspring:

The short of it is that the Graph Tech saddles are officially *supposed* to fit Fly and NiteFly bridges (in fact, there's a set installed on the NiteFly bridge in the above photo; and other NFV4 owners have reported retrofitting them without issue) - But let's first determine what's going on with your guitar:

Can you confirm whether you bought a Fly bridge instead of a NiteFly bridge? And which of the saddle types does the bridge you purchased use?

[jserrins]

First of all, amazing, thank you for taking the time. Youve hit all the nails on their respective heads.

(Pictures below.) Looks like i did buy a fly bridge, and the saddles are the USM. Got the nomenclature now, the dogbones are indeed what i want to replace. Willing to invest a but because i love the guitar and its sentimental too, but yes, dont want to throw anymore money away.

Heres the nitefly, sn 117081 USA:

The bridge/saddles that are slightly too wide:

Any/all further input hugely appreciated.

[jserrins]

(I dont have a soldering iron around atm and i snipped the piezo leads in a fit of passion)

[mmmguitar]

@jserrins, I did some fast and loose caliper measurements on my way out the door:

The official spec width for your “dog bone” iteration saddles (of which I have none on-hand) is 10.5mm.

The Graph Tech saddle I measured showed a 10.3mm width. The “USM” iteration saddle I measured was 10.92mm (which would seem to be in line with your disappointing findings).

So - with the explicit disclaimer that I don’t have your guitar in front of me to definitively confirm this -
what I think happened is that US Music may have created a retrofit issue by retooling for a wider string spacing spec in the ‘00s.

At the moment, the extent of my firsthand experience with this is having replaced the original “screw” iteration saddles in three ‘90s Flys with the Graph Tech saddles without incident. Even though you don’t use the piezo circuit in your NiteFly, I’m afraid there are no cheaper replacement saddles currently in production. So unless you can somehow score a set of used screw or dog bone saddles, it’s seeming to me that the only other option is to continue re-gluing bearings as needed.

I’m going to confirm this further by seeing if trying to fit my set of USM saddles onto my ‘97 Deluxe reproduces your problem.

[jserrins]

Ok, ill grab some calipers and let u know if these saddles line up with those measurements. But this is very promising- again thanks a ton. Love this little parker corner of the internet.

[jserrins]

@jserrins, I did some fast and loose caliper measurements on my way out the door:

The official spec width for your “dog bone” iteration saddles (of which I have none on-hand) is 10.5mm.

The Graph Tech saddle I measured showed a 10.3mm width. The “USM” iteration saddle I measured was 10.92mm (which would seem to be in line with your disappointing findings).

So - with the explicit disclaimer that I don’t have your guitar in front of me to definitively confirm this -
what I think happened is that US Music created a retrofit issue by retooling for a wider string spacing spec in the ‘00s.

Alright so i finally got some calipers. The saddle we presumed to be USM is indeed 10.9mm. Im too lazy rn to get at the saddle thats on my nitefly but it seems safe to go ahead and order the graphtechs so i can put my ballbearing woes behind me.

[mmmguitar]

Bump. For anyone curious, I did eventually confirm that the USM saddles from my 2011 Fly fit my 1997 Fly's bridge - Meaning I can't speak to the nature of the production spec or tolerances which caused jserrins' issue with his Nitefly bridge being too narrow for the USM saddles (I don't have a '90s NiteFly to measure). Because the sides of the recessed area for the saddles skew somewhat outward on the bridge I measured, the ballpark width in measuring the sides from the center is 67.0 mm/2.6378 in.