the Fly Clone Project

Hi Fellow Parker Heads,
Last year I bought a 2000 Parker MIDIFly. Everything works great except that the high E and B strings 'jump' out of the Parker tremolo bridge when extreme dive bombing. The strings go back in when the tremolo is released but it makes a little 'ping' sound. It seems as though the bridge is slightly out of alignment and shifted towards the low end (low E side). I did try to loosen the neck screws (after loosening the strings) and push the neck (and hold it) towards the treble side and then tighten the neck screws (while holding and pushing) and it did not make a difference. The attached pic shows the bridge when the tremolo is pressed down.

Praise be to anyone who can let me know a possible fix for this problem.

Thank you,
A.F.O.

Hi @alienfreakout—perhaps this thread will be a helpful start?

I’m curious: what gauge and brand of strings are you using?

@alienfreakout, when you say the bridge seems out of alignment, are you aware that you have a bit of wiggle room to align the bridge at the pivot posts, as mentioned in this thread? That said, the bridge in your photo appears centered on the posts.

I'm with VJ in that I've experienced this issue with various divebombing trem designs; and it does sometimes come down to the strings and how they've been fitted into the bridge.

Would you be willing to post a photo of your tuning pegs, as well? It's possible that pulling each string through the tuner hole until taught before locking them down and tuning them up can alleviate excessive slack in the divebombed string that might be causing this issue.

Lastly, are your strings all intonated? If the problem strings are intonating sharp at the 12th fret, moving the saddles back toward the rear of the trem where the ball end anchor holes are may also alleviate this issue.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try them and follow up with a reply tomorrow.

Strings used: D'Addario NYXL 9.5-11.5-16-24-34-44. Intonation at the 12th fret is perfect. Photo of high E and B attached. So, to shift the bridge towards the treble side: loosen and remove the strings completely, loosen and remove the saddles, shift the bridge to the treble side, then re-assemble and test?
Thanks,
A.F.O.

Bridge does look shifted towards the bass side:

EDITED: So, to shift the bridge towards the treble side: loosen and remove the strings completely, loosen the spring tension, loosen and remove the saddles, shift the bridge to the treble side, then re-assemble and test?

alienfreakout wrote: ↑Sat Jun 10, 2023 6:41 pm EDITED: So, to shift the bridge towards the treble side: loosen and remove the strings completely, loosen the spring tension, loosen and remove the saddles, shift the bridge to the treble side, then re-assemble and test?

No. You do not need to loosen the saddles. Loosening the strings until slack should be enough to nudge the bridge in place. You may have to "convince" it to move with a little blunt force applied. Removing or loosening the springs may be needed.

And... in a nutshell... what is the procedure to loosen or remove the springs?

Thanks,
A.F.O.

alienfreakout wrote: ↑Sat Jun 10, 2023 7:42 pm And... in a nutshell... what is the procedure to loosen or remove the springs?

Thanks,
A.F.O.

https://youtu.be/T_r_yx8l3Vw?t=40

I successfully shifted the tremolo bridge as far as possible towards the treble side but the high E string still pops out of the bridge and makes a sound when the tremolo is released. I guess I will have to live with it...

Thanks for all the help!

alienfreakout wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 12:16 pm Thanks for all the help!

Had you tried the step of pulling the string straight through the tuner to remove all slack before locking it down and tuning up to pitch? I use needle nose pliers to get a firm grip on the end of the string. Again: It’s something I’ve had to do with other trem designs to compensate specifically for the string going slack enough to pop out of the saddle during divebombing while I’m trying to break in a new set.

Tried that and tried raising the bridge as well. No luck.

Thanks

Being as I never had this happen with any of my Parker trems, I’m at a loss to suggest anything other than perhaps the bearing(s) in that production era of saddle are failing to create a sufficient “valley” for the strings to stay in. My hypothesis is that the break angle between the ball end in the string retainer hole and the saddle itself is skewing just enough to one side that lack of friction is allowing the string to simply ride the round surface of the bearing up and out of the saddle once it’s no longer under sufficient tension. Other than replacing the saddle with a different iteration, I can only think to test whether shimming the saddle to affect the break angle between it and the retainer hole might help.

I don’t recommend doing this; but I’d probably resort to kinking the string or applying extra* solder to the windings at the ball end, just as experiments to see if I could affect the nature of the problem enough to have a better grip of what’s going on.

*Daddario already solder-reinforces the ends of their NYXL strings.