Parker Guitars Fly Classic

1997 fly classic. Came with the 1st generation dimarzio humbuckers (which are proprietary, meaning that old flys can't be upgraded with regular pickups. Also came with a Parker a gig bag.

As far as features go, this one has plenty: piezo, coil-split, innovative body and design.
The neck is very narrow and thin (as much as some Ibanez necks). While I normally despise thin necks, this one is actually rather comfortable to play. The composite fretboard reminds me of ebony to the touch.

The whammy bar on the non-refined flys is decent. Don't expect, however, anything close to an original Floyd Rose (my guitar tech also told me customers complained of broken whammy bars).

I have nothing but good things to say about the design, playability and most innovations of the Parker Fly. However, as stated above, the pickups in older flys cannot be upgraded with normal pickups (there are very few options to replace them with).

I come from a Gibson background and am into hard rock/metal. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try (even with tweaking the tone knobs and settings on my amps), nothing sounds desirable. The magnetic pickups are brutal: the neck, which is based on an Air Norton, sounds bland and cold. The coil-split is weak and hardly convincing (don't expect a strat-like sound here). The bridge pup, based on a Tone Zone, is decent if you want to play with distortion. In fact, it will handle metal ok. Played clean, however, it is an atrocity: it is essential to play with the tone knobs as the upper frequencies coming from this guitar are unpleasant.

The piezo is the best sounding feature: while it does not sound anywhere as good as a genuine classical/acoustic guitar, it does a decent job. Further, you can blend the magnetic pups with the piezo for a wider array of tones (none too likable imo).

I bought this guitar used. There was a paint chip on the upper horn.
Not sure how well the paint ages: my cat jumped on my guitar rack, causing the fly to drop off. I was surprised at the large chip of paint that came off.

One good thing about the paint is that it does not stick to one's hands (as it is often the case with newer Gibson instruments).
The action is sick: extremely low without buzzing.

While I'm pretty sure the fly is a reliable instrument, I tend to worry about the piezo. When your battery dies, so does your magnetic pickups. According to Parker Guitar's website, the non-refined fly's battery should last about 100 hours (I found this to be exaggerated). The newer, refined, models last at least twice longer.

There have been various comments on the stainless steel frets. While I haven't had any problems with them, I do recommend NEVER using any oil on the fretboard.

Never dealt with them.

If this were stolen or lost, I might save up for a better match for my style (Parker Fly Mojo Flame, which has a thicker and wider neck and sounds much warmer (comes with Jazz/JB)).
If not, I would not buy any other Parkers. While it is revolutionary in many aspects, and has a character of its own, it falls short as soon as you plug it in.

2005 Parker Fly Classic, USA Made my US Music, Not Ken Parker.

Typical Fly guitar, no modifications.

I found the quality of the guitar less than perfect. From day one it was one thing after another, first the 3 way pickup selector went out on the electric side, then one pickup went out, then the piezo bridge, all in the first month ! It spent more time being repaired than played.

It was returned eventually and replaced witha Real Parker Fly from 1998 when Ken Parker Actually worked there.The guitar was used, but perfect ! and i saved $1,000 ! over the New one.

US Music bought the compnay in 2003 and Mr Parker has NOTHING to do with the compnmay, but if you look at their website, you would think he still builds the guitars !

I wish i knew how it sounded, but most of the time it was not working right.

The action was good, finish ok, it did need some minor setup work done.

I would not count on this guitar in a live show or in a studio with the clock running.

The company, US Music was irratated when i called them each time, i got the feeling of " its you again "

If this guitar would have been stolen, i would have been happy, it was insured !

If you want a real Parker Fly Guitar, buy one that was made between 1993 and 2002 other than those years you are getting a Washburn made guitar.

I think it was made around 2003? Not too sure. I bought it in 2005. Has 24 frets that are all accessible (that means I can actually USE the 24th fret). Laminated top made mostly out of composite resin or fiber or something like that. Two volumes, a tone, and a Paizo volume. Active paizo (of course) and passive pickups. I've got DiMarzios in there, but they're not the original. The previous owner (as I've heard from many people) thought they sucked, so he/she changed it. It's a transparent natural red finish (Borat: Very Nice). I'm not sure what brand of bridge it is, but I do know it is able to whammy both ways. The tuners are locking tuners... I wanna say Grover.

I play a lot of Christian Rock and Worship music. there hasn't been a song I couldn't get the sound out of. As far as diversity goes, there's nothing like this. I use a Harkte 400w Bass head with a Behringer 4x12 cab (strange setup, but try it). I use a multitude of effects: Johnson J-Station, Digitech RP-1 (yea I said it... what?), Line 6 POD, Line 6 GuitarPort, Johnson Chorus, Boss Metal Core, and Boss Overdrive/Distortion. Of course I don't use them all at once, but the guitar goes great with each.

I do have to switch pickups when it goes from clean to distortion. One's muddy if distorted, the other is too bright if clean. It's all in the taste of pickups though. The paizo acoustic sound is sweet! Put some heavier strings on it you won't need to change guitars, even if the song calls for acoustic. I do have a problem with the infamous *clink* each time I switch pickups. Usually have to hit a heavy note or turn down the guitar all the way to avoid the crowd or congregation from saying "EESHH!".

The volume knobs and tone knob aren't much help. You get about 0%, 50%, 100%... and that's it. Sometimes the settings I use for clean make the guitar too bright, so I try to take it down a notch... but you gotta be careful because you'll get too low a tone and sound like you're playing John Mayer's "Slow Dancing In a Burning Room" real quick.

Action is wonderful... in theory. You can get the strings pretty darn low with absolutely no buzz. The only problem is the nut, and certain notes on the B string. The nut can't really hold any larger than a 10 gauge set. Right now my B string is sitting on Top of it and the high E string is tuck in there just so that sometimes when I tune, it only tightens from the nut to the knob. The part over the fretboard is not affected. A file is the simple solution for it. Will do. I also get a slight buzz on the 7th fret of the B string if I do a pulloff from 8 to 7... anyone else ever had that problem?

Bridge is amazingly great. I don't whammy, so they've got a lock in the back that keeps me from knocking it out of tune when I lay my hand on the bridge, like for a palm mute.

Wonderful live. Rarely have to tune. No need for backup. Hardware is great. This guitar has been hit by the other guitarist's SG plenty of times and not ONE knick at all. Strap buttons are great. I know that I've played a lower model and the strap kept sliding off because of the position of the button. Mine is dependable, his... not so much.

I use it in just about EVERY gig I play.

Never had to use them. Witnessed it in action with another guitarist and it was terrible. His electronics just... went out. He sent it in. They called him back close to a month later saying he'd have to get another one. After much arguing, they finally sent him one via a music store and it was a lesser model, different color, higher action, cheaper hardware, horrible strap buttons (see above).

I've never used them. Probably never will with that service.

The Good

Great sound. Just like anything, you've got to tweak it to your liking with settings and additional hardware. Fretboard is flawless (no fallen frets like I've read about) and smooth. Strings stay in tune very well. Has a great punch and a beautifully mellow sound all in one setting. Acoustic paizo is great. It's 4 pounds which leads me to believe God made it and Ken Parker took the credit.

The Bad
Some pulloff's sound muddy (almost like the string comes out of tune, from itself-I think it catches a fret-). Not friendly with 11+ gauges. Clinky pickup change. Knobs are WAY too close to your hand. The battery stays in use even if you're not using the paizo.

The Ugly
Well... it is ugly.

I bought this 2000 model in 2005 new.
This US Parker has a beautiful natural light mahagony body.
The back side is black and looks like a piece of art.
It has the last version of DiMarios inside.
I blocked the tremolo with a metal plate because I never use it.
The neck is the fastest and most accurate one I ever played.
The stainless steel frets never wear out and therefor never have a negative infuence on intonation.
I got it with Gigbag and Case.
The piezo offers additional sound options.
This is one of the most versatile guitars ever.

Humbucker fans will not like this guitar because it could be too bright.
I prefer single sounds and so I love these bright sounds.
The classic had only a 3 way switch what did not offer enough options for me.
I dont like bridge pickups alone.
I modified the switching options. Now I have 6 unusual sounds.
Neck single, both singles, neck single and bridge HB.
Neck HB, neck HB + bridge single, both HB's.
I checked out all possible combinations and this is what I like.
It does not sound exactly like anything else.
The piezo needs a little tweaking on the mixer but it is great.

This is the first guitar in my life where I did not have to correct the factory settings.
US Parkers and only US Parkers are really great.
I checked out Korean Parkers but these are only crap.
The classic neck is the best worldwide.
(There are many great guitars but no one reaches this slickness.)

Very solid guitar.
Dont forget to unplug the cord or your wireless system.
It's active and the battery will be empty next time you touch it.
One thing I dont like is that the red battery warning LED lights up only 1 hour before the battery is really empty.
This was too short for me one time.
That's the only reason why you should have a backup with you.

Never used.

I play Pop, Rock and Blues since 1977.
I had many guitars and I still have 10 (good ones).
This is now one of my main guitars because of the perfect combination of playability, weight and sounds.
I like the rugged construction - I dont have to tune this thing any more. Every time before we start playing I check the tuning and most of the time every string is in tune perfectly.
It is not sensitive to temperature and humidity changes.
A little minus: sometimes the upper horn pushes into my ribs.

More than any guitar you will ever own . Two humbuckers that split into single coils and a piezo bridge pick up . locking tuners and a neck and action that plays like a dream , this guitar is very inspirational and hard to put down . It will make you wonder why you own 8 other guitars .

Iplay through a mesa boogie dual recto tremoverb , a tc electronics g major for effects and a sonic maximizer for high and low tone control . I can pull off any style from jazz to spine tingling metal , the lead tones on this guitar are insane . All my guitars pick ups have been changed to seymour duncans or emgs , i always considered myself a seymour duncan man , but this dimarzio is better to me than any pick up i own , i was wrong dimarzios sound way better than any duncans or emgs do , this pick up fucking smokes .

Mine was made in 99 and i replaced the bridge pickup with a newer higher output dimarzio pickup , made for the fly and was given to me by parker . The action is amazing , its better than anything i have ever had . I own a strat , les paul , 2 jacksons , 2 ibanezes and this parker is better by far than all of these guitars .

Only had it for a couple months but it seems as durable as any other guitar but i dont beat on my stuff ..

They were very helpful in trying to give me a pick up that suited my taste , i wanted something with more balls and have found the best pickup i have ever used .

Been playing for eight years and have owned probably at least 20 american made guitars , bought this because of the price used and was looking for a used prs when i saw this , this guitar went beyond my expectations by far , this the most versatile guitar i have ever owned . Im not sure ill ever even need to try a prs anymore , i cant imagine a guitar having more playability and versatility than this one , this guitar almost plays itself . Iwould rate my les paul with a duncan fuul shred a 9 , also my jackson rr1 with emgs a 9 , what do you rate this guitar ? i have to rate it a 10 . Who knows maybe a prs is an 11 , dont know . im extremely anal about my sound and have always loved my duncans and emgs , but this guitar and dimarzio pickups rock .

98 fly classic trans blue, you already know the sepcs.

in play mainly pop rock and blues. Its a great versatile guitar. It would fit jazz or country. I use it with pod pro - g force - g major - roland jc85. I got some hum one time and realize a solder wasnt made, but since i bought used, cant complain. Easy to fix anyway. Sounds bright as expected, but the mahogany body makes it a little fuller sounding. The piezo is awesome, sounds like an old ovation, but sounds better through a PA.
The onlky thing i dont like is that the guitar is so specially made that some things need special tools (jack wrench and the wiring!). But i have to say i changed the piezo saddles myself and wasnt so difficult (the original rotated a bit and the 1st string was going out of tune all the time).

action is awesome on this, ive had it low for a while and about 2 months went back to the factory action... killer, easier to bend. The pickups i think are really good, but not awesome, i would have preferred a paf pro in the neck or something brighter. The tone zone is really good for heavy and splits cool. I solved the neck pu issue wiring the neck pu in parallel to get something similar to a single single an worked awesome so i saved the money in buying other pickup from dimarzio. They are making a lo of pickups for the fly now, email them and theyll sent you the list.
Finish and the overall making was perfect.

well, here the guitar goes down a bit. Its strong enough to live playing and hard rock, will last, even the finish. The strap buttons had to go for a broken screw, im using cliplocks right now and work cool. I can depend on it, gigged with it many times with no backup.
Sometimes i get noise in the signal, maybe the isolating paint is not conducting anymore... I just dont like its so "specialized" made. It makes it hard to customize it.

They are great people, but theyre webiste is damn ugly... the told me that the parallel wiring for the neck pickup couldnt be done... i thouhgt they were wrong, took the guitar to an electronic technician and made it in a minute and i didnt even lost the split coils in the center position...

ive played for 15 years, mainly had strats. The fly is my main guitar and im planning to sell my last strat. I think the fly is versatile enough to what i make. I love it. The neck, the action, awesome. The frets amazing, but since theyre glued its gonna be hard to service them, they look like new though, soy maybe will never need help here.
I like its features, all usable. Dont like its in the thin sounding line. The design is best i known, but it does affect the tone a bit. Anyway i like it and thats why i bought it.
If you wnat better piezo go buy the artist (or supreme? dont remember, maple anyway), sounds richer but brighter. The mahogany is more of a rocker. Would buy again? yes, but would try the highest end models first.

1997 Parker Classic in Red!!! This is damn near my ferarri of guitars if I ever had one.

All mahogany construction w/ a set neck, two humbuckers, active piezo system, carbon fiber fingerboard and stainless steel frets. The whole thing can be run stereo to two amps and split the piezo and magnetic pickup signals or you can combine then to one signal with a literal 'push" of a button.

Has the worlds best tremelo...I did the steinberger thing and Ken Parker might be able to win a match of wits with Ned Steinberger.

It came with a hardshell case...actually a hiscox case and all the accesorries...springs ect.

The trem allows so many options...like a steinberger you can lock or unlock it with a flip of the switch however....in comparion to steinberger you can fine tune the tension more precisely and the trem on the parker never completely "locks" is just disables your ability to use the "pull" on the arm. I like it and favor it so much more to a complete "lock".

Very versatile...too versatile. My only complaint, and I am really picky, was the choice of neck pickup. They were both custom Dimarzio humbuckers. The neck was the air norton equivalent and the bridge was a tone zone equivalent. The air norton was just TOO muddy. I replaced it with a FRED and it warmed it up and cleaned it up. It sounds fabulous. i usually play with the piezo and magnetic pikups on together. It gives the guitar more presence and cleans it up through alot of saturation from effects. you can get a huge array of sounds from this guitar and I would closely compare it to a really nice gibson SG kind of vibe but with all the stratty-like option of the trem, ect. I later bough a nitefly with single coils so I now feel like I have all my bases covered.

I got this used and it seems previously there was a flaw in the finish on the back of the neck. A so-called "professional" luthier in New Jersey thought it a good idea to try and buff it out...well the horses ass burned the finish and there is a big spot in the center of the neck that is orange. What he did not know was that there is a carbon fiber epoxy resin that is sprayed on the back of the guitar and all over the neck to strengthen the neck joint and neck. When you 'buff" carbon fiber type stuff it creates a fair amount of static and will actually literally 'BURN"... like create arcs of electricity...because there are little microscopic metallic flakes. What an ass!!! anyways, this all happened before I bought the guitar so...i had no choice in this happening. However, the guitar was in great shape and I was super pleased. Action, sound setup...was all perfect. I am also to understand that the factory setups are pretty "ON" and really require no tweaking whatsoever. This is a nice thing to know. The guitar is built just so...that I believe it requires it to be relatively exact anyways. The only tip I can give you though is that really light strings like .009's might give you problems. For instance...I find that the high "e" string likes to slide and slip on the saddle. When I bend real good it like to slip and kind of "ping" until it finds another nich to set in and then as I release the bend it will "ping" back to its original place. Heavier strings DO fix this problem. I just thought it worth mentioning.

No contest...very durable and the longevity IS there. Stainless steel frets will never wear and the carbon graphite fingerboard will never warp. The only thing I have noticed on several parkers it the ease at which the finishes seem to want to chip. Especially on edges. They use a a different paint than other manufacterers and it seems a bit brittle to me.

never tried...I bought used. Doubt I will ever use them. I did however, call to order a pickguard for my nitefly. My only complaint is that the customer service guy was very un-knowledgable and very hurried. I just hate to "put out" CUSTOMER SERVICE people...;) It is there job afterall... last time I checked they were to be informed and to help out...maybe I am wrong...probably. Other than that they can be a bit costly...

just about perfect as far as guitars go. Longevity, versatility, aethetics and more. I recommend buying used as it will be considerably cheaper...but new would be nice to make your own war wounds. If you want a high end electric guitar and something more cutting edge with a traditional sound I recommend parker stuff and this model in particular. I really feel you cannot go wrong. As a professioanl luthier and repair technician and as a 12+ year musician...live and recorded...this guitar is nothing but an asset to your playing music as well as making a hobby more enjoyable.

1999 Fly Classic. It has the newer dimarzio customs in it. The rest of the features are the same. Natural mahogany finish (NICE!)Cant get too many more features on a guitar.

This is where I was pleasently shocked. I owned aparker fly back in 1995 (classic). I sold it because I could not get the tone I wanted from it. I have been playing les pauls and peavey signature equiped with emg 81/85 since. Since that time I have purchased a new amp (still have the tech 21 that i ran the parker through) yamaha dg100. I bought the classic just because it was a deal i could not pass up. I plugged it into the yamaha..........THIS GUITAR SMOKES! It sounds better than anything else I own. It can cover any style of music. Just takes a litlle tweaking. I am not sure if the newer dimarzios actually made that much of a difference so I plugged into the tech 21 and could not get the tone I wanted from it. This guitar needs the right chain to make it come alive. I have not touched any other guitar in over a year. Might even sell 'em.

This is the best part........"nothing plays like a parker"....this is not b/s.......I will leave it at that.

Its a guitar. I treat it like one. and it will last as long as I want it to.

Never had to.

try it. you will not be sorry. best thing i ever did was buy this guitar. i wanted to feel this same way when i bought my first one. kept thinking ......if only.....but cant say that now. I will play nothing else unless someone will out do a parker, which I doubt.

98 fly classic, the gorgeous blue one. the features you already know, maybe too many

for rock sounds its awesome(humbuckers)... in clean (split) i think its a bit to thin and too many volume difference with the H sound...
The piezo is great... run it through a dedicated amp or PA, awesome.

Action??? this is THE ACTION!!! i think it would be best with 10s though...

well its a thin piece of wood, so you have to be a bit careful, but wel cared it will certainly last... after 7 years the tuners are not locking enough anymore, so changed them, thats very easy and cheap to do... The finish is beautiful, i wish it would be a bit clearer. I can depend on it and gigged many times with no backup... Only problem is that the saddles (steel i think) are a bit too hard for nickel strings and they break often (lets say every 1 and a half weeks) under extreme use

They even sent me the schematics to get it fixed... it started to make a lot of hum and still does... i grew up on strats so i dont care about the hum anymore... they were very friendly and helpful in giving me hints to solve the issue (im far away in Chile, South America, no parker dealer here)

been playin 12 years. I would prefer more pu's options (just 2 models for the bridge an 2 for the neck, dimarzios and duncans)... i think the neck pu is muddy. Would like better "evenness" in volume in the 3 positions. Too many pots in these one, but already solved in the 2003 model.

I bought this guitar in Viginia whilst on tour in May 2000 however, the gutar had been on the shelf for a while as it was built back in 1998. The guitar is the Transparent Cherry Red finish, hosts 2 humbucker pick ups and has the usual Parker tremelo system and piezo pick up. It also has the Sperzel tuners for locking the strings and keeping it in tune. The guitar came with the Parker hard case (totally useless, falls over way to easy, not enough space inside for extras) the y lead, tools, manual, the tremelo bar but absolutely no spare tremelo plates.

I play a variety of musical styles. I suppose the main style that i'm doing at the moment is a kind of Ceilidh Rock thing. Now don't panic out there - it's not a Scottish tartan and Haggis thing i'm talking about, it's like Jimmy Shand meets Deep Purple - kind of a Jimmy ShandriX Experience if you like. I use a lot of acoustic then change onto electric but for obvious reasons you would lose around 4 bars whilst changing guitars so that was the practical reasons for buying the Parker guitar and it works really well for me. I have several guitar set ups depending on the gig or the size of the venue. The big set up is a Marshall pre amp into an effects unit then through a Power amp into 2 x Marshall 12 inch cabs, a real big bitting sound. I have to agree with the world on this one - The Dimarzio Pick ups Suck! In fact the only people in this world that won't agree on this fact are Parker and DiMarzio themselves. I changed them by myself - see info later.

The guitar was great when i bought it but i had to make slight alterations to it as i use skinny top heavy bottom strings. I couldn't actually get the 6th string through the bridge - the ball end wouldn't go right through but stuck out and kept slipping - so i had to drill it out to allow it to go through. The 1st string being a guage 10 started to cause a high end ring coming through the piezo (anyone had that with their Parker?) so i had to change that up to a guage 11 to get around that. It's as if the string ate it's way into the saddle so i suppose i could change the saddle should i want to go back to a guage 10? Funnily enough i'm not fussy about action as most of my guitars you could get a bus under the strings so no probs there. The pick up selector is very noisy - big clunking noise whenever you change pick ups. It appears to me that it's very strange that such a well thought out designed instrument, lovely, very playable but yet they go and populate it with shitty cheap parts from K Mart. Wake up guys!

Yes the guitar is well good in a live situation. I played 168 gigs last year with only one major breakdown. I was shocked when as i was walking onto stage the third fret fell off???? What the hell is that all about? Here's a challenge for the players amongst you - I had to detune a tone and a half, stick a capo on the third fret then play the gig - fancy that one guys? Parker were no help - they told me what type of glue they used and that a fret shouldn't under any circumstances fall off, but it did! They blamed it on possible rust, yes that's right, i play music for a living and i frequently let me guitars rust eh??? Bollocks! To be fair yes i love the Parker and very rarely have a spare guitar with me at gigs. The finish is good and should last. A big problem is the battery compartment, it's a nightmare to get the battery out at times as the compartment is so tight that the battery often sticks. You have to dig it out with the end of a screwdriver. My problem with Parker is that although they've been around for a number of years now, they seem to have given up with the research and development - try listening to the guys that are out ther playing the gigs, living with the guitar, realising the problems that need to be addressed, don't talk down to us or pass the buck to everyone else. My pick ups were awfull, my toggle switch is extremly noisy, my fret did fall off, i've got no spare tremelo plates, my first string has high end rings, my battery compartment is a nightmare, your after sales service along with DiMarzio sucks!

As previously mentioned - Parker and DiMarzio after sales suck! When i returned from the States i used my guitar with my own set up. The pick ups were terrible from that day on. I spoke to Parker who told me that there was no problem with the pick ups and that if i had a problem then i should approach DiMarzio themselves. I called DiMarzio who told me the same deal - no problems with our pick ups etc etc why don't you look at your amplification?. So guess what, i spent a fortune and i did change my guitar set up. I got new amplification but the pick ups still sounded very weak and equally as bad. The neck pick up was totally brutal to be honest. The next call to Dimarzio was a waste of space indeed. The guy (Randy i think) said that he'd love to get to the bottom of my problem so just bring the guitar in and he'll see if he can detect the problem. I knew what the problem was - the pick ups were Crap! When i told him that i wasn't near New York, not on the doorstep but living in Scotland he thought that Scotland was in London - Doesn't that say it all? Anyway the bottom line was that i took the pick ups out and sent them to a well known pick up maker and manufaturer (no names for obvious reasons). He put a meter over them, did a few tests and he was shocked and told me that in over 20 years working these were the worst pick ups that he'd ever had on his test bench. It's a difficult procedure and expensive when buying new pick ups espeially when buying Parker pick ups. You'll never know what they sound like until you fit them but first you have to order them, buy them then no money back because they're no use to anyone but Parker owners ...BOGUS! Regarding tremelo plates, yes maybe the shop was at fault for that one however, after the shop told me that they would send them to me, they suddenly had a new distributor and wouldn't send them so i would have to ask Parker. You can guess the answer there eh? Buy them from your own distributor in the UK at around #18 a piece!

I've been playing around 23 years and been playing semi pro or pro for around 10 of them. I would buy another Parker tommorrow as they're perfect for what i do however, i would not buy an old one with DiMarzios, it would have to have Seymours or something equivalent. They're great for doing gigs as they're very light and trust me sometimes i'm on stage for 6 hours and my Les Paul would just kill me doing that. I have in total around 16 instruments and my two main guitars are the Parker Classic and an old Ibanez Blazer that i had fitted with a pre amp and a piezo pick up. I bought this Parker because it was reduced in price which fitted into my price range. Looking back i wish that i had borrowed money and went for the midi fly or a hardtail.