Parker Guitars Fly Classic

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.

natural mahogany, classic...I think I bout it in 98.
I played like 5 of them in the store. guitar center SF
all the good but, the pickup sound....????
like another reviewer said it took me months to realize something was missing. I had been playing an old L5, lots of standards and new jazz; I wanted a new sound. piezos, blend, nice, ,but that in-between sound!?! The Sax, Piano, Bass player even the drummer said,,,just bring a 335, teli or strat,,,which I had...they didn't like the sound.

the solo sound was mostly lacking,,, but I hadn't realized or noticed the literature saying that it was a one-coil each blend, !DOH!

small marshall combo, kitty hawk(new pots and pre amp mod)
1 6L6 recording amp, home made 2 6v6 bogen chassis in a midget marshall cab(nucking fice!!!)

lots and lots of pedals, recording crap and stomp box's,
mod'd reissues and classics(phase 100, trem...)

but that weak-in-weak-out middle sound,,,
which is often lapsed into without remembering
its dual split coil,,, !!!doh!!!
thanks to Raymond Luxury-Yacht I dared to fiddle with the
pickup selector and the fix took seconds,,,

I've played old 100k guitars at my friend Richy's We-buy-guitars in NYC,,,this is silky, subtle, sexy and responsive. makes me feel like I could get that scofield, frezel, dorio thing happening...well hubris is part of the deal.

finish is alright,,, looks nice seems to be ok for a 7 year old guitar.

well the controls do feel fragile but I've had other pots
that felt this way and they lasted since the 70's,,, in fact one bourns pot got put into like 20 guitars; even after breaking off the connection lug!! really I lived through the 80's where you could have a guitar with 20 sounds you wouldn't want to use anywhere = \

I replaced the strap lock the first day, plastic T top from stew mac, like 2.00 a set,,, I bought like 10 sets and put them on everything.

I sent one email, no response.

thanks to the guy who posted the wiring info, it's now better.
it's very easy to change(the discription by Raymond Luxury-Yacht made it seem more difficult)
the details:
when both mags are on, one inner coil is on bridge&neck.

-disconnect the black and white(already together) for the bridge
and it's both coils on (for the bridge pup)

-disconnect the red and green(already together) for the neck and
dada, both coils are on.

first I wrote down what goes where and taped it onto the cavity cover.
next I found out which sound I liked,,, (bridge both coils)+ 1 coil neck. As I remember a classic tone from the 70's but not hollow. horray!!!!! its like when I changed a few caps and resistors and got my reissue TS10 to breath and not kill bass tone.

I had already reviewed this guitar and gave it much kudos EVERYONE knows the features, for the record I had installed a Sperzel 'D' Tuna which I defintely recommend to those who need to drop.

The Sound of this guitar is suprising considering the weight etc. I loaned it to a friend who does lot's of Song writing demos and he couldnt stop saying how well it would sit in every mix. I have used it live and studio, live it's a bit cumbersome to switch settings and the volume knobs are waaay too light to be used to control gain to the amp. I also have a PRS Custom 22 10 top for when I need that rolled back sound.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aha...Now I can gripe let's see: I have had no fewer than 3 frets 'FALL' off this guitar. I personally spoke to Ken Parker at NAMM about this, he insisted it was the cleaner I was using...(What cleaner???) I really think it's the glue that melts in hot climates..33 deg C average. My tech hates this guitar for this. I wish the frets were not just glued onto a flat fretboard.

Well I have dealt with USA MUSIC for the replacements frets and Flat Springs cause I broke 2 of those. They were great.

GREAT GUITAR!!..Hate the fret installation, that all.

I have an Honduran Mohagany with no finish. I worked at their factory awhile and was able to pick one up before it went to the paint shop. It is very vibrant and loud with no paint, just some tung oil rubbed in, looks like a million too. I have the 2nd hotter version of their pickups in it. Never been one to use a tremelo, so I locked the bridge down so it doesn't float.

It suits my heavy and clean styles perfectly. I use a SD-1>Zinky Master Blaster>Electro-harm Small stone>JCM2000 DSL with a Sonic maximizer in the loop. I love metal, and with the right rig configuration you can really get some wickedly defined metal tones. I think the pickups can be muddy with certain amps. I think that all the sounds you get from different pickups can be full and rich if you know how to set your amps EQ to bring it out. I have played a nice Les Paul through my same setup, and think the FLY easily holds its own.

Design is the key work here, everything retains it setting so well you never have to do a darn thing to it. I set it up to my specs years ago and haven't touched it since.

I have played it for years.. very durable. An extremely light guitar makes it a pleasure to jam for hours with. No shoulder aches after. Have had to replace 1 piezo and 1 flex cable. If you didn't know how to do these things, finding parts and doing it can be challenging. Steward McDonald has FLY parts!

Difficult to get parts you may need, I think the company may have moved to NY? Steward Mcdonald has a limited selection of FLY parts.

The things I like most are it's easy playability, it holds it's setup well, and sounds really great. The things I dont like, it's tendency to sound muddy without proper amp/settings, it has had several parts fail, and the replacements were expensive and proprietary!

Not sure what year it was made. This is the standard model classic, transcherry finish, with Seymour Duncan upgrades installed by Ed Roman Guitars.

I love most of the features of this guitar: it's light weight, it's neck (so fast and smooth), it's easy adjustability for trem and action, and it's looks.

I give it negative marks on one count: the placement of the volume knob: I keep accidentally hitting it while playing and turning the volume down. I understand that the newer models have changed the position of the volume knob so this may not be an issue.

Bummer. No sustain, even with the duncans. Thin overall. Also, a harsh edge, possibly the result of the stainless frets. Piezos are pretty good, nice acoustic sound; I could see how one of the acoustic-only Parkers would be a great choice for someone who wanted only that sound. But I needed some good old-fashioned sustain out of the mags, and this beauty just didn't deliver. It took me a week to realize that it didn't have the sound I wanted, and it went back to eBay. I was very disappointed, because it is overall such a beautiful instrument. It might be just right for a player who wants a sharp, crisp sound.

Outstanding build quality. A work of art and craftsmaship, very solid.

I think it's probably pretty reliable, since it had had at least two owners before me, been shipped back and forth across the country, had a pickup upgrade, and was still in pristine condition when I got it (except someone had used something like car wax to polish it... ick!). So, even though I didn't keep it for long I'll give it high marks.

Been playing 35 years, gone through lots of diffent guitars, effects, amps, etc. Have settled on a Goden xtSA (which replaced the Parker, and which I am deliriously happy with), play through a POD XT into a Carvin PA--don't have a guitar amp anymore, don't want one, the POD/PA combo is better for my style. Play about one gig a week, usually as lead guitarist, sometimes as solo act.

I wish the Parker had more sustain. The duncans in the upgrade seemed like low-end Duncans to me; I love the Duncan Jazz, and they weren't even close.

2001 Parker fly classic
She gets 20 (not 10)

You get an awfull sound from a guitar that costs THOUSANDS $
DONT try to get a real WARM sond.Espesialy a warm drivesound.
I play jazz-fusion and I can asure you that this guitar is far away from this direction
Its rocks ok
I have try a Brian Moore with duncans and itsfar away as about the jazz sound
SINGLE COILS ARE TERRIBLE. NO fatness at all

No problems at all

With a very carefull set up (there is a very sensitive vibrato brige)
its great

I am from Greece so I cant trust any guitar tech here.

I beleave that the TERRIBLE SOUND problem has totaly solved by the factory using Saymour Duncan
Anyway the guitar remains one of the finests instruments are ever made
(it s the finest I ve ever seen and believe me I play jazz for about 80 years etc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)**&%$#@!(^*$^

This is a 1998 classic model, has 24 frets, hum-cancelling on middle position, custom dimarzios, beautiful transparent blue finish, unique bridge style, locking sperzel tuners, neck is perfect fit not overly flat. I could go on, but you can read other reviews for all the features I missed. Came with molded hardcase. More features than any other guitar I know. All features are useful as well.

This guitar is the most versatile I have ever seen in a guitar. I play primariliy, jazz, blues, clean rock, some heavier rock, and classical. This guitar suits all of those except for classical. The mahogany body gives it a nice warm tone which is worth the extra money over the deluxe. Piezo gives a nice acoustic sound over an acoustic amp and a relatively good acoustic type sound over a normal amp. Only dislikes is the decrease in sound in the middle position (not overly bad at all) and perhaps an overly bright tone in single coil mode. Overall deserves a 10.

I bought this guitar used, so have no knowledge of factory setup. Could find no flaws in the guitar. Transparent blue finish is high gloss and has the wood grain visible through the finish.

Guitar seems very durable and as if it will last a long time. Would never gig without a backup.

N/A

This is the greatest guitar I have ever play. Perhaps the only feature that bothered me was the upper hook of the body which sometimes digs into me and can hurt after a couple of hours, but its not really a big thing for me. I've found this guitar to be the most easily playable guitar and the sound is extremely versatile. I will probably eventually buy some other guitars such as a high quality archtop, and if it were stolen or lost I would most definatly buy a new one. Lets hope it never comes to that. If you have any other questions about this guitar, feel free to e-mail me, I will be happy to answer.

I bought this Parker Fly Classic used. Not sure what year it is, but it is in mint condition. The body-shape is awesome.
- made in the USA
- beautiful baby metallic blue finish (not seen anywhere else!)
- 24 frets
- Piezo/preamp system
- 2 custom wound DiMarzio pickups
- mahogany body/basswood neck
- Fishman bridge (fixed, floating, and bend-down only bridge)
- Sperzal locking tuners
- 25.5 scale
- 5 lbs.
- Seemless neck joint.
- came with hard shell case, instruction book, tools.


The most features out of any other guitar on the planet in my opinion. People are insane to give anything but a 10.

I use a Fender Frontman 25 amp. I play every single type of music imaginable. The Parker has often been praised for its versatility, and now I can see why. Fender? The phased-out single coil function covers it. Les Pauls? Easily. Acoustic sound? The Parker will suffice for that. You won't get an amazing nu-metal sound though. I don't think these pickups are hot enough for that, but it will cover everything in between like a charm. My solos are nice and smooth. The combination of the magnetic and Piezo sound is nearly limitless.

By FAR the most comfortable guitar I have ever played. You will agree when you play one as well. It's feather light - this is a GOOD thing people, not bad. There is absolutely no neck heel which gives the allusion of a one piece guitar.

The guitar was in mint shape when I recieved it. There were no flaws that I could find.

I broke the string on the very first day. I guess I was too eager to play. I have had this guitar for a while and it still plays like it was brand new. Hopefully it will stay that way....

Never dealt with them.

I'm 16 and I have been playing for about 2 years. Don't be quick to judge, I know my guitars, and I know how to play them. I have played everything from PRS, to Ibanez, to Gibson, to Fenders and all their nuances extensively. The Parker wins in the aspects of playability, and versatility. Although it was really expensive for me, it was well worth it. If it were lost, I would be so angry, that....

They are expensive guitars. Mine better not be lost. I have been waiting to get this guitar for a long time. Did it live up to my expectations? Above and beyond. Best guitar I own - hands down. I am giving this guitar a 9.5 (0.5 off for the price). Since there is no 9.5 option, I'm rounding it up to 10. EMAIL ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT.

This is a brand new axe, i got it around christmas time 2002. Its a beautiful see-thru cherry red.

The features have been covered many times... locking tuners, an amazingly advanced trem system, piezo acoustic pickups, and some brilliant custom dimarzio mag pickups.

Mahogany body, basswood neck-thru (to call it a neck-thru is an understatement, its more like a body-thru or something), carbon/glass exoskeleton, bonded-on stainless steel frets (as opposed to the more common inlayed nickel frets... less reliable, softer, and more vulnerable to wear and tear). Where the neck meets the body, the neck is actually thicker than the body. This makes for incredible upper fret access. The shape of the neck just keeps going into the body and you can play comfortably right up to the 24th fret.

The neck is wide, flat, and relatively thin, a lot like Jackson necks. Unbelievably comfortable. The carbon/glass exoskeleton is also great, it really helps on both resonance, tone complexity, and tuning stability. It is so rigid that it eliminates the need for truss rod adjustments as the seasons change so that your guitar can hold its tune more properly. That saves some good cash on setups :)

The array of tone controls is pretty complex but easy to get the hang of. It gives you overall volume, magnetic pickup volume, magnetic pickup tone, and then a co-axial piezo volume knob with a piezo tone O-ring around it. Then there are 2 switches... a mag pickup selector (bridge, coil tap bridge and neck, and neck) and a piezo only/mag only/mix selector. Near the output jack is a red button that you can push to have the piezo and mag signals going out on the same output, or you can have them go out on separate outputs so you can split the piezo signal off to run it direct to the PA or to an acoustic amp.

The axe comes with a very nice locking hardshell case. Included in the case is a set of wrenches and tools, a nicely illustrated instruction manual, a special stereo Y-lead (for separating the piezo and mag signals as mentioned above), a key to the case lock, and a trem plate for use with .10 gauge strings.

FYI this whole trem plate business is what goes in the back of the guitar instead of springs. Rather than stretching a spring, Parker trems get their tension from compressing a plate. This takes up less room than a spring trem and allows parker bodies to be as thin as they are.

Im using this guitar with a Tech21 Sansamp PSA-1 preamp into a TC Electronic G Major FX unit, into the FX loop return of a Marshall JCM900 head (im only using the poweramp section of the head, not the preamp section).

This guitar is material proof that the myth that bigger bodies = bigger tone is just that... a myth. The carbon/glass exoskeleton works wonders on the tonal qualities of the already very high quality mahogany that the guitar is made of.

Chords just leap out of the guitar with such gusto it almost seems like the guitar is doing the playing for you. Palm mutes make thunderous thuds and lead riffs just dance around inside the guitar. I've never heard a more lively sounding axe. Very full, very rich, very deep.

I'm in 3 musical arrangements right now. I'm in a rock band, a hardcore metal band, and a jazz/funk band. I can find a sound in this axe to suit every one of those styles perfectly. My main musical style, however, is metal. I seem to be one of the only metalheads to review a fly classic, so let me tell you now that despite what you've heard, Parkers also make EXCELLENT metal guitars. They're not just good for jazz/funk/fusion.

You hear about Parkers often being used by studio musicians who play whatever they're payed to. They use these things for a reason: they need a guitar that's as versatile as their playing so they can keep up with their careers as studio musicians.

The action from the factory was absolutely perfect. Intonation was also immaculate and the pickup height was great. There were also no dings in the finish, crooked frets, mis-placed dabs of adhesive, or any flaws that have become all too common in the world of high-end guitars now a days.

Not only was the guitar beautifully set up and flawlessly made, but (get this...) it also arrived from the factory perfectly in tune! I'm not sure wether i should credit that to Parker's beautifully advanced trem design, the rugged hard case, or the careful package handlers, but it was very impressive nonetheless.

Everything is rock solid. I've had no problems with it, and i've gigged it multiple times. There have been no tuning problems, so long as you remember to TUNE IT IN FIXED-BRIDGE MODE, NOT FLOATING! That's extremely important to remember.

My one gripe is that the trem bar system is kind of dodgey. It has no way of attaching itself to the trem... you just kind of stick it in there. It doesn't hold very well, but the manual says all you have to do is bend the arm a little bit and it'll hold like a charm. So really all i have to do is fish out a pair of pliers. I have yet to be bothered with doing that though heh heh...

I haven't had to deal with them yet (thankfully), but the other day they sent me a free parker fly t-shirt in the mail. That was pretty cool, so I'm giving them a 10 for that.

I've been playing around 5-6 years now. I don't regret purchasing this guitar at all.

Not to get all mushy or anything, but to me, playing this guitar is like a religious experience. Its neck is so perfectly sculpted, its body so light, and its frets so perfectly shaped and bonded, it feels like im not playing the guitar at all. It felt a bit weird at first, but then i realized that it felt weird because everything i was playing required so much less effort than it did on any other guitar. This is the most musical of musical instruments, as you dont have to fight with it. You just play it, no questions asked.

There is NOTHING i dislike about this guitar. It fits me like a glove. It feels just like an extension of my body when i play it. I urge everybody to try one if they havent already.

1999 Fly Classic in natural mahogany, with the usual features for this model: Sperzels, Parkers' vibrato system, piezo with onboard 9v preamp, and 2 DiMarzio humbuckers, mono or stereo output. The body is mahogany, the neck basswood. Came with a decent case, tools and manual. It has a lot of features for a guitar, but not all of them work that well in my experience, hence the rating.
I like the body shape, but I think it would be improved by removing a triangular section of wood on the back side of the upper horn where it is in an L shape so that it wouldn't poke so much. It wouldn't have to be a big change, just taking off some of that corner and rounding off the remaining edge.

I bought this guitar for the way it played, but was ultimately disappointed with the tone. The Dimarzios are nothing special; they have fairly high output, which makes them a good choice for players that want to use distortion all the time, but the clean tones are so so and cannot do the pretty, chimey sound that I felt the guitar could have delivered with the right bridge pickup. The neck pickup was useless to me, not nearly enough highs. The piezo is OK, it has the basic sound that they are known for, which can get you into trouble if you mix a lot of it into your signal. The biggest problem for me was that I liked to keep the tone knob for the mag pickups near the top setting, but the pot or preamp had a problem of some kind and made a noise right about where the sweet spot was. The noise was always in the same spot on the travel of that knob.

It was setup OK from the factory but I immediately set it up to my satisfaction. After a few months the output jack came loose; it's a weird jack with the external portion right on the wood, and no clear means of adjusting it. It is round, not hex shaped so you could turn it with a standard wrench. The retailer, and then Parker support, advised me that you need a special tool to tighten it. They couldn't tell me where I could get one of the tools, nor what they are called, and the store didn't have one. What kind of bullshit jack needs a special tool to tighten ? I felt this was an extremely poor choice of parts. The other parts and finer points of construction of the instrument were fine.
I felt the manual could have been clearer regarding the bridge. Really, I would have been happier with a hard tail version, but it was discontinued before I ordered mine. If you want to disable the vibrato system and use it like a hard tail, you have to increase the tension on that weird knob that goes through the top of the guitar, but not all the way, it needs to be a little less than that or else you may have tuning problems. The point of even tension is something you have to find by trial and error, it can't be marked for easy location, which sucks.

The finish seemed fragile, so I was always careful with it and didn't have any problems. I used straplocks (you have to use the original screw from the strap button on the top horn). The aforementioned lousy output jack was losing its' black finish, but the rest of the hardware looked pretty much as new when I traded it after about 2 years of use.

I sent the guitar back to Parker after having it for a few months because of the output jack issue (!) and the noise on the tone knob. They turned it around fairly quickly and covered the expense, but when I got it back the noise was still there exactly as it had been before on the tone knob. At least they tightened the jack for me... but I still didn't have that stupid tool in case it happened again. I have heard that the noise on that tone pot is due to a design flaw in the onboard preamp, but if that is the case they should have a) been up front with me about it and b) taken care of it with an updated design and offered me the fixed version for free when it became available. The warranty was one year, not nearly enough for a guitar in this price range in my opinion.

A mixed bag for Parker here. I loved the neck, precision fretwork and the light weight; I think these could be amazing guitars if they had better pickups and electronics, because the acoustic sound from the unplugged guitar and sustain are excellent. This was supposed to be my ultimate guitar that I would have forever, but after a couple of years I had had enough and traded it in for a Rickenbacker at about a $1200 loss (that's a lot of money to a working schmuck like me). I think Parker needs to go to some kind of standard pickup shape so the user can change them with aftermarket pickups. I realize the thin profile makes this difficult, but I don't see why a P 90 shape wouldn't work, they are not very deep at all. At the very least they should offer some alternate pickups in the original housing shape so that you could customize your Fly to get a passable vintage type sound.
Despite this experience, if Parker offered a hardtail version that addressed the issues I have mentioned and allowed me to put other pickups in without routing the intrument, I would seriously consider buying one.