09/16/2026
I finally connected with Larry Fishman today. He called and we had a nice 40 min conversation on Ken, Parkers, some stories and answered some questions I had. On the saddles, they were bonded with Shore 90D harness epoxy resin with conductive material added (copper / silver). Regular conductive epoxy off the shelf was too soft. Epoxy was applied, caps were put on, set in a clamping fixture and cooked for 2 hrs @ 250 degrees. He explained how he would repair one but a complicated process of stripping epoxy out and re-gluing. He also mentioned that making them was an inexact science and they were sorted out output. He designed a fixture to rest and record results. On some of the early models, those numbers are on the back of the trem (pic). The easy answer is to buy a set of Graph Tech or RMC saddles. On the topic of pre-refined preamps, they initially had the problem of the boards failing. It was finally determined that built up static electricity transferred when plugging in was killing the power chip. They went to a more dependable non-CMOS chip. One last insight was the superficial cracks in the paint at the last couple of inches of the neck/body joint. He and Ken determined that the neck pocket cavity wood needed to be sealed with epoxy to keep moisture out of the neck joint area. One great story / Marvin painting bodies in a hotel room just before the NAMM show, lol.
