Parker Guitars Fly Classic

I've got as 1997 Transparent Emerald Green Parker Fly Classic. Without going into too much detail that's already been covered here in previous review, I'll just say that it's got two humbuckers, one piezo acoustic pickup, onboard actove mixer for the two pickup types, stereo or mono out (i.e., two separate outs for mag vs. acoustic via a y-cable), a super fast graphite neck (especially with Elixer nanoweb strings), stainless frets. The body, despite what others have said, is pleasantly light - some don't like how light it is...it's a real treat after playing a Les Paul. It (purchased used) came with two pairs of strings, y-cable, OHSC, tremelo arm and instruction manual. Beautiful figuring to the mahogany body visible through the transparent finish. The bridge is adjustable from full-floating like a Floyd Rose (but not quite the same), to fixed, or bend down only.

I play Jazz and fusion (and xmas songs this time of year). It jams. It has so many sounds that it's simply amazing. I particularly like it dry, unprocessed. That's sort of the point, anyway - to get a mix of the natural sound of the acoustic WITH the magnetic pickup sound. Even better is a processed sound on the mag side with a cleaner piezo mixed in. VERY unique. No amount of processing can make a regular electric guitar sound like a Parker, IMHO. Anyway, I play it through my V-Amp and I love it that way, too. As has been said before, the DiMarzio pickups aren't the hottest in the world, however, hot doesn't necessarily equate to 'good sounding'. The DiMarzio pickups sound quite good, and are well matched to the piezo and the overall intent of this guitar.

Finish is nearly flawless. The fellow I got it from took good care of it, and it had a great finish to begin with. The knobs have a nice rubber grippy feel, and despite reports that the master volume is too close to the strings, I find that if you have decent pick control, the knob is fine where it is. The factory setup was excellent (I'll explain later how I know, since it's used).

Well, the guy I bought it from took meticulous care of the guitar's appearance, yet, overtightened the balance wheel such that it was frozen! I had to send it back to the factory to get it fixed. They claimed 2-3 weeks to fix - it took 18 days from my door, round trip back to me. Not bad, especially at the Xmas season.

As for durability - if you read the manual and understand how the Parker's unique controls work, you'll have no trouble. I haven't played it live yet, but, I imagine it would be just wonderful. It's PLENTY light enough that it won't break your back (<5lbs).

I suppose the only thing that could go wrong live is that the battery could die (that supplies the onboard electronics), so if you plan to play out, just make sure you're batt is fresh.

Yes, I've dealt with customer support - they treated me very very well. I called at the 2 week mark to ask about my guitar's repair (see above), and it happened to be done that day. At my request, they even threw in a few Parker Stickers! When I called the next day to get my tracking number, the person answering the phone recognized me by name right away! The guitar is now back in my hands and it's damn near perfect except for some *very* minor pick scratches from the first owner. Almost indistingushable from new. Parker even cleaned it up nice before they sent it back. They also set it up for me, and the setup is nice and low with no buzz.

Overall, I'd give it a 10. This is one of those guitars that you have to experience to believe. If I had to keep a few guitars out of my huge collection, this one would be in the top 3.

I bought it for a very steep 4200$ canadian with the insurance money from my stolen Les Paul custom. Mine is cherry red and very nice looking.
I won't repeat what everyone already said about the features. It's pretty mind-boggling. The only pickup set up I almost never use is the piezo-bridge mix.

I don't get the bad reviews this guitar gets in the sound departement. It has a very fat sound in the middle coil position, which is great for playing funk. It has a VERY smooth legato-style, round sound on the neck position. Turn the tone down in that position and you have an great jazz sound, add in the piezo in the mix and you have an unreal jazz sound, something a Gibson can't touch imo. The piezo is so-so when plugged in a normal amp, but surprisingly efficient in a PA or an acoustic amp. You can have great distortion sounds out of all the mags. Very satisfied.

At first the guitar was pretty good, but the action was too high. I lowered and tighted the tremolo and for a short 2 months, it was perfect. After those 2 month, tough the high E string started buzzing slightly and my G string started getting sharp every time I use my tremolo/whammy bar too much. It's weird since I basically changed nothing and it suddendly changed.(if you can help on this, just send an E-mail) The neck, is pure bliss tough, I've NEVER tried a better neck, easy, fast and a great cutaway make's it the easiest playing guitar out there. My playing instantly improved when I played it, it's totally unreal since I played on a Les Paul Custom before, and I thought it was an incredible guitar. It still is, but the Parker is that much better. Also, the weight difference is an extra that can't be forgotten.

I think this guitar looks very reliable, I've never had a let down in the 6 months i've had it. I don't bring a back-up guitar to gigs yet(too broke), but I don't feel like its a necessity.

Havent had to deal with them yet.

It's a God-sent. The only thing that bothers me about the guitar is the switch emplacement for the mags, still have a hard time getting used to it. For the rest, it's the mother of all guitars!

I bought this Fly Classic used. You can look up features on the Parker website. Basically, it is a H/H/Piezo configuration.

I find it difficult to believe some of the other reviews that down rate the sound of this guitar. I use my guitar with a Boss GT-6 processor (processing the mag pickups) and direct in the Piezo pickup. I amplify via a Peavey KB/A (Keyboard, Accoustic) amp.

I can make pretty much any tone I want with this guitar! If you compare it to digital products like VG-8s, Variaxes etc, the 'accoustic' sounds wins on the Parker hands down.

I personally like the humbuckers..they are not has hot as some others I have seen and let's me hover around Strat sounds as well getting into darker humbucker tones.

Sustain is fantastic, but this is my first guitar that isn't bolt on so I may be unnecessarily influenced.

I bought mine several years used and it plays and looks like new! It ages well and plays well...I do not think it can be beat! I've yet to exploit the Parker bridge at all. I don't think I like the idea of having to replace bridge springs with each guage of sting, but they are cheap to get...just a hassle.

Mine is older than some and it looks and plays great. Everything I've heard say this will be one rugged guitar.

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I've played since I was a teenager (I'm 44). Slowly moving up guitar levels during that time (with a 18 year hiatus in the middle to start a family). This guitar is the best I have seen. I've played new ones in stores for several years and always wanted one. My previous guitar was a US Strat.

I insure my instruments ( I play out ), I would be heartbroken and would look HARD for another Fly like this one.

End statement: Great guitar! My back likes it too! I do not find 'thinness' in the sound of it...the sounds fits me just right. Remember tone is a preference issue, you'll only know by trying one out (a few times with different amps)

2000 parker fly Classic

This Guitar does have a lot of features and available mods. But being a slight technophobe, features are not always a good thing. I like the piezo/active blend feature and the locking tuners, but the tremelo setup quacks when set to non-floating. Stainless steel frets wont wear out and neither will the carbon fibre fretboard....

As his guitar was a gift I had no chance to play it before I recieved it, and like all neckthru parkers it sounds really shallow in normal mode, but thru an acoustic amp the piezo does have a warm feel.
This guitar is clinically quiet, I mean if you do studio work it would be great but in a small club I would rather have a less sterile axe.

Exellent finish, really low action (I took it up a little to get better string response). One small blemish in the mahogany (my wife says she got a hell of a deal on it due to this)but it is not a major flaw.
The neck is very fast with great access near the heel (well thats becuse there isn't a heel)

I dont play this guitar often so I cannot comment on durability....

Never Spoken to Ken But i hear good things

I have been playing guitar for 13 years, sometimes with a band but never in a studio situation. I feel this guitar would be great for a studio musician or a Jazz guy but not for smokey clubs and such (it's just to damn sterile!)

Plenty of gadgets and interesting styling. Kinda reminds me of "Purple Rain" and I'm not sure that's good, but nonetheless an innovative guitar with a varitable pallette of choices within your reach. All of which,in my opinion, fall a little short of it's price tag.

This guitar sounds like it has a thin body. It sounds like 4 lbs. Fortunately I traded $700 worth of gear for a 95' Classic and don't have to write a review rationalizing to myself why I blew $2500 bucks on one. The Piezo sounds better with thicker gauge strings. With them on, the Parker becomes harder to manipulate. The intention is there and I applaud that. With lighter gauge strings you can really rip it up on this neck. It is a fast, trim design. Parker has a lot of hype behind it but not much depth and sustain. It has it's moments but I like a hot bridge pickup sound, the Parker doesn't produce that. It's tinny and lacks dimension. The Red Lace Sensor in my USA Strat wakes me up in the morning. I never play my Parker. I just show it to people.

Great action, nice looking finish. Like I mentioned earler, with lighter gauge strings you can really rip it up on this neck. It is a fast, trim design. I acquired this Parker used with dings, don't really know how durable a finish this is. Electronics are working now.

Don't know how it would stand up in a live performance because I am not willing to compromise my sound. Seems durable enough though. I have 11 guitars 10 of which I like better than this. It is still very cool I just happen to own a few cooler guitars. Such as my Vintage Ibanez Artist. 24 frets of flawless action. It would take too long to write that review for that . A real value at $250 US w/ OHSC.

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I own several amps and am a gear junkie. The Parker Sounds decent through my Roland AC-100, JC-120. Marshall JCM 800 2205 head w/ DD-5/GE-7 in the loop. Unfortunately I was never satisfied with decent as far as guitar sound, so I can't see rating this guitar too high.

After the number of reviews on this page, I feel that a rehash of the Fly's features would be a waste of time. However, it can all be summed up with relative ease:

Ken Parker deserves some sort of international prize (maybe a Nobel) for this groundbreaking design.

The Parker Fly is designed with astounding perfection. And although, the features may not make some people happy (previous review), however, I think it can be agreed that the Fly's features work in such harmony that major kudos is deserved on the behalf of Ken Parker.

To sum up, the Fly has a nearly obscene amount of features put together in a perfect way, and for me, it "fits" perfectly.

It disturbs me that a lot of people think this guitar sounds thin and has a lack of sustain. I think a review of physics and an acknowledgment of a few simple facts might help that.

Why are cymbals thin? Why do acoustic guitars have such thin 'walls'? Well, they are designed in this manner for projection, sustain, resonance, etc. And if the wood is right, which in this case is a FINE mahogany (as opposed to this shit Gibson puts in their guitars these days), the sustain and 'tone' can be better than ever.

And it is...whenever I play the Fly, I can feel the resonance throughout my body. Whenever I play a deep, chunky chord, I feel it. Whenever I hit a soaring bend, it shivers through me. This guitar should be hailed for its thin design, rather than dismissed.

The pickups sound GREAT. They're quite hot actually and through my Rivera Knucklehead Reverb, the Fly is quite a fire breather. Yet, the clean tone is still pristine and fat. The middle position on the pickup selector yields a great single coil-type sound and through the Rivera's amazing clean capabilites, it sounds euphoric. And when I fire up the overdrive, the bridge and neck pickups are hot and powerful, yet they retain their clarity through even the most obscure chords. Nod to Dimarzio on this one.

The piezo: Wow, a surprise. When I got this guitar, I didn't really care about the piezo, but it is AMAZING. Plug it into a console or an acoustic amp and it practically sounds more like an acoustic than an acoustic does. You're playing a plugged-in Martin or Yairi without the bulk and the string resistance. Tearing it up on an acoustic is suddenly easy and well...cheating, but the sound is perfect.

In my experimental rock band, this guitar fits like a glove. It can go so many places and with the music I play it's forced to. It handles it with ease and facility.

After you play this guitar for a while, other guitars feel horrible. Even my old Ibanez S470QS felt like a baseball bat after the Fly. The neck is great and the shape going into the thru-neck is really nice.

I got this guitar with no flaws and things were fairly well adjusted. All I need to do is just do some incremental changes, which are incredibly easy to do with Parker's completely original system of doing anything and everything. A couple of Allen wrenched are needed, but the guitar is VERY VERY EASY to work on.

The fingerboard should be a lesson to all guitar companies. The carbon-glass composite feels smooth and it doesn't feel disgusting on a humid day like everything else. Playing outside is a lot more enjoyable with this guitar.

The frets should be yet another lesson. String are normally made of nickel...frets are normally made in nickel. Frets wear down this way. Ken Parker made his frets out of stainless steel and not only will they last longer but they feel noticeably better. Playing this neck in general is like butter.

Completely dependable it seems but only time will tell...it's still very new. I always gig with a backup and soon it will be another Fly (the deluxe probably- not bad for backup!) I can say that the guitar feels and looks sturdy and all the hardware is rugged and built to last.

I haven't needed help and doesn't look I will need to.

I've been playing for about 6 years and professionally for a couple and this guitar is perfect for me. I had been desiring it for a while and when I got it, I was satisfied and even surprised that it met and exceeded my expectations (which I assure you, I have quite high expectations and consider myself to be an avid tone freak).

Ken Parker: genius. And thanks.

Go try it. And those of you disatisfied, reanalyze without the dogma that is the only real conflict to this guitar.

Everyone has hit it on the ball so no need to repeat...

Well I don't see what the hype is about. The tones out of this guitar are decent, nothing great. I play in a jazz fusion band and I bought this guitar hoping for some very versatile tones. Well there are but there aren't. This is strickly my own opinion, but I feel Parker Flys are dead sounding to me. I put it through a Mesa Boogie Mark IV and it really didn't do nothing for me. A lot of people say I am crazy but I am not impressed with this Parker. Even the shape looks funny.

The guitar wasn't set up properly. Although this guitar has been on the floor for about one year (so the salesguy told me) that may have been why. The neck was all out of wack. Strings were rusted. So i can't really blame Parker for this.

No idea, I returned it.

I have been playing for 15 years as a jazzer. I returned this guitar after 30 days. It just doesn't have the tone I want. I went to another store and bought a brand new PRS Custom 22. This guitar sounds 1,000,000 times better than the Parker Classic. Remember just an opinion.

1999 USA-made Fly Classic, two dimarzio custom humbuckers and 6 piezoelectric transducers in bridge ,active EQ 9-volt battery which is this guitars only draw-back is that after a time it needs changing (it lasts forever), with the following controls: one-piece mahogany body (basswood neck), beautiful teal gloss transparent finish. Composite carbon fiber / glass fiber neck with 24 ss frets, ultra modern looking slightly unerving body style. this will go away when its ergonomic lightweight form wraps itself to you. Easily the best whammy bar out there. Sperzel locking tuners, this thing stays in tune for months even if you break a string and whammy hi and lo all night.Stereo output with blending mix of any number of combinations from the pick ups.Or mono if you want. Comes with all the tools and a great hardcase.Everything it has it needs everything works perfectly. If I gave tens this would get it. There are probably other features out to come but I can't think of any.

This guitar makes anyone sound good even thru a crappy amp.It has a complete pallette of tones. You can play folk thru full metal roar. Try one out thru two amps. Run the piezo to any good acoustic amp or straight to the desk. throw a touch of reverb chorus whatever and tweak to your personal Parker acoustic tone that sustains forever. Run your mags to another amp/effects (you can make it your tone slave, this guitar is unbelievable). Adjust your blend, get a box of kleenex, stand back and play, this guitar will make you weep with joy. It will change the way you play. For the better. By far and away the best sounding guitar i have played yet. (30 years of playing on and off). On again now because of this fine ,fine work of art musical instrument

Flawless. Perfect set up for me.

This thing is so precious to me. I treat all things special with kid gloves. But I'm sure if its durability is a close reflection of all other aspects it is indestructable. But I'm not gonna put it to the test. This guitar when set up does not go out of tune even when being thrashed. All the electrics are top notch with no noise.

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I've played them all.
This is the one.
When I ever play another (electric guitar) I just smile to myself 'cos I know. so far there is nothing out there that comes close to this. Plus it was a steal. This would be a steal for msrp $3100.
It will change you.
Don't let it's kinda strange first looks put you off. It was not love at first sight.
Did I say I didn't give tens?

2001 Parker Fly Classic in Teal, Fishman Piezo bridge, custom Dimarzio humbuckers, Carbon Fibre neck and body, Mahogony Top etc. This guitar is the mutts nutts. Having played Fenders, Ibanezs, Kramers, Gibsons and a multitude of other guitars, this one beats them all. Has a list of named components to die for, worth buying for the amazing whammy bar, better than a Floyd rose without the bother of pain in the ass locking nuts. It gets a 9 as the only improvment i can think of would be to have a coil tap to get more strat like tones. The sperzel tuners rule and are great for mid gig string changes and stays in tune really well even with excessive whammy bar abuse

I regularly play sessions covering every imaginable style, funk, jazz, rock, metal, pop and all kinds of ethnic stuff and it can handle it all. The piezo's sound amazingly authentic going direct to a mixing desk or PA and the humbuckers make this an ideal beast for jazz (a la Larry Carlton) or big thick rock tones (a la Nuno Bettencourt) but in truth it can do everything well. I play it through a Mesa Boogie pre amp into a marshall amp and 4x12 with the piezo's going direct to desk and people have been amazed at the huge sound i get in comparisan to Les Pauls or Ibanez's. The three way selector switch can go from a big screaming lead in the bridge position, tight compressed funk tones in the middles split coil position to a warm creamy jazz tone in the neck

The factory set up of my fly was beyond belief, it played well immediatly without ant tweaking whatsoever. The fret board is amazing, no filler in the frets which are neatly rounded off and feels as smooth as hell, this guitar plays itself! The inotation is spot on all the way up the neck. The mahogony top looks great and changes colour from blue to black to teal in different lights, the only bother is that its a sod to keep clean!

Only had it a few months but so far all things are good, it feels very reliable unlike some big name guitars that feel like they'd fall apart in your hand. Feel as though it would last a lifetime

Very helpful in dating my fly, even told me what time and when it came off the production line, nice people who seem to love what they are doing and are not just trying to earn a living

Ive played guitars of varying price for 15 years now and this one is worth every penny. It has looks to die for and makes you stand out from the crowd, which is what its all about isnt it?! The women love it and if it was stolen i would certainly buy another one coz no guitar comes close in terms of sound, components and overall sex appeal, yes it is expensive but in my opinion it beats anything else hands down! Dont bother with your Relic Strat or your aged '59 Les Paul, buy a Parker Fly!

Follow-up to a previous review: I still love my Fly Classic, and it just gets better every day. But here's a tip for those interested: I always missed having that sweet in-between sound (you know, the parallel humbuckers thing), and I contacted Parker asking what I could do about that. Those of you who've cracked open the control cavity may have been as intimidated as I was upon seeing a circuit board and ribbon cables. But if you want to change your pickup selector to a traditional Gibson-style switch, there's an easy change you can make: remove the neck pickup red & green wires, and the bridge pickup white & black wires from the pickup selector, making sure to tape each pair together. It's such a sweet little mod and it sounds so great with the mahogany body. FYI... (BTW, Parker ROCKS!!!)