Parker Guitars Fly Classic

This is a 2008 Classic in natural mahogany. I owned a 97 classic and thought I needed a change. After playing PRS and a Taylor T5 I came back to Parker. great frets, controls, vibrato, love the finish and the carbon fiber is bulletproof. Wish they would use better material for the back cover panel. really like the light weight!

I get every sound I need, it isn't the guitar that lacks if you can't find your tone. Great sustain and great variety with the spit coil, piezo and magnetic pickups. I do wish there was tone control with the piezo like the first generation flys.

well made and well set up. I find no differnce in fit and finish with the older Parkers.

so far so good,the only problem I have had with either was the jack on the older one needed replacing

don't know

I left Parker and came back, I would buy another if this one were stolen. Great fast versatile bulletproof, love the stainless frets.

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.

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.

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.

n/a

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.

N/A

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.

n/a

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!!!)

Bought at the end of 1995. This guitar has the cherry finish...like the ones in all of the ads. Same features as all of the "Classics", so I'm not going to rehash them.

I've played straight up rock with this guitar for the past 6 years. From the '60s to present. Beatles to Floyd to Pearl Jam to Metallica to Tool, all in the course of a gig and with just this guitar. I used to run it through Marshall stuff, but am now strictly Mesa Boogie. Either way, the sound was, and still is, incredible! As far as effects go, it's been pretty much either Lexicon or TC Electronic (currently the G Major). The ability to effortlessly switch from electric to "piezo acoustic" is what initially sold me. The only thing negative that I have noticed is that when the tone knob is fully cranked, it can be a bit shrill. I just by habit back it off a tiny bit, and it's perfect. The coolest sound though?....middle position on the humbuckers mixed with the piezo at about half volume...sweet!!

The action is second to none. The fretboard plays like liquid. Honestly, it took about 2 gigs to really get used to, but then there was no going back....to anything! Trying out other guitars in music stores, I have become extremely picky about the necks and feel. Ebony, rosewood, maple....nothing compares with the Parker. Nothing. The factory setup was excellent. I've only made adjustments to the trem when I've changed string gauges. Easy to do though.

OK. It's been 6 years and 200+ gigs. All with this guitar (and a backup...another Parker). I think then that I can say that it has withstood live playing...and a certain amount of abuse (of course, unintentional!)! And I'm absolutely certain that it will withstand another couple hundred! One gripe though...it didn't take all that long for a couple chips in the finish on the edges of the neck on the sides of the fretboard to occur. One potential reason? The frets are soooo smooth that it takes very little effort to bend the strings, so little that I have at times (in the heat of playing) bent the strings right off the fretboard! Thus the chips. The silver lining? The guitar stays in tune, with the bridge "floating", no matter how hard you play it!! Matter of fact, I've even broken the high E string mid solo, reached down and flipped the switch in back to lock the bridge, and continue playing the song, as the guitar stayed in tune! Try that with any of the Floyd Rose-with-locking-nut guitars!! Of course, had the B or G string broken, I doubt the guitar would have stayed so closely tuned... Bottom line here is that the Fly Classic is as dependable as you could ever, ever ask for in a guitar!! But, I still wouldn't gig without a backup. That would be insane.

Here is another area I can offer 1st hand experience with. I stopped by their factory in Massachusetts a couple years back and was graciously offered a tour. Very cool! Got to see the original prototypes, the "fire fly" (if you've ever been there, you know what I mean!), the routers, paint rooms, the whole deal. The heart and soul and talent that gets poured into these guitars makes them worth every penny of their cost. Very friendly folks. I have only had to call once, and my question was answered right then and there...it was about possible replacement pickups a while back. I honestly can't remember the warranty though....I'm pretty sure mine's expired by now.

I've been playing for about 17 years now and have owned way more guitars than I really should have. Strats, Les Paul (1), Ibanez... I have also been lured by the new stuff out there and always try to keep up to date, at least by checking them out. You never know what you might find (that's how I stumbled across the Parker). Of course, if it were lost or stolen, I would buy a new one without hesitation. There is another thing I do love about it. I had a back injury a few years ago, and doing a 4-set gig with the Parker doesn't even bother it! At the time I was shopping for guitars, I compared this one to a Hamer Duosonic (or something like that) because of the acoustic ability. Absolutely no comparison! And the Parker has a trem to boot!! I also met Ken Parker at Guitar Center in Natick, MA last year.....nice guy. Very humble. And did I mention that he designed one hell of a guitar??

This is just a follow-up to my earlier review, motivated in part by the more objective viewpoint I have now that the New Guitar Mystique has worn off. But the real catalyst for this follow-up was reading the "poetic" review below. Without addressing issues of rhyme or rhythmic structure, I'll just respond to some of the main misunderstandings represented in "Anonymous"'s review .

The Parker body isn't light and thin for the sake of being light and thin. (That would be Ibanez.) The reason for the Fly's light weight is resonance. Many, many guitarists think that body resonance is increased by mass or thickness. But in fact the opposite is true. Acoustic guitars are light and hollow / thin, as are drums, cymbals, acoustic guitars (in fact, all acoustic stringed instruments), woodwind instruments, brass instruments, etc. Why is this? Why isn't an acoustic guitar solid? Why isn't a cymbal 1" thick? Because vibration is not easily transmitted through solid material, and the less you have of it, the easier it is to transmit vibration. Thus the better acoustic sound you end up with. And as we should all know, magnetic pickups don't just pick up string vibration - they pick up all sympathetic vibrations from the guitar. And the more the body resonates, the longer the strings will ring anyway. Others have said that you can actually feel the Fly resonate against you when you play. It's true, and it's a good thing.

So what does that mean? That means that my one-piece mahogany Parker Classic is a lot more resonant than the typical "tone machine" Les Pauls or PRSs which are a lot thicker and have glue seams all over the place. The "big tone" you get on those guitars is the combination of two things: volume and EQ. The volume comes from overwound pickups. IMO, overwound pickups destroy much of a guitar's capacity for subtlety anyway. By comparison, the pickups on the Fly simply aren't as overwound as some modern humbuckers. Play a vintage Les Paul sometime and you'll be amazed at how "thin" it sounds compared to what you're used to hearing. The EQ comes from an overabundance of a treble-sucking wood (i.e. mahogany). The irony is that once you actually start playing in a band you find that you have to cut all of those fat mids out of your sound so that you don't muddy up the mix.

And lest anyone think that the Parker Fly is a "toy" guitar made to fall apart in a few years, let me reassure you that most guitar manufacturers are not even capable of producing a guitar like the Fly. That includes your high-end shops as well. The Fly is designed for maximum strength - that's why it has an exoskeleton. I have a buddy who owns a $3000 (lists for $5000) Les Paul. His guitar strap came loose while he had the guitar on and he cracked the neck like a toothpick. So you tell me - which guitar do you want? How many trips will you take to the repair shop with your Les Paul or PRS? How many times will you get the frets filed down or even replaced? How many neck adjustments will you need? Let's put it this way - go out and buy a new PRS and a new Parker and play them both every day for the next twenty years. And never take either guitar in to the shop or perform any adjustments. Never. Which guitar are you going to want to play in 20 years? Which one will even be playable? The Parker is designed to last - that's why it has stainless steel frets (unlike nickel, it's harder than your strings - think about it) and a carbon / glass neck & back covering to prevent the warpage that is inevitable with a wood instrument.

If you couldn't tell yet, my "more objective" opinion doesn't equal any loss of love for my Parker. The guitar has become comfortable and familiar in a "where have you been all my life" sort of way. I would never give it up except for another Parker. I'm spoiled for good. There's no way I could seriously consider another guitar again. Once you play a Parker,

See other reviews

I play blues, and it suits everything I need to do perfectly. An incredible array of possible sounds, very versatile. I play thru a Marshall DSL-100 w/ a power brake and a reissue Super Reverb, and I can produce nearly any tonal response I want.
When playing with both pickups, the output is somewhat less than I would like, though it gives an interesting rendition of positon 2&4 Strat sounds.

It is like a perfect blend of art and technology, and is the first real advance in electric guitar technology I have witnessed in 37 years of playing. Set up from the factory was very precise, though I raised the action slightly to accomodate my playing.
The stainless steel fretwork is beyond description, and the neck plays like a dream.
It took me a few months of thinking prior to purchase to get used to the appearance of this instrument, having been stuck in the incredibly conformist mind-set that afflicts most guitarists specifically,(especially blues guitarists) and men in general. However, when I realized that I was judging based on emotion rather than rationality, it became clear that I was missing the point. I'm very pleased that I woke up.

It appears, after 8 months of solid gigging and practicing, to be built like a tank. I have never dropped it, or run over it with a truck, but then I haven't done either with any other guitar I've ever owned. It holds tuning when a string breaks and when using the tailpiece, and changing strings is quite simple and quick.

have not needed any

I have been playing for many years, and have owned and played many great guitars and amps. I own several fine Strats, a Les Paul '58 reissue, a Gibson ES-335, and a Martin D-35.
I would suggest relocating the pickup toggle switch, as it is somewhat concealed while playing, and thus a litle difficult to locate while playing.
I do not like the gyrations necessary to adjust intonation, but it rarely needs it, and this is a small price to pay for such a fine instrument.

Blah Blah Blah...zzz...Read other posts.

The cool thing is that its got piezos.

The sad thing is that I dont dig the body of the guitar.

It prods me when sitting down.

It pokes when standing up.

The pickups
are DiMarzios
they are coolio
but this guitar...it no jivey-o
with my dy-bod-o

The Schallers are way cool
They make me drool
They stay in tune
Im over the moon.

The neck, its very thin
like wrasslin with Kate Moss
you would win!

The body, oh, woe is the body
the body everyone like-a
the body everyone loves
the body...everyone say "DUDE!"
but...I think...its not even real wood...

Sound sound all around
you can turn it up
or turn it down.

You play it clean
or play it dirty.
For the tone...
sounds like you're playing through a phone.
Its too thin
and too weak
The body shape
has made the tone weak

Not enough wood
Its no good
Although I like saving trees
this guitar sounds like bees
the bees, the bees
buzzing and buzzing
the tone of this guitar...
leaves me cussing.

Action is good
oh it plays nice.
The playability is good,
just like ice. ice. ice. baby.

Finish is cool
looks like steel wool
it is gunmetal grey.
Thats the way.

Feels like its gonna fall apart.
Apart to pieces.
Like Kathie Lee Giffords bag,
feels like its made by a hag
in a sweatshop, working from night till day
oh Parker...oh Parker...too thin is not the way.

No opinion! Hark!

Oh Parker. Why do you feel
like a toy.
You look like one too.
Little boys make you
in underground basements
windows boarded up
floor of cement.

Mr. Parker
a few words i'd like to say.
Thin is easier on the back
but not on the ears.
I've played for years and years
but the tone is unfulfilling
like Madonnas loose pussy,
this Guitar, it no lub long time docta jones!

2001 USA-made Fly Classic, 24 frets, two humbuckers and piezoelectric transducers in bridge (active EQ, therefore has an internal 9-volt battery) with the following controls: master vol, mag vol, mag tone, stacked piezo vol/tone, 3-way toggle for mag pickups (neck / inside coils in parallel / bridge) and 3-way toggle for piezo / piezo + mag / mag pickups (plus stereo jack for splitting signals, one-piece mahogany body (basswood neck), transparent cherry finish (a la Gibson SG) with ruby red finish on back & neck to cover glass & carbon fiber undercoat, body style impossible to classify, tremolo bridge (with easily switchable free-floating / blocked / fixed options), locking Schaller satin black tuners, 25.5" scale length, fretboard covered with glass / carbon layer with stainless steel frets bonded to the surface (no tangs). Came with Parker hard case, stereo cable, manual, hex wrenches, whammy bar, yada yada yada. I give this guitar a 10 for features based not on the amount of features but rather on their usability and function. Everything about this guitar is usable - nothing is wasted. There's truly too much coolness to describe here. And it's easy to use, but more on that later.

I played a Fly Deluxe side-by-side with the Classic for a long time, trying to exactly determine the differences (which really come down to the different tonal qualities of mahogany and poplar, since everything else was totally identical). They are very similar in sound, and the difference between the Classic and the Deluxe is subtle, but it is definitely there. It comes as no surprise that the Classic had a slightly sweeter tone, and I found it to be a superior sounding instrument. But that's purely based on my personal taste. If you're looking for a sharper sound, I would recommend the Deluxe - the inbetween sound sounded more convincingly Tele-like than on the Classic. But then again, when you really laid into the bass pickup on the Deluxe, it started to sound like a middle-position pickup more than a neck pickup. The Classic retained that warm bass sound under similar playing.

Anyway, I think this guitar sounds just great. A very clear voice and no dead spots or muddiness. It doesn't sound like a Gibson or a Fender or whatever, it just has its own voice. And I like that. I had been so stuck on the "Gibson sound" that it was hard for me to objectively evaluate any other guitar. But once I got past that, I saw what a great sound the Fly has. It's got ceramic pickups that DON'T suck (I'm sure ceramic was chosen over alnico for its responsiveness, in keeping with the Fly design philosophy), and you can wrangle a lot of tone out of them. The guitar is EXTREMELY ballsy with saturated overdrive but yet doesn't sound like one of those obnoxious things that are only good for "11"-type settings. It has a very nice smooth clean sound - I can see why some people use these for jazz playing. And just a quick note about the pickup selector - what an ingenious yet simple idea to have a three-way switch that cuts coils in the mid position. What I mean is this - let's say you're playing and you've got to change sounds. If you're on a PRS, you've got to find the right number on your little rotary dial or worse yet, flip the switch AND pull up / push down the coil tap. It's just not easy or intuitive. And anyway, the PRS gives you two inbetween sounds that are essentially the same as well as a (IMO) useless series coils setting that just sounds like crap. How much better to have a simple three-way layout that stil gives you a single-coil sound when you need it? And despite reviews to the contrary, I haven't noticed this legendary amazing drop-off in volume when I switch to the cut-coils setting. But after all, you are switching from a humbucker setting to a single-coil setting. How should I put it: DUH!! But enough ranting.

BTW, the piezo bridge sounds better than Martin's piezo under-saddle bridge. Everyone slags the Parker for not sounding like a real acoustic, but they forget that a real acoustic doesn't sound like a real acoustic anymore once you plug it in. The Parker has more clarity of sound anyway and won't feed back. Plus, if you're so inclined, you could do a whammy dive in the middle of "Blackbird" or whatever. If you're so inclined.

Well, I bought this guitar from Guitar Center, so I had to do my own setup. But that was no biggie - I probably would have raised the action anyway because I like to really dig in to string bends. I got a deal on this guitar because the finish was chipped in several places. But besides that, it was / is absolutely flawless. Solid, solid, solid. I used to own a NiteFly (traded it in on this actually) and I know Parker quality. It is absolutely unmatched, not only because of their craftsmanship but because of WHAT they're crafting. This is a unique guitar that most places couldn't even produce.

I've heard varying reports about the strength of the Fly, from "I dropped it and it broke" to "it got run over by a truck and still worked". Who knows - at least I don't plan on abusing it (as if I would do that anyway with a $2000 guitar!). That aside, I am most certain that this guitar will last a lifetime and then some. Nothing is flimsy or shoddy or second-rate on this axe. I trust Ken Parker not to put out crap products because I have read about and seen in my own instruments the wonderful care with which Parker makes them. And no, I don't work for Parker guitars!

E-mail isn't as quick as it used to be, but I haven't had any urgent issues yet. So I'm not too upset about that. The warranty is only for one year, which doesn't exactly give me warm fuzzies, but I can't imagine anything going wrong with this guitar that isn't a direct result of human abuse. So here they get a 6. Not sucky, not stellar...

I've been playing for around eleven years (started in high school like everybody else) and I work full-time as a music minister at my church. I play through a Tech 21 Trademark 60 (a similarly simple yet versatile piece of equipment). If this guitar were stolen or lost, I would most definitely buy another one. I can honestly say that there is no better guitar that I could buy. I mean, I could get a more expensive Parker, but I like mahogany better than maple or spruce (which I imagine would sound bright as well), so what else is there? Once you've played Parkers long enough, you tend to get spoiled (and probably snobbish - I admit it). As I said, I had a NiteFly previously and I was looking to upgrade. I looked at every brand you could imagine, including Gibson and PRS. But I could never get past the fact that they were all the same! Every one of them was using 50-year old technology and design. As Ken Parker himself said, by now guitar manufacturers have exhausted every combination of features possible on guitars. You've got the Les Paul clones, the Strat clones, the Les Paul with a bit of Strat, the Strat with a bit of Les Paul, etc. etc. etc. It's all been done. Only Parker is truly advancing guitar manufacture. The Fly is the Stratocaster of the 90's, but unfortunately most guitarists are too stuck in yesteryear to notice. They're driving around in these essentially N.O.S. 50-year-old cars when they could own a car with more reliability and better mileage that goes faster, handles better, feels more comfortable, and looks cooler to boot!

Can you tell I've got an opinion on this subject? Anyway, if you're looking to blow $2000 on a guitar, you really should try out the Fly. It takes some getting used to, depending where you're coming from guitar-wise, but it's a sweet ride once you get in.

Not shure the year made. 24 stainless steel frets, compound radius, Fishman Piezo system, volume and tone controls. Simple, elegant, minimal, precise. The body is so thin, and curves to accept the belly of the player. The whole guitar is one integrated system, the body carved spruce, the neck, wide fat basswood, all joined together by some super tough carbon epoxy layer. It is a guitar that uncompromizingly expresses what can be accomplished with modern technology and modern materials.

You can't compare it to anything. It occupies a weird zone. It can sound like a very nice acoustic electric, it can sound like a nice archtop. You can run it through an fx processor or an overdrive. Its strictly Piezo, but sounds different from any Piezo I've played. At max volume, I noticed no quacking. I am treating it like any other electric guitar. It came with D'Addario flatwounds, which are not the factory standard, but I really liked the sound, so I will probably throw a set of Thomastik Swing strings on it. I'm playing it through a DR that has a Weber BP12 in it, 5751's, and 4024's, and it is very sweet. It struck me as a jazz axe and I can get to places on the map I could not get to before. Havn't found anything to dislike.

You know, its just flawless. A scultured work of art and science.

Looks very durable. Like--its post Space Age, Man! It's tough. Very lightweight. Its not a guitar to set on fire or trash a Marshall with.

No contact, but they have an incredible reputation for prfessionalism and concern for their customers

Been playing since 1964, right after the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. Had a ton of guitars over the years, including Wechter electric-acoustic piezo's, Godin piezo synth guitars, Fender Strat's, Schecter's,Gibson SG's. My only other axe is a PRS CE-22 that I rewired to accept Joe Barden pickups. I love the fact that this guitar gets the kind of pure, bell like tones you get from a fine acoustic, but you can run em through a processor, and your arm stays close to your body, and its very light, and the neck is fat and smooth and fast. Might be more efficient for me to have a guitar that combines both the sound of Joe Barden's(best pickups imho) and the Piezo system, but It would not be as lightweight as this, and anyway, this thing is just a butterscotch dream machine. My only wish is that I had the typical Y stereo cable, so I could split it down two separate fx paths--but, that's a minor wish.

Made 1995 in USA. Has 24 frets. It is made of "tone wood". I'm not sure what that is but it is surely the lightest electric I've ever played. It has a master volume, magnetic volume, magnetic tone and a piezo volume/tone control. It is equipped with two Carvin Holdsworth model magnetic pickups. I got rid of the Dimarzios as they were too bright and had an upper mid harshness I could not get rid of. It is painted burgundy and has the Parker Trem bridge with Sperzel locking tuners. The neck is very fast with a nice wide cross section but thin and flat. There are the Parker stainless frets which are worth the price of the instrument.

It suits just about any musical style. The Carvins are very round and sweet with plenty of highs. I prefer EMGs as they have more real highs and lend themselves to processing more readily.

The set up was excellent out of the box. All I did was drop the action just a bit and tighten the trem bar rotation. I would like a roller nut.

The guitar is very robust even though it doesn't seem to be as it is very light. I put straplocks on it as I've had many guitars fall during gigs. It is dependable and seems to be finished well and very resistant to humidity and temperature changes.

Very good at responding to E-Mails.

Playing 20 years plus. I carry an inland marine policy on it for 2000 dollars. I LOVE the neck. I have played $4500 PRS and the like and there is no comparison. I play very challenging jazz and fusion with jazz standards and it is up to all of it. The only thing I wish it had is a roller nut and Kahler trem as on my other guitar.
Other than that it is guitar perfection.

This has been expounded upon by every reviewer so far for these guitars, but I'm sure that it won't hurt to say once more that this guitar has more *useful* features than any other guitar on the market. The sonic palette available to the player is unmatched, and I'm extremely happy with my purchase.

I'm pretty much playing all jazz right now, and while this wouldn't be your traditional jazz box by any stretch of the imagination, who really wants to sound like Wes in 1960, or Joe Pass, or even Hall or Metheny. The point is, if you're looking forward instead of backward, then I don't see any reason you wouldn't be able to get an individualistic tone on this guitar. There are more than enough unique settings to go around.

Perfect, in tune, I just wish I had thought to ask for the tremolo spring for 12's so I could really get on top of this guitar out of the box. Playing on 9's just seems comical to me at this point. But, Parker ships the part free of charge, so I'll just wait on that one for a bit longer. By the way, they seem to have given me the most gorgeous piece of mahogany I could ask for, so I thank the good folks at Parker for that.

Given the space age technology of some of the materials in this guitar, I suspect it's pretty reliable. If not...

... I'll call customer service, and from what I hear, Parker has some of the best in the business. Hopefully I won't need them though.

I've been playing on a '91 Les Paul Studio for 7 years now, and I guess I wanted something new, something light, something I could carry easily around campus. I also wanted to really form my own sound, something that this guitar should contribute heavily to. Anyone thinking of buying a Parker should give it it's full chance by really playing it at the guitar store or where ever, and by exploring its full tonal potential.

This is the in-between of the Deluxe and the Supreme...I prefer the classic cause of the mohagany body...it sort of strikes a good balance..cause parkers are typicall bright guitars...mine is the natural mohagany..beautiful...Dimarzio,Sprezel..all stock actually...the only feature that parker left out on this baby was synth access...they said they cant get their synth syytem to fit in this model.

I play guitar on a cruise ship...Sea Princess..Princess Cruises..this is not an ad...sorry..thanx for the plug...and I play a wide range of ..Reggae,Soca,Calypso,Jazz,Rock,Pop and R&B...so I needed a versatile axe...the main factor though was that the guitar had to be light and withstand the excess humidity and salt in the air...not a easy task indeed..the Parker delivered with ease...stability..and a sound that cuts through anything....it's clean...just bright enough...I'm runign through a Digitech GSP2101 preamp processor..into a Fender Stage 112...real shit amp...but lugging a Marshall on a ship isnt feasible..then again?!?
Likes...everything..the versatility...not strat..not les paul..just a totally unique flavour...may take some time to get used to..lots of ssssuuuuussssstttaaaiiiin, overall..the bomb
I dont like the knobs..quality location...hard to reach selector switch.

It's not set up like say a ESP..ultra low...but playable..semi low action..which I beleive lende to the Piezo sound and facilitates better acoustic type playing..the fretboard is very wasy to bend on...sweet frets..I hate the hex shape of the bar..looks almost like a welding rod..ha...the spongy end doest do it for me either...but hell..it works like a dream..very smooth..very accurate..nice with chords.

What can I say...it's like Dr. Spock's guitar on steroids...very stable..had a strat on the ship...bugger lasted 2 months..befor the switches succumbed to salt...the Parker...bring it on!...I still feel uncomfortable with straplocks though!

Backup..what's that...I busted a string the other day..during a Santana solo...normally I would head for the bar..and just go crazy to cover up for being out of tune..but I hit a note then another..and another..and it was on..wow..this is progress

Did not need any yet...hope never

I've been playing intensly for abou 7 years...used to use mainly Ibanez,Jackson,Fender..almost bought a Ibanez SAX2020..similar to the parker, but I needed somethin different...I wish it had a GK2A installed internally...might spring for it..wish it came with 2 amps to plug into...ha..ha

Share??...Ummm..KIWI ROCKS!...NZ...Hi Nic!!

Purchased new as of 03/2001. Standard fly classic transparent red (or was that cherry?) - beautiful guitar. Same specs as mentioned here in other reviews. Got the hard case with it (highly recommended). Purchased at guitar center for $2150 out the door including the case and CA 8% tax. They originally wanted $2200+ without the case and without the CA tax. I found the same thing on musiciansfriend website for $2079 with the hard case, but shipping was 2.5% of price. I told them about it, they went and checked, and came back a matched the price (I threw in the extra $20 or so just so I could have it NOW :-)).
As far as the features go, it has everything I need and want. The shape of the body fits comfortably on my leg while seated, the playability is awesome. Fit and finish are flawless. Love the tuners and the fact that it doesn't have that big block where the neck bolts to the body on most guitars. Makes playing above the 12th fret the same as elsewhere. Whammy bar is awesome as well - going both ways is too cool.. Don't know what else I need, so it gets a 10...

I play a wide variety of stuff, old black sabbath, Creed, Rush, and some classical stuff as well. I can get just about any tone I need from this beast, and I was pleasantly surprised at being able to get volume dynamics with the peizo's mixed in (very cool). The acoustic sound is more than adequate form my needs, and mixing it in with some effects (delay/comp/etc) gives it as great full sounding tone for the classical pieces I play. I've even found that I like the piezo's mixed in with a lot of distortion as it just seems to 'fill out' the sound. I don't have a lot of effects, other than a Korg PX3 which is enough for what I do (don't play live so..). I can't think of any other guitar that gives me this kind of tonal flexability. I don't mind if I can't get *exactly* that 'les paul' sound, or that 'fender' sound - I just think it sounds great. The only problem I have with it is that the acoustic can get really bright if you max the tone out. So I'll give it a 9.

I'm still struggling with the action. Playing chords (strumming relatively hard) produces fret buzz on the low E and A string. It doesn't persist for very long, but it is there. This is my first high end guitar, so I'm not sure if this is a normal occurance. I've played around with the bridge height to try and minimize it. It looks like there is a compromise between low action and fret noise (as I would expect). Playing lead on it doesn't bring it out as much. I suppose if I was going to strum chords all day I'd raise it, If I was doing mostly lead I'd lower it. I hear it mostly when doing using the piezo's, but it gets buried when using the humbuckers. I will probably change the strings to 10's to hopefully keep the strings from flapping around so much (especially for playing Creed with drop D tuning or some of Sabbath's C# tuning). Someone else can probably make a better judgement in this regard as I lack long term experience with a variety of different guitars.
Outside of that I rate the action a 10 in terms of playability - again I don't know if what I percieve as a problem is one of physics, or one of the guitar..

N/A

N/A

I've been playing about 3 years on the cheapest fender you can find, so just about anything would be better. I chose a parker because I am a fan of high tech, and didn't like the idea of paying top dollar for what is essentially 50 year old technology. It's just plain COOL!
It's fast, light, and can play a wide variety of music.

My USA made Fly is now 2 years old. You can read all of the features and technical specs in the other reviews. Suffice it to say that some of the features are revolutionary when compared to other brands. The magnetic/piezo pups, the thin body, the neck that varies a little from head to body but is extra comfortable are all great innovations. A 9 because although the features are tremendous, the master volume knob was in the way at first and I would unintentionaly lower the volume. I got used to it and quite playing so sloppy. :>)
I have a friend who recently started making basses (for about a year now, an incredible player), he was playing a very nice neck through bass he designed. After about a minute of looking over the Fly, he was utterly amazed at the detail and little things that make the Fly so nice. The way the neck is formed, the head stock appears to be on an angle going down away from the neck but the strings go straight to the headstock, access to the rod in the neck, weight and shape, etc.

Everybody puts a 10 here it seems no matter what they are reviewing. Truth be known people buy a guitar because they like the way it sounds. How a $200 Squire, a $600 Yamaha and a $3200 PRS or Parker or Gibson Les Paul can all rate a "10" in sound is beyond me other than that it is a personal thing and who buys a guitar they do not like.
The sounds this guitar can create are incredible! A PRS, Gibson or name your company cannot match the sound and sound options of the Fly. The abiltiy to combine the electric guitar sound with an "acoustic" yields a vast array of sounds. This guitar can cover a wide variety of sounds. Since buying it almost a year and a half ago, I have seen them in use in everything from rock to country to classical.
I split the signal of my Fly. The magnetics go into a Digitech 2120 Artist, a dunlop crybaby, a BBE Sonic Maximiser 482 (highly recommend)and a Fender Pro 185 (yeah, I know a 185, solid state, am looking for an addition that will have better tone at lower volume levels, the 185 is a monster when it comes to volume).
The Piezo/acoustic sound goes into a DOD Acoustec, the BBE and an Acoustasonic. I compared the sound of the Acoustic w/ the acoustisonic with some $1000+ acoustics. The Fly held it's own when being sent through an amp. No it won't be mistaken for a high dollar Martin, Taylor or custom acoustic. If that's the sound you want go get one! Just for fun, I sometimes run the piezo's into the DOD set at an octave lower and plug into a bass amp. Great fun!!! Hearing the bass run along w/ the guitar, lick for lick is fun. Blasting some serious metal/grunge w/ the bass filling up the bottom end. Let the good times roll. More variety than time or space allows.

(See above about all those who use tens, sorry but I must) I tried everything I could get my hands on in the $1500-$3500 range. I was ready to get a great playing guitar. I tried PRS, Gibson, Fender, all the big names and others. Nothing I played could compare with the feel and playing ability of the Fly. The main thing I was looking for was playability. I was willing to make some minor trade offs in tone but didn't have too!!! I didn't want to put it down in the store but the wife or family (depending on which one at the time, I spent over 2 years comparing guitars [and saving money]).
I had the action lowered at the store only because I wanted it extra low. Everything else was/is perfect.

Haven't had it for 10 years so an 8. It still looks and plays like new. No problems in over a year. Watch out for the battery and always have a spare handy. One other tricky thing, I went to put in a super long life battery but it was too big to fit into the battery compartment. One of the screws for the back plate comes real close to the battery inside the compartment. Everything on it has lasted for the last year and a half with out a hitch. The battery lasts for a long time (except when I accidentally leave the cord plugged in). I have used it on gigs w/ a back up. I have never had to use the back up and don't suspect I will but you never what crazy things can happen.

Haven't had to use them so that's a plus. Did see an email by a guy who helped with their painting and was able to get the specific colors and types of paint used for my guitar!!!

I have been playing for about 13 years. I have one other electric guitar, acoutsic, a bass and amp. I play all kinds of music and find the Fly fits into country, blues, rock/metal, jazz, rockabilly and much more. I usually change song styles multiple times in a set and the Fly sounds great in them all (have played "sets" on many occasions for 3 hours or more straight, no breaks, glad the Fly is so light, what a back saver). My next electric guitar will be another Fly. Hopefully they will come out with a Classic in a SSH.
If stolen or lost, I would visit the isurance man on my way to buy another. So famed is the guitar, I am known and the Parker Fly owner in my town. I love everything about the guitar. Some complain of the "horn" but my gut is big enough that it isn't a problem.
I give the overall a 9 because I am sure there is a better guitar out there somewhere (I don't know where for the money). If I had 10 grand for another guitar, I would take the Fly into the custom builder and have them copy just about everything (bet that would be illegal wouldn't it, infringing on too many patent rights). Maybe a slight change in pup configuration and selectability of the magnetics but that is all. I know they are already making the SSH in some models of the Fly.

Have a great day and may your fingers fly fast and accurate and slow and passionate!

If you don't know the features check another review - no sense in being redundant. THE BIG FEATURE - THE WHAMMY BAR!! I am a heavy trem user (especially on chords) and own at least one of every trem out there (I think) the Parker tremelo unit is one of if not the best. I like a drop/pull action with NO SLACK and the only other unit that works for me is the Steinberger trans trem (the original pre-Gibson machined one not that piece of crap die cast pot metal one). Have to leave room for something better so no 10 but a solid 9 and thats for the tremelo.

Excellent sound, plenty of drive. I don't know what some of the other reviewers are talking about with regard to low output. The Dimarzio pickups on this guitar have a ton of output. I don't use the piezo pickup much but it does some cool things if you want to haul a second amp or run into a p.a.. I like the way these guitars sound! Don't believe in 10's (yet) so it (again) gets a 9.

I have three of these guitars and they all have great fit and finish. I find the action somewhat variable. Ken set my first one up for me and I find it tolerable - I have seen Fly's with better action than mine but I am not that hung up on low action. I hate, let me repeat HATE the back of the upper bout of these guitars (and I told Ken Parker this personally) - it is fine when you are playing with a strap, but sitting down it nails me in the sternum and is extremely uncomfortable. I am a gracious sort so another 9 - no wait, I changed my mind, that damn sharp point on the back pisses me off -1 for that.

Very reliable, very durable - get's a little funny if you change string guages but that can be worked out. I think the stainless frets are a teriffic idea and I can't figure out why someone hasn't used them before this. I never play without backups on everything, but have used the Parker all night on a couple of occasions. The instrument seems fragile because of it's mass but I think with reasonable care it will last as long as any other guitar and need less maintenance.

I have delt with Ken on several occasions, he is a good guy and he has bestowed on me his "most patient customer award". I am suprised they have maintained the quality of this instrument given the volume they are now selling. My first one (one of the first made) had a strange resonance in the neck from the truss rod. Ken had the guitar 6 months (hence the "award") but it was fixed. The repair was at a time when he was trying to make the transition to production and I think the turnaround would now be much better.

The trem and tone sell the instrument for me. I rate it a solid 9 (haven't seen a 10 and must leave room for something better) - but compared to what I have seen to date it would rate a 10.

Lightweight Mahogany body with Carbon Fiber layer on the back of body and neck, seamless joining of neck and body, making for an extremely lightweight, extremely durable and SOLID guitar. 24 frets, Carbon fiber Fingerboard. By far the fastest guitar I have ever played. Hard shell case included. The bridge is a Floyd Rose type locking trem system with 6 Fishman Piezo's built in. Combination of Active and passive pickups (DiMarzio's), fully switchable via 2 toggle switches and. Locking Sprezel tuners (A huge plus, especislly if you do a lot of bending of strings or a lot of vibrato. Selector switch on back for fixed or floating bridge. Stereo outputs, stereo cable included. Can also select Mono output if you cannot run stereo setup by pressing a button on the underside of the guitar.

I play a lot of metal and rock and when the active pickups are engaged and your amp is fully driven, you can get some ungodly tone out of this thing. I have talked to a lot of Parker players and most don't use them for metal, but like I said above, the neck is VERY fast and that suits metal very well. Whats nice about it's sound is that the piezos let every string ring true. I've had many guitars that seemed as though the response wasn't even across the board, meaning that, lets say your d string always sounded way hotter than the g string. Not so on the Parker. It delivers full sounding tone from the open low e to the 24th fret on the high e. With a good Hi gain amplifier (I play a VHT 50CL into a Soldano 4x12), this thing crushes on dirty channels and delivers crisp clean tone when run clean. I do a lot of channel switching mid song, between clean and dirty tones and the Parker always sounds great. You can always pick out each note you are playing, and it definitely lets you know when you screw up. Some sloppier guitars are a little more forgiving. IMy skills have increased dramatically since purchasing this guitar. I think that is due to a few reasons - first off, it's so light and quick that it doesn't tire you out to practice for a long time, second, it sounds so good when you get something right you just want to keep doing it, third, when you screw up, you know it. I Played it through a Boss GT3 for a year, and it handles all sorts of effects very well, always producing clear notes and tones. I you don't like the way the Piezos sound, it's fully adjustable (You have to take of the back panel and do each ne individually, but it can be done). Best sounding guitar I've ever owned.

The one I purchased had been at the shop I go to for about a year before I bought it. Thusly, I think that with kids and beginners hacking on it, it needed a set up when I got it. There was one mark on the upper bout in the finish, but it is only noticable to the player and virtually unnoticeably even to me, so I thought no bog deal. Everything else was wonderful. It's action was slightly higher than other Parkers I've played, butit is so easy to adjust the action that I had it set up the exact way I wanted it 3 hours after getting it (Replaced strings with heavier gauge, replaced spring with heavier gauge, adjusted piezos). The knobs are a little lower class looking, and do feel alittle loose. I wish Parker would put some hard resin knobs on their guitars. They cankeep them plain and black, but I think that it would benefit from a more tactile feel.

I've owned mine for about a year now and have gigged with it many times. It has never totally failed me (occasional string change). Once the battery almost died on me (tone and volume drop off dramatically and fairly quickly) midsong. I was smartenough to have anothr on-handand replaced it prior to the next song. It is definitely gigworthy. The finish isn't marked or scuffed, which is a true testament to its quality, because my playing style is very aggressive. The hardware seems qulaity enough, althogh I have had some problems with the piezos. I would never gig without a backup.

Okay - here's the one big deal Ive had so far. As I said above, I have had some problems with the pickups. Two of the saddles went bad and I got no sound whatsoever out of the Piezos on my g and b strings. They resonated the other strings slightly, so if set to just piezos, you could kind of faintly hear an awful little sound, which was the plucking of the string. I contacted Jesse at Parker,and he was very helpful in telling me what to do. This just happened a week ago or so, and Jesse said it would take a week or two to get the guitar back, and that they would probably end up replacing the entire bridge saddle. He also said they would setit up for me.
All in all, he's been very helpful. Although I haven't gotten it back yet, and so cant' comment on the quality of work done, I am sure I will be satisfied. They are insuring it on the way back, so all seems well.

I have been playing for about 10 years now and owned a wide wide range of guitars. This is by far - BY FAR - the most quality I've ever seen in an instrument. The attention to detail is amazing and the build quality is unmatched. If it were stolen, I'd probably spend a few days crying and then go out and drop another $1500 on a new one. I love it. Oh yeha - and I'd hunt down the bastard who took it, rip his heart and soul out and asked him if he liked it.
My favorite feature has got to be the neck. It is so slick and fast and comfortable - like I said, my playing has improved exponentially as a result of it.

I highly recommend playing a Parker before buying any other high end type of guitar. I have found that with creative use of gain and pickup selection, you can accurately prodcue the tones found in many other high end guitars. The most versatile guitar on the market.

Mahagony body, basswood neck, 24 stainless steel frets, Neck/Bridge Dimarzio Humbuckers, Piezo in bridge, (2) 3-way toggles, one for electric neck/split/bridge config, the other for elect/both/piezo. Button located on body to select active/passive setup. Finish is a fabulous Emerald Green. Coolest color (IMO) Quiet, active and versatile trem for floating, down only and standard bridge settings. Flawless Sperzel tuners. Keeps in tune well. Wide Fat kind of neck with the best action in any production guitar bar none. Hard shell case. All packaged weighing in @ some 5.5 LBS. I know of no other guitar with more quality features.

I traded up from a Parker Deluxe to this model. I agree with earlier postings that the Mahagony wood has a somewhat darker and (IMO) a better overall sound with TONS of sustain. Nothing wrong with the Deluxe, just really noted and enjoyed the sustaining capabilities from this guitar. I play through a Johnson JM150 and I (and my band)couldn't be happier with my sound. I also have a Peavey Wolfgang and an EB/MM EVH in my guitar arsenal and grab this first mostly due to it's variety. I really like the option to patch the piezo into the PA using the included Y cable. What a wall of sound this creates. I absolutely love the stainless fret action. Mine being a '98 has the gold "Fly" script and fret markings. I understand Parker went back to the color white. (perhaps for player neck references in low light conditions) I personally think the gold selection is a cooler option. I suppose if I had to, I'd gripe about the volume and tone dials. I would agree with an earlier posting that they seem kind of "icky" and a tad over-sensitive to touch for such a high quality and otherwise well designed guitar.

I got this from a dealer and if this is the factory setup, Ken Parker and team deserve huge kudos for the specs delivered. The action, feel, sustain and balance are superb. Pickups were seated well and very responsive. I've found no flaws whatsoever in this guitar. Silent trem and toggle selectors with quality glistening from this guitar.

I wouldn't hesitate to gig with this guitar. I seems fragile mostly due to it's lightness. Again, in twenty years time, I believe I'd be concerned with perhaps the volume and tone dials and pots. I treat all my instruments with care, so I can't imagine this guitar failing without so sort of abuse. Factory strap buttons work well. Without any doubt this guitar can be depended upon. Just keep some batteries on hand just in case. I score it a 9 only because there are sturdier guitars out there, but factoring it's versatality, one must make their best choice using their own preferences.

I have used Parkers website for questions. Prompt and curtious replies were always received. Haven't had to envoke any warranttee issues and can't imagine I will need to any time soon.

By now I'm sure you think I'm a Parker poster child. (Maybe I am) But I highly encourage if your reading this to get your hands on one, run it through your favorite amp and watch your playing style change (for the better). This is an all together different breed of guitar. Parker guitars I found to be the most lively, comfortable excluding the upper horn to some),tonal, responsive and versatile instrument on the market today. If it were lost (shame on me) If it were stolen, the thief would rue the day s/he took my parker. It would immediately be replaced somehow. I love the flexabilty, lightness, trem design, elect/piezo, and fantastic color of this guitar. I hate nothing. My favorite feature(s) are: it's weight and stainless steel frets. As I mentioned, I traded up from a Deluxe for this model. I haven't tried an Artist (yet), but have tried the nitefly's and Godins and became very focused on the model. I'm very happy with this guitar. Let me close by stating I don't claim to know everything about all guitars. I've really tried to be fair in rating each of these catagories. I just can't justify rating this as anything less than a fantastic value. Parkers create their own unique sound to which myself and my band appreciates.

I have a new Parker Fly Classic Teal, 24 frets, 1 volume 2 tone controls for the humbuckers, 1 volume 1 tone for the Fishman Piezo pickup and 2 switches, 1 a three way selector for the humbuckers and the other one a mode selector for the guitar (to switch between acoustic, electric or acoustic/electric mixed), i been around the guitar world for some time now and i would definitely consider the parker fly as 1 of the 5 best guitars ever made, you can use it for anything, an acoustic song, rock, pop, blues, jazz, metal, anything you can get any sound you want from this baby.

Sound??? Divine...

All its body, action fit and finish are perfect for anyone, up to now i dont know anyone uncapable of handling a parker or capable of making it sound bad or unclean.

For its 5 pounds youll be amazed of the strength this guitar has and its paint and finish durability are just perfect.

Excellent! A few months ago i accidentally scratched with the cable tip the bottom of the guitar, so i sent a mail to parker asking them for help, thy answered in less than 48 hours with many solutions for my problems, some cheaper than the others.

I have many instruments and many guitars, ive owned over 10-15 guitars and played more than 200 different models owned by friends and on stores, but i have to say...THIS IS AN INVESTMENT YOU WANT TO MAKE IF YOURE SERIOUS ABOUT GUITARS...if it was stolen i would find the robber, get a kidney, sell it and buy 5 Flys, heheh just kidding, but i would definitely be depressed for a while and start saving for another fly.

24 hardened stainless steel frets on a composite fret board, neck thru-body. has two custum dimarzio pickups (humbuckers) and a peizio pickup. custum trem' which locks for a fixed brige feel or can be unlocked and loosened for a floating trem' . spirtzel locking tuners. mohogany wood. CONTROLS ARE: magnetic volume and tone, piezio volume and tone, 3 way magnetic pickup switch, 3 way piezio/magnetic selector switch, stereo/mono switch. this thing is amazing!!!!!!

i play anything from rock to country. the versitility on this guitar is amazing. when you have the 3way pickup switch in the middle position... you get a single coil of each of the two magnetic pickups... giving you a totally different color of tone than the other two humbucker positions. the piezio is great sounding and i am blown away by the tone you can get by combining the piezio with the magnetics for both distortion and clean channel playing. there are so many variations of tone that you can get ... it is awesome! when playing distorted leads.. you can blend a little of the piezio pickup in there with the magnetics and it adds a rich "singing" quality to the tone. The sustain is amazing on this guitar. it just sings and sings and sings for a looooong time. i am using a "line 6" amp and i love it... also on the piezio pickup, i am using a "sansamp accoustic DI" to make the piezio a little more convincinly accoustic sounding.... the sansamp adds a lot to getting the accoustic sound more believable. this guitar has character and really has a "musical", expressive tone.

the action on this guitar is the best i have ever felt BAR NONE. nothing else even comes close... and i have played a lot of guitars. i use "10's" on my guitars and it feels light enough to be "9's". i am thinking that a fella could easily get away with using "11's" without punishing his fingers. who knows, i may try it... everything on the guitar came in great shape... everything adjusted and set really good.

if i had to use just one guitar.... this would be it.... attention to detail is obvious and also functionability was obviously well thought out. i will carry extra batteries in my case though for the active piezio pickup. everything on it seems built to last. Yet i can only give it a "9" because i have yet to take it on tour or anything really demanding like that.

have not had to use support yet.... in my opinion ... that's a automatic "10".....

i have been playing for 8 years. i would definitely replace this guitar with another parker if this one were lost or stolen. i do wish they had put a roller-nut on it... i am thinking about having one installed. i also wish that they had made the midi-fly in a "upper" parker instead of the nite-fly model. here is what really blows me away about this guitar...... it allows you to be WAY more expressive with your playing... other guitars feel like a TOOL that you use to express yourself, this guitar is like a extension of you... you can be WAY more expressive on this instrument. i really discovered this after i brought it home and spent a few days playing it... i realised that i did not need to fight with the guitar to get expression out of it... the guitar responds to subtle nuances in your playing WAY more than other guitars. like the guitar responds to your emotions.. i am convinced that this trait in this guitar will bring new levels of expression in my playing. before purchasing my parker guitar, i read through a lot of the reviews here.... i saw so many 10's .... if you are wondering if people are just being overly optomistic... just go play a parker for yourself... the first thing that you will notice is that it feels like you are playing to "hard" on it.... once you adjust ... you will then be amazed at the way this thing plays... just try one... this is the future of guitar, no doubt!

Features:
late 1998 model purchased in early 1999 for $1530;
American made; 24 frets; solid body; mahogany; transparent blue finish over stained mahogany grain; thin/slim body style;
non-locking tremolo with three options - fixed bridge, floating but only bend-down, free floating;
locking Sperzel tuning pegs;
graphite exoskeleton on body, fibreglass-graphite composite neck, large (jumbo?) frets, not-very-slim neck;
controls include - master volume, magnetic pickup volume, magnetic pickup tone, piezo pickup volume, piezo pickup tone, magnetic pickup selector switch, magnetic/piezo/both switch;
pickup configuration: neck humbucker, bridge humbucker, inside coil combination, piezo trandsucer;
magnetic pickups: DiMarzzio;
piezo pickups: Fishman;
active electronics running on a 9 volt battery;
molded Hiscox hard-shell case, required tools, special stereo cable;

I play mostly 80's rock, with some progressive rock/jazz thrown in. I tend to go for either a crystal-clear shimmering clean sound or completely driven distortion - I don't do much of the in-between stuff. I do a lot of recording, so I play my guitar through a BOSS SE70 effects processor (which I use for distortion as well as for effects) into either a clean amp (I often use a small tube Fender Champ for practice) or a digital recording device/PA system/transparent audio system. I do not drive guitar amps in the conventional way.
Unprocessed, the Fly Classic has a rich tone - somewhat bright, yet a little more warm than that of the Fly Deluxe, however, due to a different wood (mahogany for the Classic). However, the tone is *not* the bell-like tone associated with many graphite-based guitars like Steinbergers. Instead, the sound is more conventional, which is a good thing because the aforementioned bell-like tones can be very cold and clinical.
You can get a lot of tonal variety by selecting either humbucker, the in-between combination, the piezo-pickups, or even a combination of the magnetic and piezo pickups. Further, you can use the stereo cable to send the mag. and piezo outputs to different amps/processors and get a very substantial wall of clean sound.
The guitar is quiet, but with one problem - on high gain, when you roll down the volume from full to zero, you hear an audible hiss when you get very close to zero. So, if you like using your volume control to do swells, you might have a problem. This is a fault with the design of the active circuitry (as I was told by Korg) and there is nothing you can do about it.
Regarding the mag. pickups (humbuckers), they have great tone, sustain and harmonics. They have been designed by DiMarzzio especially for Parker and have been screwed directly into the body for better response. I think this helps. One small complaint - the pickup output is not very high, especially with the neck humbucker. I would have liked slightly hotter pickups.
As far as the piezo pickup is concerned, it sounds like a regular piezo pickup. You are probably not going to fool anyone into believing that you're playing an acoustic - unless you're recording a heavily effected track in a dense mix. The value to the piezo is not in exactly reproducing the sound of the acoustic guitar, rather it is in creating a slightly different kind of sound.
The guitar has tremendous sustain. I haven't seen such sustani in any other guitar. I read somewhere (perhaps in Harmony Central) that the sustain will change the way you play guitar. This is probably true. You can feel the ring and the sustain even when playing the guitar unplugged.

I'd give full marks for the beuatiful transparent blue finish over the stained mahogany. The graphite exoskeleton is painted a certain shade of blue which isn't exactly the blue of the wood, but this is all on the rear side of the guitar body and neck and hence cannot be seen.
In all respects, the workmanship is outstanding.
The factory set-up was good. However, I was *slightly* disappointed as I had probably set my expectations too high. In particular, I was hoping for a yet-lower action. When I did lower the action, I got some fret-buzz. I have happily settled on a very low action (which is simply heaven to play) with the sacrifice of allowing some slight fret buzz which is thankfully not picked up by the pickups.
I have some small complaints about the volume/tone controls. They are made of plastic. While this is done to reduce weight, they do look a little icky, especially on a guitar this classy and expensive. The controls are also (I feel) a little on the looser side and can get moved around in the course of normal playing, if you're not careful.

I think this guitar is tough and will withstand live playing. The company definitely makes a big pitch about its frets being of stainless steel as opposed to some nickel alloy.
I think I would go ahead and use the guitar without a backup - especially given that I can immediately put the guitar into a fixed-bridge mode if a string breaks in the middle of a song and hence not have to go out of tune. String changing is remarkably easy and quick, too.
However, it just *looks* delicate - this is probably because the finish is so fine. The strap buttons are solid - though the left strap button is located on the back of the horn (as opposed to being on the tip of the horn) - and this makes it difficult to use certain kinds of straps with the Parker.

I have dealt with the company, but only to ask certain questions (e.g. how to use the Sperzel tuners, what kind of locking strap could I use with the guitar etc.). My experience has been very good.
I think the warranty is for a year, but I am not sure. Hence, I will not rate the guitar in this category.

The guitar is a great value.
It offers a wide range of sounds, both magentic and piezo. More importantly, these are great sounds (I wouldn't find a wide range of bad sounds very useful at all.) Further it lets you mix these in mono/stereo, which works great for my recording work.
The guitar plays like a dream, the neck is fast and easy with great intonation (see my above comments on the action, however). I don't think minor temperature changes have any effect on the neck at all. This means that truss rod changes are not required frequently.
The tremolo is very good - it is much simpler than the Floyd Rose on my Ibanez, yet works a great deal better. It stays in tune despite a lot of whammying around. (Owners of Steinbergers might report yet better whammy bar performance with their TransTrems, but that's about it.) String changing and intonation adjustment can be done in fixed-bridge mode, which is a wonderful change from spending hours on my Floyd-Rose.
I also play an Ibanez 450 S with DiMarzzio pickups. It is a great guitar with very good sound and playability, but is simply not in the same class as the Parker (it is also costs only half as much).
Bottom line: the guitar is exceptional, but expensive. It all depends on what you want. If you want customization (e.g. your choice of finish, abalone inlays etc.) you could easily buy a very nice Carvin for that money. If you want the ultimate in whammy-bar ability and don't mind a colder sound, a Steinberger with a TransTrem is probably better for you. And so on. However, the Parker Fly Classic offers its own unmatchable mix of quality, options and price. Finally, you might want to try Parker Niteflys which seem to give you more bang-for-the-buck than their upmarket cousins.

The Fly classic is the same a the delux, but with a mahogany body and a transparent finish. This guitar has far too many features to list, and I'm sure you've already read about them from other reviews. Let it just suffice to say this is is a very well thought out instrument. The only thing you could add to this guitar is MIDI control.

I have been playing a Strat w/ EMG's for the last six years and obviously the sounds are very different. The Parker is much brighter and crisp in the high end. All of my effects patches had to be tweaked a bit, but this would be so for any different instrument. Overall, I like the range of sounds availiable from this guitar. LOTS of variety, and when mixing electric and piezo tones you can get very lush clean tones that I love to use when I play live. In fact I've even had people come up to me after a show and comment on how rich the chorus sounded that I was using. I attribute this to the chorused electric signal I mixed with a dry piezo tone. Very cool. I think the problem most people have is trying to compare it's sound to another guitar's. You can't. This guitar is a Parker, not a strat or a paul. If you want a strat - buy one. But if you like what you hear from the Parker, I highly recomend it - easily the most versital guitar I've ever played.

Action : perfect, wonderfully low, no buzz, great intonation
Finish : virtually flawless. The finish on my guitar is the "Emerald Green" It's a very deep green and it's shows off the mahogany top very well. One of the best looking Fly's I've seen.

I have been playing with this guitar steadily for five months now. I take the guitar to practice at least once a week and play a show at least every other week. Not once have I had a problem with it. I ususally don't even have to tune it when I arrive. Thanks to the Locking Sperzal's this guitar stays in tune wonderfully. (and string changing is a snap!) The hardware on the guitar is all top notch and the stap buttons are decent, though not designed for a strap lock system because the horn is too thin. I did, however find a way around this by using the stock screws to mount the locks in place. This has worked very well and has perserved the beauty of my guitar. My only doubt is in the finish. Any guitar that is consitantly used for gigging will inevitably show signs of wear, perhaps it's just that this guitar is soooo light it just FEELS more delicate. I worry every time I take it out, but that's just because I take very good care of my instruments. Being that I've not had a single problem in this area, I'd give it a 10.

Never had to deal with them (knock on wood). Though I have heard good things about Ken Parker and his customer service.

I work in a large music store. I have access to literally hundreds of guitars and I could afford any one of them I wished. This is by far the most versitile guitar I've ever played. It is also the best playing guitar as far as action and feel. The body, although awkward at first, really becomes like an extention of your body and is very easy to play. I noticed today when I picked up my strat for the first time in months that it felt clunky and awkward it made me realize how well this guitar is balanced and designed. I love the light weight (5.5lbs) for live playing - no backache after a long gig here! The electric/acoustic tones make this THE ultimate live guitar. If something happened to this guitar I would definatly replace it. The only thing I wish this guitar had was MIDI control. I have considered selling it for this reason in order to buy the new model comming out that does have it. But, besides that, this is a very fine instrument. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Made in 1998 in the U.S.A. 24 frets, solid mohogany body, two volume controls (one for piezo one for humbuckers), two tone controls, balance control. Pickup configuration is H/H/Piezo. Humbuckers are made by Seymor Duncan. Active pickup system. Body is Mohogany neck is composite. Finish is a beautiful translucent burgandy color. George Jetson strat. stlye. Tuners are locking sperzels. Parker only floating/locking bridge system (by the way best I've used and I have Floyd Rose, Wilkinson, and Fender). Came with excellent manual all tools necessary for adjustment and very nice hard shell case.

I've been playing for 28 years and have played almost everything though every pedal and amp you could imagine. I can truely say that this is the best sounding guitar that I have ever played, it stands on its own in this category. If you are a professional or weekend warrior you gotta try one, it's produces the best tone I've heard. It is very suitable to all styles of guitar playing.
One thing that really stands out on this guitar is its sustain. It's so long that it actaully begins to change your playing style.

At this point you're probably thinking that I work for Parker, I don't. This is the easiest to play guitar that I have ever owned. I have never found a guitar could play and feel so good.

Seems very rugged to me.

I didn't need to contact them so I can't say.

I've been playing for a very long time and truely rate this as the best guitar that I have ever played. It's is very inspirational!!!

Well, if you're looking into a fly, chances are you've read the other reviews already, but here's a run-down of features anyway.
DiMarzio Dual Humbuckers Fishman Piezo Acoustic System Active Pickup Blending/Switching Mahogany Body (5.5 lb weight) Switchable Bridge w/ flat spring Sperzel Locking Tuners Others I've forgotten
For features this thing can kill almost any other guitar out there with the possible exception of a Godin or some custom-made double-necked-four-pickup-phase-switchable-with-native-distortion-chorus-trem-with-a-cherry-on-top-guitar that cost you six Hawaiian islands worth of cash. The parker has features in spades, and quality that nearly matches on every one.

The guitar pulls off a bright sound on every level. It has a more Les Paul sound than its cousin the Fly Deluxe, which is a little more like a strat, but for the most part it's transparent. I was very disapointed playing it through tried and true amps (like a Fender w/ chorus and trem, a Marshall JCM, and a Line6 AX2) but I'm just lucky I hauled along my old Kustom Vintage bass amp. It's my magic cheap amp and it's a dream with every instrument I own except my bass. To my great surprise, it did the trick adding body to those lows and fattening up the distortion. It's still a little bright but I can get a sweet Brit-Pop sound out of it. My only complaint is that the bridge pickup is weeker than anything you've used. The strat sound isn't very authentic, but why would I buy a guitar to sound like a strat when it costs twice as much. For the acoustics a clean amp works best but you can get them dirty with a little crunch from a pedal. You aren't going to make the pickups sound acoustic without a PA or a keyboard amp (they work quite well actually) so don't bother. And finally, you're going to have a tough time getting out of that industrial-metal Rammstein rut, but once you do it'll be worth it.

The guitar was set up perfectly from the factory. Love the steel frets, every note sounds more reliably. The finish is a dream. You can truly feel this thing vibrate like a living thing in your hands before you plug it in. I LOVE THE FRETBOARD. I would buy this guitar for the neck, which is second to a PRS Dragon III if anything. It's fat and thin and looks awkward, but WOW. You simply have to wrap your arms around it to beleive it. All is not perfect however. There is some buzz, but you can raise the action. I have killer sound right now though, so I ain't touchin' it. The most fatal flaw is the tiny body to which I attribute the too bright sound. It's good stuff though

I am scared to death of dropping this guitar. I have heard of people dropping them once and having them come out unscathed, but I've also heard tales of chipped finish, sizeable lost chunks of wood, and of a couple that were snapped in half. I always bring my strat with me to gigs because I fear something will happen to the Fly. Once you get it safely out of the case and around your neck it is one of the most solid guitars I have played on. Just bring a battery. I have also heard that some of the flat springs for 10's can snap and shoot from the guitar, but it hasn't happened to me.

I've never dealt with Parker, so I couldn't tell you, but I hear from a lot of people that "Ken Parker is THE MAN." In every case I've heard of, the guitar was fixed and returned in perfect condition or replaced with a completely new guitar. Good stuff.

I'll only say it once more. It's not a strat, it's not a tele, it's not a LP, and it's not that custom beast. Of course it wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be something new. I tried EVERYTHING. When I'm putting out this kind of money, I get obsessive. The strat's and pauls are too generic for me, the sweet PRS would require me to sell organs on the black market, and everybody I know has some form of an Ibanez. The Fly was a breath of fresh air, it's like a little thing that you can horde for yourself and carve out your own niche with. It's not meant to be those other guitars, and it doesn't have to be.