Parker P8E Event

The Parker P8E is assembled in China from globally-sourced woods, hardware, and electronic components that are finished in Japan. Constructed to last with a Solid Cedar Top, Solid Maple Back, Rosewood Binding (not cheap plastic) Open Back ???Butterbean??? Gold Grover Tuners, Ebony Fretboard with a Bass balanced Ebony Bridge and US Fishman electronics. Complemented with a Bone Compensated Saddle and a Bone Nut over a zero fret to provide ideal string height over the first fret, and deliver a consistent sound between open and fretted notes. The 5 peace Mahogany Neck is impressive to look at and the 1.69??? width is very sleek and super fast. Electric guitar players are going to love it. The body is smaller than a Dreadnought and is very comfortable to play. The unusual body design will defiantly grab your attention. The body size is similar to a Taylor 14 series or a Martin OM style guitar making it excellent for finger and flat picking.

The maple back and sides of the Parker PA8 make the guitar bright and loud cutting right through the mix in a band or recording situation. But as with most maple guitars the sound can be tiny and harsh at times. The Solid Cedar top and Bass balanced Ebony Bridge is an interesting concept to curve the brighter side by bringing out more of the bottom end. I admit it does have a positive effect, but again this is a maple guitar yielding a loud and bright tone. Unplugged, the sound is loud with that typical maple bright sound that can sometimes be too harsh, but plugged into an amp/PA the sound comes alive with astonishing flexibility.

The Parker P8E is assembled in China and the finish work and setup is what separates the Pros from the Joes. It is painfully apparent that this product is the result of a mass assembly production. The Polyurethane Top Coat is wavy most noticeably around the Neck Pickup area as well as harder to find finish imperfections around the Binding and sides. Although the guitar is very light at only 4.5Lbs, the finish is too thick and heavy. The Saddle was set unreasonably high and the neck was in need of adjustment.

This was not an out-of-the-box player. If you are experienced in guitar setup then this can easily be corrected. However, if not it may cost you a few bucks more to have a professional guitar tech give you a proper setup. After sanding the Saddle down, adjusting the Neck Truss Rod back 2/3rds of a turn and a restring with Custom Light EXP Phosphor Bronze Coated Strings, "voila" a player was born!

The longevity of the Parker acoustic line remains to be seen. However, what attracted me to the Parker P8E is the type of woods and materials used in the construction of the instrument. Martin, Taylor and Gibson can be found using lesser materials in their lower end lines, but Parker uses materials that command a quality product with the ability to last rigorous road wear.

Neck Wood: 5 Piece Indonesian Mahogany
Top Wood: Solid Canadian Cedar
Back Wood: Solid American Flame Maple
Side Wood: Laminated American Flame Maple
Machine Heads: Taiwan Gold Grover ???Butterbean??? Sta-tite 14:1
Electronics: US Made Duel-Source Hum canceling neck pickup with Fishman Active Matrix System
Nut Width: 1.69"
Scale Length: 25"
Fingerboard: African ebony
Bridge: Bass balanced African Ebony Bridge with compensated Bone saddle
No. of Frets: 19
Position Markers: Microdot
Controls: Master volume, Magnetic /Piezo Blend, Active bass and treble controls
Pickup Switching: Blend control

I have only emailed the company, but by purchasing an Asian guitar you can only expect a warranty to go so far. I have purchased guitars made in Japan and China and when the warranty comes into play, let us just say good luck. The best thing you can do is your homework prior to purchasing. That way you can be certain of a quality instrument made with quality parts.

As a player of nearly 30 years who regularly gigs and owns several high end guitars both acoustic and electric I have learned to judge guitars by their construction, playability and sound. A Taylor 714CE with Fishman Prefix Blender and a Taylor 810 Custom are my primary gig axes. I would not place the Parker P8E in the same league as Taylor, but it is a wonderful compromise to taking a $4-$5-k guitar on a gig.

That being said, the Parker P8E is designed with the live professional musician in mind. Parker and Larry Fishman teamed up to create an amazing Duel-Source Pickup System that will blow you away. Access controls are at your fingertips for easy use during a live performance. The Magnetic Hum canceling neck pickup and Fishman Active Matrix Undersaddle are incredibly quite and responsive. You can easily blend between the warm Magnetic neck pickup and the brighter Active Matrix Undersaddle piezo to easily cut out harsh highs and bring out a mellow bottom without the boom. The XLR D.I. allows you to connect simultaneously to an amp and a PA. The result is an interesting full sound when using an effect such as a Chorus through the amp the XLR dedicated D.I. out to the PA.