Parker Guitars P-40

Features as described above. Mine is steel grey too.

A huge range of sounds available. The only thing is it is a tad bright on the single coils; but that is easier to deal with than too dull!

The guitar was well set up with a low to medium action. There were no finish flaws visible. The vibrato was set rather stiff, but personally I don't use them much, though I do like the effect on the sound that the springs have. The set up, finish, action,and quality of fingerboard wood absolutely blow away the Gibson 335 which was the last guitar I bought at over 3 times the price!

Hard to say yet. The guitar feels solid, though it is very light.

Never had to use em

Been playing 31 years. I am fortunate enough to have owned a Fly deluxe for 5 years. This guitar isn't quite that good, but overall it's great. It does absolutely everything you need, at a superb value for money.
If lost/stolen I would replace it. Everything on just feels "right". There's obviously been a lot of work gone into this. It's the only korean built guitar I have, but it beats many US guitars on feel and comfort.
Ken Parker I salute you.

Made in Korea; 22 jumbo nickel silver frets; select ash body; maple neck; rosewood fretboard; Wilkinson vibrato/Fishman piezo bridge; Parker Alnico humbucker at bridge; single coils at the middle and neck; 5-way selector for magnetic pickups; 3 way selector to go between magnetic signals, piezo signals, and blending of the two signals; 1 tone control for magnetic pickups; volume control for magnetic pickups; separate volume control for piezo pickup. It basically has everything I want in a guitar.

Mine is steel gray (black) and non transparent (polyurethane finish). This guitar is very well shaped, I've never held a guitar that was as well balanced as this one, and playing it sitting down is just as much of a dream as strapping it on and standing because it sits perfectly on your thigh unlike many other guitars I've played/owned that want to slide one way or another.

This guitar suits the music I play extremely well. I play mostly rock, but I also venture into classical, blues, folk and country. I'm really into progressive music which is very demanding music in terms of the types of sounds you can get from your instrument. The Parker P-40 handles every style I throw at it and responds superbly.

I run my Parker into a Line 6 POD and a Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator (this adds infinitely to the tone of the piezo bridge!). Coupled with the POD and Boss pedal, I can get any tone I want. Heavy Dream Theater/Metallica crunch and lead tones, sparkling electric cleans - it's there, then I can switch to the Boss pedal, flick the switch to the piezo and get a sweet amplified acoustic tone that rivals any Ovation out there. I can go from Pantera to Bob Dylan with the flick of a switch and a stomp on a pedal. The pickups are all amazingly quiet, and it keeps tune as well as any guitar even with liberal use of the vibrato bridge.

There is only one dislike I have about this guitar. The piezo doesn't sound like an acoustic guitar on it's own when I run it through the POD. So, I'll have to take a point off for that. Coupled with the Boss AC-2 though, my jaw literally dropped. I had to look in the mirror to make sure I had an electric guitar in my hands and not an acoustic.

With this setup, I can get just about guitar sound I might want.

Setup was awesome. Even the gauge of strings was the same as I am accustomed to. I did lower the action a bit, but that's only because I like very low action. This guitar is solid and well built, as all guitars SHOULD be. No flaws whatsoever.

The neck is an absolute work of genius. Anyone who has played a Parker will tell you that their neck designs will spoil you rotten and improve your playing making you faster and cleaner in your playing.

I don't believe in playing in front of an audience without a backup, plain and simple. But you know what? I'd pick another Parker P-40 as a backup. If I had to play in front of a lot of people and only had one guitar at my disposal, I'd take this baby over anything else (except maybe a higher end Parker, but that's not in my budget). It's a very solid guitar. No carbon fiber or stainless steel frets like on the higher end Parkers, so the P-40 gets a 9 here. The 10 in this category is reserved for the Fly and NiteFly.

I haven't dealt with customer support. If I ever have to, I'll deal with Parker directly because I only hear good things about them. I can't offer an honest opinion as yet though, but with this guitar, I don't expect any problems.

A solid 10. I've been playing guitar for 9 years now, and you simply can't get a better quality, more feature laden guitar in this price range. If it were lost or stolen, I'd definitely buy another one. No doubt about it. I compared this guitar mainly with Carvin and a few other "custom" guitar makers, and you really can't get a better deal. The kicker for me was the Fishman piezo bridge. I've always wanted an electric guitar that could sound like an acoustic with the flick of a switch, and this was a dream come true for me. I always loved the acoustic sound but found acoustics in general too bulky and hard to play - too high of action and bulky necks made them particularly irritating to me. This guitar is none of those things, but it sounds like a real acoustic guitar. I'm still in ecstasy over that alone!

For $595 I got two exceptionally high quality instruments in one guitar. If you are looking for quality, playability, and value, this is the guitar to buy.

As an end note, I've played all sorts of electric guitars. Ibanez RGs, Gibson Les Pauls, Fender Strats, etc. All the standard guitarist fare. To quote the Parker slogan, "Nothing plays like a Parker." This guitar is as close to perfect as I have found in my 9 years of playing. Try one out, but only if you have the money to buy it, because you will fall in love with it.

Korean made Parker. Similar to P-38, no pick guard, body-mounted pickups, Parker H-S-S, Wilkinson/Fishman piezo bridge... you can see the rest at the web site. I give features a 10 because of all the bases covered here... humbucker, singles, piezo, 5-way switch, trem, all with their own volume levels (no tone adjust on the piezos, however).

Finish is very nice. Mine is the steel gray (non transparent). There is one very tiny flaw in the finish near one corner of the bridge but no big deal.

The first thing you'll notice about this guitar is how light it is. The body is very thin (ash) making it very noticably lighter. Balance is excellent and the guitar fits against your body very well. You can't tell by looking at the front of it how well it hangs and feels. It's very ergonomically designed and you can tell when you strap it on.

The P40 does it all and does it very well. You have at your disposal any sound you want from big nasty crunch on the humbucker to big, woody blues tone on the neck SC to a nice, crisp acoustic/electric tone from the piezos. Spanky Tele spit is available from the in-between positions and the mid PU gives a good Strat impression.

Playing the guitar not plugged in, you can feel and hear how well the whole thing resonates. You get the feeling that the entire thing is all one rigid piece of wood that vibrates when you play it.

Tone wise, the pickups are very clear with good, tight bottom. The humbucker has a good low-mid bite and high end clarity without being shrill. The singles have big, full tone with a crisp top end. I think they are very true to the guitar's tone with no added coloration. The piezos produce the classic Ovation sounding acoustic/electric snap. It can tend towards the bright side, but this can be EQ'd easily, I'd rather have this than too dark or muddy.

The combination of the piezos and the magnetic pickups give an interesting hybrid tone. The piezos add a sort of shimmer to a clean chorused tone and seems to add some body and snap to a distortion tone. Again, the sheer number of tonal possibilities on this guitar are amazing.

Action was playable but I always do a complete setup on a new axe anyway, with 10s instead of 09s. The Wilkinson was setup a bit high on one side... appeared to be a quick fix for the buzzies. This was easily fixed and some string height adjustment made at the saddle remedied that. I suspect this was the work of the guitar shop, not Parker.

The neck is unbelievable. You simply do NOT find a neck like this on a Korean guitar, period. It's the perfect thickness between a chubby Les Paul and a skinny Ibanez. The fret work is better than what i've seen on some USA Gibsons; flawless. I don't know if it's the conical radius fretboard or different frets or what, but this neck is SO playable you just won't believe it. It offers a certain glide and a solid, rigid feel that makes you want to play it.

Tuners are excellent. They must be a notch or 2 above the standard Korean fare. They are very precise and hold the guitar in tune even after quite a trouncing and liberal vibrato usage.

The Wilkinson is very functional. Mine is not set up as a floater... i have a Floyd on my Ibanez for that. The Wilky works very well and has no trouble staying in tune. It's one big glitch is the trem arm itself... bend over to tweak a stompbox and it'll fall right, every time. There is a set screw on it but it gets loose after 10 minutes of use. It's an annoyance but no major problem.

Only time will tell. There is no carbon fiber on the P40, you only get that on the high-end Fly and NiteFly. This guitar feels very solid and durable.

I've emailed Parker with questions before i bought and always got an answer. Don't bother talking to sales people... they know nothing. Send your email directly to support. Those guys know thier stuff and answer very quickly.

A hands-down 10, no question about it. I've been playing for 30 years and have run the gamut on guitars. I wish i could have owned this guitar 20 years ago. It has a feel and "rightness" to it that I have encountered on only about 1 or 2 other guitars in my life. Parker is a special company run by a special guy and you can feel that, despite this being made in Korea. I can't imagine a real Fly being better than this, but someday i'll own one.