The Fly Leaning Bridge Posts Issue

[billy]

Terry Atkins may not have been the original innovator and design genius that is Ken Parker, but that man had a level of passion and dedication to trying to make Parker guitars remain viable as a company and keep it alive. He worked tirelessly (and ridiculous hours) week after week, month after month, trying to solve so many of the challenges to make that "$10,000" guitar profitable. Some may not agree with all of those changes, but Terry's heart was always in it. Much respect to that man for what he did to try to save the brand...

Very much agree- he did a lot to keep the brand going and unfortunately the rest of usm management wasn’t that supportive. Great guy.

[Fly Rod]

I've had a few Ideas for tightening up the slop or play in the bridge posts to the adjustment posts
On mine there is a crack that's really not too bad in the wood but will fil that with Superglue or epoxy before putting the posts & bushings in after the top rout
The play in the bushings I think can be made up with that Copper foil shielding tape to be make a perfect fit
These guitars are super nice & worth the time to make the trem adjustments perfect

Not everyone wiggles the bar

[Gregsaab]

I have been some tuning/intonation issues on my Mojo and have suspected the dreaded leaning post problem. Alas, I just removed the strings and tested the rigidity of the bridge. I am able to rotate the bridge about the high E post with some angular play at the low e side.

Here is a video, let me know if this is confirmation:
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1AJr1PPdJFgvzi

[mmmguitar]

@Gregsaab, were all strings intonating sharp at the 12th fret, with increasing severity from the low E to high e? Is the tuning issue the trem not returning to zero position, with all strings either sharp or flat? Or is the detuning inconsistent? Assuming intonation was sharp, were any strings able to be intonated with the saddle moved all the way back?

[Gregsaab]

The guitar’s trem was always able to be pulled back (sharp) when the stop step was in locked position (bend-down only). My assumption was that the stop had an alignment issue.

Yeah, the low e’s intonation was always on the sharp side, really had to jam the saddle back against the string to get it intonated.

I had fixed the threading in the low e’a saddle, was completely stripped https://flyclone.com/viewtopic.php?t=494. I’m guessing the previous owner had intonation issues and assumed the saddle wasn’t locked down and really cranked on the screw (which caused thread to strip).

The post-trem usage tuning issues (some strings flat, other sharp) have only recently become apparent now that I started using a highly precise tuner. I noticed that the tuning of strings affected the tuning of other strings, was a bit of a balancing act. Then after using the trem, the balance was lost.

I see at least three methods of fixing this - is there a generally recognized ‘best way’ (read: most robust) to do it? I like the idea of just using copper tape or something of that ilk.

[Gregsaab]

I contacted gman on reverb about stabilizer rings, but he doesn’t think he has any - are there any known sources for them?

Edit: gman saved the day, looked through boxes and found 3 rings.