Parker Guitars NiteFly

How could this guitar be any less than a 10 on features? Between the piezo system, locking tuners, great composite neck, stainless steel frets, etc, etc... No other guitar has close to this many bells and whistles. I don't mean to gush, but it's true. The only thing I wish mine had was the active piezo preamp. Mine's passive. Also, the piezo and magnetic outputs can't be mixed through a single cable, which is a bit of a bummer, but I assume that if you put the right output jack into the guitar, or had a stereo to mono cable it would mix the signals just fine.

My guitar is the S/S/H setup. The neck is really a nice shape, like a standard Strat, but maybe a hair thinner.

Ok, this is where this guitar falls flat on its face. The pickups are terrible. The single coils are very noisy and their sound is flat and doesn't come close to a decent strat sound. The bridge humbucker is ok, but too trebly for my taste, not fat at all. The definition between the notes is also very poor. I've been comparing this to a Les Paul Special (a very different guitar, I know) to see which one I like better and the Parker's tone is kind of embarrassing next to the Gibson. If I decide to keep the guitar I am going to have to replace the pickups. I'm considering putting a full set of duncans in it with coil tapping and the works. Hopefully this will get a good tone out of this thing.

The piezo pickup is really bright, but it definitely nails the piezo sound. I'm sure if you plug it into a good acoustic amplifier you could get a perfectly good "acoustic" sound. I've never tried.

The guitar is very well made. The ends of the frets are perfectly flush with the neck, so it's nice and smooth like it was bound. The neck itself feels great and the guitar is solid. The only thing that keeps it from being a 10 in this category is that the tolerances on the pickguard are too tight in some places, so it squeaks when I use the whammy bar, and some finish has chipped off around the strap button on the bottom of the guitar.

I haven't had it for too long, but it seems solid enough. The Sperzel tuners and the bridge both are solid as rocks. The 5-way selector switch seems a little flimsy. The strap button on the upper horn is on the back of the guitar, which I hate. It makes me feel like the guitar is constantly about to fall off.

I got this guitar because I was bored of the same old Strat I'd been playing for the last 10 years. This is definitely the opposite of the traditional strat. I still can't tell whether it's a keeper or not. I'd hate to put the money and effort into changing the pickups and not improve the tone too much. Some guitars just don't have the tone, no matter what the pickups are. If it was stolen I can't say I'd buy another one. I got it for the novelty, if it was gone I'd probably move on to something else. Not that it would be as interesting as this guitar is features-wise, but something with different playability or tone. Don't get me wrong, the Nitefly a nice guitar, but it's let down in the most important area - tone! It's probably not a good sign when a company charges a premium to put decent pickups in its guitars like Parker does with the Mojo line. They might as well just admit the stock pickups are crap.

1997 Parker Nitefly NFV2 made in USA.
3 Tone burst with 2 Dimarzio OEM single coils and 1 Dimarzio OEM Humbucker and piezo.
Swamp ash body, basswood neck w/ carbon fiber fingerboard and stainless steel frets.
Sperzel locking tuners and infamous parker tremelo.
1 Volume, 1 Tone and 1 master volume for piezo. 5 way selector switch and a push/push button for mono/stereo signal.
Came with heavy duty parker gigbag.

This guitar is fantastic. By far the best playing guitar I have ever owned. even over my Parker Fly Classic.
It fits all styles I play from rock, country, jazz and fusion.
To be honest I hated the OEM dimarzio pickups. I know they were going for a vintage vibe but there was just no out put and the single coils were quite noisy. I bought a new pickguard to accomodate 3 single coils and I installed a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups and they are incredibly quiet and sound phenominal. The guitar now sounds as good as it plays.
Would not trade this guitar for the world..

I purchased it used and the previous owner had put .012's on it. I being a professional tech had to set it up to fit my confort zone.
It is set up with very little relief and measures at 4 and 3/64ths.
The trem is fantastic and incredible smooth. It behave like a strat trem but with the finesse and sensitivity of a bigsby...and dives like a floyd. By far the best trem in existance.

This guitar seems to have what it takes to be a ridden hard survivor.
The body is ash and will sound better with time.
The frets are stainless steel and will never wear...say goodbye to expensive fret jobs.
The neck is insanely straight and true.
I bought a parker because I felt that the longevity of the instrument far outweighed that of a steinberger and so...here we are. I own two parkers and an emerald acoustic.

I don't particularly like the folks at parker...maybe it's because washburn bought them out. Hell, I would be wrapped a little too tight if the worst guitar manufacturer in the world owned me...anyways...
They are a might be rude to say the least and are very unhelpful.
Go figure... you make a fabulous guitar and your customer service reaks...can't have it all.

I have been playing and teaching guitar for over a decade as well as repairing and restoring instruments for roughly 8 years.
I own several Hughes and Kettner amps and a Peavey Delta Blues 210.
I have a 1996 Parker Fly Classic, an Emerald Opus X10 all graphite acoustic, a 1973 all handmade Tres Pinos classical and a Cort Curbow 4.
I use little or no effects and play with a number of bands and on various projects here in the Nashville area. I will always use my Nitefly as my number 1 axe for most projects.
If there were somethings I wish it had I would like to try some EMG's in it and just go 100% active...and I wish it were green? What can I say...the burst is nice but it ain't green. Come to think of it...I may have to fix that...wink wink!

Great features like graphite neck and sperzel tuners and dimarzio pickups. However some 1997 and 1998 nitefly's have faulty truss rods because of improper installation and the necks are ruined and need replaced by new necks that are manufactured properly. Mine had a bad truss rod that froze up and ruined the neck. I shelled out the money for a new neck and got a great neck!! After replacing the neck I had a great guitar!!

I can't say enough about the sound. The neck pickup can sound like a hollowbody Jazz guitar the middle pickup can sound like a Tele and the bridge humbucker sounds like a Les Paul. The Fishman bridge goves great acoustic tones!!

Action was great once I bought a new neck!!!!! Guitar was Very comfortable to hold with it's contours. The finish was beautiful.
I give it a 2 for action with the original neck and a 10 with the new neck so overall I'll give it a 7.

Well, like I said before once you get a new neck it's OK. But without replacing a neck with a bad truss rod, forget it!! If you're buying one used or on ebay, make sure that the truss rod is good and not frozen up. Otherwise you be shelling out the $$ for a new neck and have a lot of headaches!!

If you are buying a new one or if you have one with a new neck then you're getting a great guitar. Again if you're getting a used one make sure the neck and truss rod is ok. If it is you're in for a great guitar!!!!!

1997 Nitefly s/s/s pasive piezo USA..and one big price tag

Crap Dimarzio pups...Dimarzio are usually good so very disappointed for such an expensive guitar. Better with SD Hotrails (Bridge), DM HS3(Middle) and Razor BSP (Neck) and a bit of electronic wizardry by the local guitar tech(ME). Piezo is bollocks, to trebly needs AWARD Acoustic preamp to make it usuable and its only just usable. Sounds alot better with this setup, with Anderson type versatility. This is commom on older Parker guitar, forcing you to spend more cash on replacement pups.HAVE THEY NO SHAME..god damn it use your ears. They must have listend to their customers and started using SEYMOUR DUNCANS (the finest pickups money can buy).Razor BSP is good in all positions but relegated to the neck due to the excellent SD Hotrails. DM HS3 is quiet and simple, but kicks ass when driven hard. Of course I like a humbucker sound and this is not there at all, well say, compared to a LP CUSTOM

I dont know about any other nitefly V1s but mine is far from perfect. THe body is fine and comfortable and the finish is great. The neck, fingerboard and frets are a piece of shit. When I first brought the guitar new the action was exceptable with 9s. Well I say exceptable it is alot higher than I like it. I assumed that it could be lowered. The neck was peferctly straight and the frets were beautiful. I own a GIBSON LP and a FENDER US Strat two of the finest instruments man has ever created. THese are my main guitars but I wanted something I could use in the studio. I didnt play the nitefly for about 5-6 months and it stayed in it LEVI gigbag with no string. WHen I restrung it, it was fret buzz nitemare. The bloody neck had twisted slightly so masses of fret buzz was happen. The big chunky frets didnt help much. I left the guitar into the local tech to set up. WHen I got it back the action was the same as when I first brought it. I was raging and asked the tech what the hell he was playing at. He said that it was the lowest he could set it. He had taken the twist out but couldnt lower the action any lower. I felt cheated.

DREADFUL DREADFUL DREADFUL. You could hide a rabbit underneath the strings. Ive read other reviewers comments on the action and how low it is. NO WAY is the action low on this version of the nitefly. Expect a lot of fret buzz and cheap acoustic/classical guitar type action. Absolutely dreadful. Ive considered filing the frets so that I can lower the action. The guitar is playable but not in the same ballpark as Gibson LP, Fender Strat/Tele or even Jackson. I does look nice though.. more of a posers guitar rather than a players guitar.. if you know what I mean?

I still dont play this guitar as much as my other ones. It does have a good sound, thanks to me, and I am getting use to the higher action. I tried the Parker Fly Delux and it is a beautiful instrument. Playable, musical and stunning looks. I think if you are buying a parker, save enough to get something better than the nitefly. Its not the best guitar...Godins do a similar thing and its much better and around the same price. This guitar will not become a classic like its dominant and better older brother. Just another throw away guitar...but it would probably last forever..what a horrible thougth

quick to answer and quite friendly

Ive been playing for 19 years. I own a Gibson LP Custom, Fender Strat USA and Ovation Legend Nylon masterpieces of our time. My main amps is VOX AC30TB and LANEY AC30R. I use a quite a lot of effects/sound processing. Americans make the best electric guitars in my mind followed by the japaness. The rest of them are suspect.

Im putting the nitefly up for sale or I might trade it in for a better guitar or even the FLY DELUX with extra cash.

THis guitar is the biggest mistake of my musical life. I have learned a lot from this guitar and it has humbled me. I wont make the same mistake again. Save up until you can buy the very best, dont except crap like this, like I did

Can't complain. Five way selector, tone, main volume. It's basically the basics that I need and nothing more. The only downside is that the fret markers are not on the face of the neck, but on the top. It's got the double cutaway, and the body shape is like nothing I've ever seen before.

The sound I can get on this guitar are incredible! It sounds great even if it isn't plugged in!

This action is the best that I have ever seen on any guitar.

This baby can really take what you dish out at it. It's built to last.

No problemz whatsoever...

I have two ovation custom balladeers, one is a 12 string, and my father has a taylor. I know the price that many people pay for a guitar like this, but all i can say is that it's all worth it in the long run. Whenever I want to jam, this is always the first guitar I reach for. I think that the only two guitars that come close to the sound and quality of my Nitefly are the Fender Stratacaster and the Ovation Custom Balladeer.

Take a look at there web site..you'll get the idea.
H-S-S (duncans I think.)
Bass wood body
Maple neck
Sperzels

Better now that I took it apart and replaced the pickups with something decent..Had Duncans of some sort.Now it has "real"
duncans in it..took out the front and rear pickups and replaced them with a Hot Rails ( neck) and JB Duncan ( bridge)..now the guitar has some balls to it..the original pickups sucked ..
It was thin sounding / weak..( not any more..hehehhe.)

I paid $350 / w case for it..so I wasnt expecting much out of
it..its not a bad guitar ,neck is nice, decent fret work, body is bass wood..

It has a very Strat sound to it now...better than a real one.
( I have 6 Fenders )..

better now..like anything..its needs work to make it right.

dont know...dont care..I have a studio..and thats all it will see.

never used it..altho I asked them about a fretless version of there neck..and I got a round around on how its not possible..
but that is no big deal..I would like to see them make one..
that would be cool !

not bad for the buck..wouldnt buy another..I dont need to.

98 november, black with a maple pickguard,,, the fellow, who was nice enough at the factory said it couldnt be a parker pcikguard because they didnt make that color, but it has to be, at any rate, i am writing this review to warn you a bit about these gutiars,,, on the surface they seem fine, but may be a bit overpriced considering what you get,,, my concern is with reliability on the road etc,,,

it sounds fine,, piezos sound fine also,, dimarzio single coils, bridge pickup sounds very nice through a fender amp,,, noisy though... i hav no problem with the sound of this guitar,,, action is very nice,, at first when you play it the neck feels very good, but after a while it seems rubbery,,, an ok guitar, stays in tune very well...

when i got this guitar used it had a bad input jack, simple enough, called parker and it would cost only 6 bucks,, well, i also decided to order a new white pickguard, they said they are standard on these,, well it cost me 60 bucks for that,,, so i took it to my guitar tech, who, admittedly is not a genius but is your standard small town fender tech that can work on most guitars, set ups etc.. well, when he opened up the guitar it had the most cheesy solder job you could everh have see, even an old guy who worked in a guitar shop in california in the sixties said this guitar should never go on the road. i am sorry but it looked like a design nightmare.. vey hard to get on and off the guitar,,, controls mounted under the pickguard, you would have to see it to believe it... well, we had to call parker to figure it out as a couple of wires came loose on opneing up the guitar, after we finally got it back on and resoldered some wires the selector switch was wired backwards but it works,,, my guitar tech put the new pickguard on and found that it wouldnt fit, they had sent the wrong one,,,, well, he trimmed it just a bit to make it fit and it wouldnt fit on the OTHER side... it was his mistake, we should have sent it back,,,, all in all a miserable time with a guitar,,, they should make them more simple...

i cant say i would buy one again,,,

these guitars are made by someone who does not and has never played a guitar.. that should tell you something. i am sure their more expensive models have better quality control, i like the idea of the guitar, but , like reverend guitars, with the funny shape you either love them or hate them... both of these companies have flawed guitars. you get what you pay for. i have learned to pay more and get the best...

fair guitar but i would not buy it again,,, too many problems, kinda like a cybertwin by fender,,, with all the moving knobs, how could you possibly want to take it out of the house and play it anywhere,,, to many things could go wrong....

Mine is a version 1 (S/S/S) Nitefly made in 97. It's one of the earlier models so it's a bit different from the current Nitefly's. Maple body, polyurethane finish, bolt on basswood neck sheathed in carbon & fiber glass, 22 stainless steel frets, 3 custom Dimarzio single coils, 25.5" scale, conical neck radius, Sperzel locking tuners, Parker cast aluminum vibrato bridge, passive piezo pickups, 2 volume and 1 tone knob, 5 way switching, made in the US. Lots of cool features on the guitar. Deserves a 10.

I was very dissappointed with the stock Dimarzio single coils. The pickups definitely do NOT sound like traditional strat pups (Neither does the guitar). Instead, they were very fat sounding with a great deal of mids and sorely lacking in any dynamics. Though the bridge pickup had a bit more bite, overall they were extremely dull pickups. And to make matters worse, they're not even hum canceling! (Although they are considerably quieter than fender single coils)

The crappiness of the stock pickups is unfortunate because the natural tone of the instrument is quite interesting. Because of it's somewhat unique construction (maple body, basswood neck), the guitar sounds different from all of the guitars I have played. First of all, it's bass response is minimal at best. Even with a hot rails (a very dark pickup) it's impossible to get a heavy tone. It has plenty of mids... much more than a strat but not quite as much as a set neck mahogany. The best thing about the guitar, however, is it's singing highs. The highs are very prominent on the guitar (probably because of the maple body) but it's neither shrill nor piercing. It sounds almost like a tele the way the highs just leap off of the fret board. In addition, it has impressive sustain for a bolt-on neck. It's a cool sounding guitar once you replace those muddy, lifeless pickups.

The piezo pickup sounds okay. Nothing great. Like everyone has mentioned, it's very bright sounding. It definitely would be nice to have a tone control for it. It is, however, pretty cool to play the guitar using both the mags and the piezo at the same time. You can dial in all sorts of different sounds using both pickups. Very cool. Unlike later models, mine doesn't have an active preamp for blending both the mag and piezo signals. So I have to use a stereo cable and play through 2 different amps. But I don't really mind since everyone agrees that it sounds best with 2 amps anyway... plus I don't have to deal with batteries.

I have since turned the Nitefly into a more hot rodded guitar. I added a Duncan hot rails in the bridge, little 59 in the neck, and a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Blues in the middle. Sounds MUCH better now. I'm especially impressed with the Virtual Vintage Blues. Infact, I'm thinking about replacing the pups with a whole set of Virtual Vintage pups.

I don't remember how the set-up was, but I'm sure it was alright. Setting up the guitar is a lot simpler with this guitar since it's very easy to adjust the bridge and the individual saddles. However, I could never really get the action as low as I would've liked it. No matter how much I tweaked the bridge and the truss rod, the E string (and sometimes the A) would buzz when the action was too low. I'm not really sure why. I think it's because of the big frets. Although I prefer 10's, I have to string the guitar up with 9's because the action would have to be even higher with 10's. Don't even THINK about going any heavier than 10's.

Finish is pretty good. From my experience, all guitars with polyurethane finishes keep looking new year after year. However, I've heard that polyurethane can be detrimental to the tone. I dunno if this is true.

I've read another review that complained about the rather cheap knobs. I kinda agree with that assessment. The frets are all prefect... except that they're kinda big. I think that's why there's so much buzz on the low E string.

Even though it may not look like it, it's a fairly durable guitar. It's not a "tank" by any means, but it's not as fragile as it looks. It's also not as light as the Flys. The weight is slightly less than an alder stratocaster.

As I mentioned earlier, polyurethane finish keeps the guitar looking nice. The hardware will probably last... cept maybe the knobs. Stainless steel frets, of course, are still flawless. Strap buttons are solid. You can definitely depend on the guitar... but I wouldn't advise gigging without a backup.

In addition, the Nitefly vibrato system is surprisingly dependable. Even though it's not a locking bridge, it stays in tune very well. One of the first things I did when I first bought the guitar was play some crazy whammy bar dives... and I was amazed when I found that the thing was still in tune. It's not a floyd rose; you can still knock it out of tune if you go too crazy on the thing. But overall, it's a great vibrato system (and a hell of a lot easier to restring).

Their reputation is not good. Personally, I haven't dealt with them much, but I've emailed them some questions a few times and they usually take over 2 weeks to respond.

Been playing about 8 years now. I don't own as much gear as a lot of other guitar players I know but I've played my share. If it were stolen or lost... I might wanna try the Ernie Ball Silhouette Special or an Axis Sport. Maybe even one of those Brian Moore guitars. I don't dislike the Nitefly, I'm just curious about other stuff.

What do I love about it? I love the guitar's singing highs. I love the fact that the stainless steel frets don't get worn out. And I love the way it sounds with both the mags and the piezo together. What do I hate? I hate that I can't set the action as low as my Gibson, my Ibanez, or even my American strat. I hate the dull stock Dimarzio pups. I hate the "swimming pool" route. My favorite feature is the vibrato system that is easy to restring, yet stays in tune remarkably well.

Did I compare with other guitars? Not really. I had my eye set on a Parker for a while. I chose the Nitefly mainly for its cool features and because I couldn't afford a Fly. I wish it had a tone knob for the piezo pickup. I wish it had the same bridge as a Parker fly (which supposedly stays in tune even better). Overall, I'm still pretty happy with the Nitefly after all these years. It's a good guitar, but I think that it could use a few improvements... especially considering the retail price for the Nitefly these days.

Update to previous entry. It really is a great guitar!!

Turned out it was the volume pot that was bad. Put in a new pot but it doesn't sound exactly the same as before. Has a little bit more midrange going on. Maybe I just have Eric Johnson syndrome. Ha!

It sound good enough to keep for now. I will probably keep it anyway because I am very hard on frets and you don't have to fight this one so much. Plus the stainless frets and graphite fingerboard are better technology. Will just have to tweak my rack a little to compensate for the extra midrange. I'm probably the only one who hears it anyway!!

Think it's about 4 yrs old. I got it used. (s/s/s) dimarzios and piezo with switch to activate magnetic, both or piezo only. Sunburst with white pickguard and tremelo bar, gig bag. Sperzels. Didn't get the stereo cord with it. When I first got it, it was supurb.

I run mono in to a Boss gx-700 and an old Ibanez ue-405 into a Trace Elliot Supertramp and a JC-120(stereo out of the Ibanez).It is noisy on middle and bridge settings, but not any more so than a Strat. After about 2 months it started sounding weak. The piezo only switch function never worked. I figured that was because I wasn't running the stereo cord. Any way I thought the piezo was active with a battery and it must need replacing. There is no battery in this guitar. I think there is a problem in the guitar jack. Currently it is working intermittently. One night the magnetic and piezo will work and other nights only the piezo will work and thats only if you push the cord into the first jack connection and not the stereo connection.I have taken that out of the body and checked the connection. It looks perfect with no wires out of place.
I bought a stereo adapter and plugged two cords into it but that doesnt work properly either. I am hoping somebody will come back on this site and give me some pointers or previous experience on how to get it back to normal. I will eventually take it back to the shop where I bought it,but that's 50 miles away and I just havn't had the time to run it yet. When it works, it works wonderfully and the blend function is perfect to add a little brightness to the overall sound.

Excellent

as above.

havnt contacted them

I have been playing a long time and it's frustrating to get what you want and have it not work to it's potential. When it works, it is damn near perfect. Great lead tone, great in the pocket with the band.