Does Anybody Else Own a Parker?

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SoonerRoadster

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I have had mine for a few years now and I love the crap out of it, but I never see them around. Anybody else put their Parker through a Mesa?
 
I have 2 parker Fly Classics that I play through a TA/290 rig. Soon my Quad will be arriving and I will be playing through that as well. I am going to sell one of the parkers as I just picked up an Eric Clapton strat but the parker has been one of the best playing/sounding and most versatile guitars i have ever touched.

Greg
 
I have a Parker Fly Classic. I've also owned a Fly Deluxe and a SA Nitefly in the past. All of them are amazing instruments.

While my main guitars are my Telecasters. The Fly Classic is just a guitar I can always go to for any style. The flexibility and quality of sounds in it is insane, and it's incredibly comfortable to play.
 
I owned a Fly Deluxe. Got rid of it because the knobs were far too confusing. Live, I found myself having to double-check the position of every knob in between songs to make sure things were where I wanted them.

Also, while they are a dream to play live/standing, I found the body's hard lines very unfortable while sitting down and playing.
 
I used to LOVE my parker fly. but it is SOOO midrange sounding through my MESA. You really can't beat their tremelo system. And I do dig the super fast action and "glass" fretboard.
 
I don't own one, but I will vouch for an American Parker fly being the fastest guitar I've ever played. They're savage with a graphite neck and piezo. The wing jabs me in the stomach when I play sitting down too haha
 
i played parkers exclusively for six years and owned the following models:
Classic
Nitefly SA
Nitefly Southern
Spanish Fly
Butternut Ltd
PM20 Pro ...don't laugh- it sounded better than the american made models.

i had internal roland gk pickups installed in my butternut and classic models. i'd have liked to post some pics, but i don't say any "attachment" button on this screen. oh well.

in my experience, something gets lost from the pickups to the output jack because these guitars all sounded incredible unplugged. most of us know that if a guitar sounds good unplugged, it's only going to get better when you plug in, right? not in my experience. i believe a big part of the problem is the dimarzios. i'm not going to go on a tirade against dimarzio, but i WILL say they're not right for these guitars. i don't know if the duncans helped with the mojo model, as i never got a chance to try one. as much as i wanted to be different and stuck with the parkers for quite a while, i ultimately went back to the "standards" - strats and les pauls. ken parker is an awesome engineer who created the best vibrato system out there, created the world's fastest neck- not to mention the most stable. i NEVER had to touch my truss rods, and i live in new england where we can have 90% humidity in the summer, to 10% in the winter. these things do not budge! he also truly created something DIFFERENT, and built it with otherworldly precision workmanship. unfortunately, that doesn't always translate to superior sound. i've gotta say- as crude as a strat is, it just sounds better. leo really got a lot of things right early in his career. i have a feeling out of sheer luck though, or maybe a deal with the devil. i prefer the nitefly models to the glue in neck models for two reasons: 1) you can change the pickups. and, 2) the necks are slightly narrower which makes it easier for guys like me who like to reach around with their thumb to fret notes. wow, i've been typing for a while now. what was the question again?!
 
I am with you Thinskin, 110%. I remember the day I plugged in my fly, and compared t against the EC strat, and my EC is the first model with the crappy lace sensors, but it still sounded sooooo much fuller. I will vouch that my parker is LOUD unplugged, altough I never thought about it until I read you post. I have really wanted to change out my pickups, but the body is sooo thin, I think I would have a hard time finding ones that fit. I have the S/S/H active model, sunburst. The peizios are a nightmare man. Those little ball bearings fall out when you bust a string, and basically kills that function till you replace the saddle or replace the ball bearing. I keep a bag of those ball bearings in my case now.

I still use the parker for jazzy trem crap, or the pedal driven monster. But the **** guitar does not sing. It has no soul. which is too bad cause I feel like the shredster when I play it. Super fast action.
 
I know nothing about these guitars other than they're comfortable to play and look quite slick. Can you think of any drawbacks to them or anything one should look out for (as far as signs of trouble)? My current situation is that someone may be buying one of my Hamers, and I know of a used 1996 Parker Fly Deluxe selling for $1100, but I think I could get it for around $800-900.

The reason I'm hesitating is that people on Harmony Central have all kinds of nightmare-ish stories on the reliability of the Parkers. Specifically, the electronics, and the frets popping out of place.

Thanks
 
i've owned 6 parkers and NEVER had problems with frets popping out. that could have been one isolated case. certainly not widespread. worry more about the crappy dimarzios in them...
 
Worrying about the pickups I can handle. It's the other things people were complaining about that concern me. Most notably, problems with the electronics (Piezo) and various knob issues.
 
i really wouldn't sweat those details. like i said, i owned several different parker models and never had electronic problems. even after i had an internal Roland GK pickup installed on two of them- the control cavity was PACKED with electronics and still never a problem in the 6 years i owned them. regarding the piezo pickups- i see they've changed the design to the type where there are two ball bearings that each string sits on (like the nitefly models) and i've heard of issues w/the bearings falling out but it never happened on my nitefly models. luck of the draw? who knows. good luck.
 
i did have aproblem with one of my piezo dying but once it was replaced all is good.

The knobs on the older models are made of a rubbery plastic.
the only problem i could see with the knobs is that one of them is a stacked control.


The frets will only pop off if you don't clean the freatboard. The oils from your fingers disolve the glue that keeps them on. But wiping the fretboard with a damp cloth everytime you change the strings will keep everything in place.
 
i live in MA where the original factory was and got to meet Ken a few times. the glue that is used to hold the frets on is the same kind they use to glue your rear view mirror to your car's windshield. just fyi. don't know if that's what they use now though.
 
I KNOW that glue - my dad used to be an autobody man. Let me tell you, that stuff stank!!!

So, if I can pick it up (the Fly Deluxe, not the glue) for 8 bills, I'm doing ok?
 
that is a deal and a half. 800 for a parker is usually unheard of. pick it up you wont be disapointed. Hands down it is the most versitile and comfortable guitar i have ever played.

If you can get it for that price i would recomend sending the dimarzios to ducan and have them rewind them so they sound a bit nicer.
 
no they wont fit because the body is so thin. I do know that ed roman has developed some way to mod the pickup so it will fit. Parker even refers business to ed roman for pick up changes.
 

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