Parker Guitars P-40

You know most of this - three pickups HSS, Fishman trem with piezos.
No fret markers.

No matter what I try, this guitar sounds metallic and toppy. It's just very thin sounding. Would sound great if I was in Nine Inch Nails - if you take the gain up, you lose the tone anyway.
This guitar has no tone of its own to speak of.
Clean, it sounds very thin.

It's been set up with nines and it does feel slack and buzzy, though this does not appear to affect the tone. Finish is good, although the neck does overlap the fingerboard mid-neck. It says something about their quality control that no-one picked up on this.
The piezo bridge is a gimmick - may be of use in the studio, but when activated, everything becomes microphonic - trem movement, finger sliding, and it sounds sooo tinny.

Seems hard wearing enough.

Haven't need this.

I so wanted to like this guitar, and for this to be my main guitar, but it has no bottom end tone to speak of. If you play at low volume and scoop your mids, then you're probably going to love this guitar. If you're looking for tone, or a unique sound, this is not the guitar for you. Maybe the OEM pickups are to blame, of the fact that the whole thing is active, or maybe the thing is just so small and light that there's not enough wood to give it some tonal qualities. If I was an ultra-gain metal player I would care, but if you aspire to hearing what the guitar contributes to the overall tone, then you'll be disappointed. The trem is WAY to light, even with nines, it's way too sensitive in my hands anyway.
You'll turn heads pulling this guitar on, but the look of the thing is NO WAY matched by the noises it makes.

This guitar has some features, but they're unusable to me. I played this guitar for months and months as a session guitar - it was the default instrument if you didn't bring your own. I hated it. HATED it.

Featured: the piezo pickups so that you can dial in a supposed "acoustic" sound. Not very effective. The guitar I played had two single-coils and one humbucker. More on them later.

The famous odd body shape - VERY uncomfortable for this guitarist, at any rate. I'm a diehard Strat player - if it's not remotely shaped like a strat, I have a hard time getting comfortable with it. This guitar is the epitome of uncomfortable.

However, the extreme lightness can be a plus after playing four or five hours.

Average C-shape neck. Nothing special, to me.

I really think this guitar sounded terrible through every amp available. Here are the amps it was played through: Vox Valvetronix, Fender Stage 100 DSP, Pignose G40V, Fender Hot Rod, Marshall AVT50. Sure, it's mostly cheaper stuff. But the fact is.... it couldn't pull off a good sound. I should add I was able to get a great sound from even cheap badly constructed Squier teles out of these amps - but nothing from the Parker.

Here's what I think the problem is: the pickups. TERRIBLE single coils - the thinnest, most anemic single coil pickups I've ever heard. No tone - even with new strings, they sounded flat, dead, no pop or brightness.

The humbucker was the opposite. Too much of everything - the highs were earpiercing, the bass muddy, the mids quacky - and it distorted constantly, even with the volume rolled back.

The piezos didn't sound acoustic at all to me.

It was put together very well - no sharp frets, no buzzing anywhere, no loose wires, etc. The action was a bit high, but that was correctable. Parker DID assemble it well - just from poor parts. NIce red finish, I'll give it that.

Since I only played it now and then for sessions, I can't really comment.

No idea

I am just not a fan at all of these guitars. I want to warn anyone looking for a good sound - this guitar is NOT your cup of tea. It seems to me an overpriced beginners guitar. The pickups are all horrible and the sound that comes out is awful. Changing batteries doesn't work - it's just the inherent sound. Sorry, Parker. Can't stand it.

For a korean made guitar this is EXCELLENT!It feels like a much more expensive guitar.Mine is a gorgeous steel grey finish and there are no imperfections that I've noticed it yet. The neck is fantastic - its not too thin like ibanez's can be and not chunky like a gibson, its perfect in my opinion. The piezo pickup is a godsend for getting the perfect sound you want - for clean sounds i use it alot mixed with the electronic pickups.The body is very resonant - you feel is buzzing against your body - a sign of a good quality guitar in my opinion.The body is also thin and wel lweighted, sits perfectly on your lap and when your standing up it hangs at a perfect angle.

I play this guitar into a line6 Flextone 2 so the range of sounds i can get is endless. The pickups are fantastic sounding - the humbucker packs a fair amount of punch but isnt incredibly hot, not suited for heavy metal really but sounds very good on crunchy settings - the single coils are bright sounding, and once you play around with the EQ a bit you can get a perfect rich, bright and beautifull sound. Mixing the electronic and piezo pickups is one of my favourite features, as i said for clean sounds i normally do this but have the piezo only turned about half way, this adds a little bit of *sparkle* to your sound.

This guitar is its own guitar - if you want a strat buy one, if yo u want a tele buy one, if you want the most versatile an best sounding guitar at this price range then buy this.

Very low action with some fret buzz but no real problems. It came with guage 8 strings on it which were nasty, slack and twangy sounding - i put 10's on mine and it sounds much much better.Because it came with 8's and needed a setup to get 10's on it ill give it a 7 because everything else is perfect in my opinion.

I have not had this guitar for long so cant comment but seems very sturdy.

I have been playing for 7 or 8 years now - i started on a vintage V3, then moved to an epiphone les paul, and now i bought this.Because its discontinued now i would kill ANYONE who stole it.

Overall its a perfect guitar - i dont think ill move on to anything else other than a more expensive parker. Its true what they say "Nothing plays like a parker".

Briefly (listed more extensively below): ash body (transparent black finish), bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, neck SC, middle SC, bridge HB plus bridge Piezo for acoustic simulation, lockable vibrato tailpiece.

Wonderful bell tones high on the neck through the neck single coil, penetrating rhythm chord tones through both SC's, don't use bridge HB that much (maybe because I used to play a Tele?), except through heavy processing (see below). Piezo offers just-barely-passable but by no means faithful acoustic simulation (not that I expected much anyway). Since the Piezo level can be mixed with magnetic pickups, that's where it shines: to augment your sound rather than stand alone. I keep the vibrato locked, also, so can't comment on its sound.

I bought mine used. The build quality is impressive in such an inexpensive guitar: it looks and feels like an instrument costing twice as much. The action and setup were fine, and remained so when I restrung it with D'Addario XL's (.010).

I've only had it for a few months, and I haven't played out with it, but I have played it a lot, and, so far, so good. Stays in tune, lightweight yet resonant.

N/A

I've been playing for about six years, through two rigs. The first is through a Boss VF-1 multi-effects module straight to the mixing board (in this setup, I use the bridge HB almost exclusively, and mix very little "dry" sound). The second is through a Tech21 Killer Wail wah/Boss CE-5 chorus/Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive/Boss FV-100 volume pedal into an Ampeg J-12R reissue that is usually mic'ed to the board. In both cases, I can get exactly the sounds I am looking for and expect from a quality instrument.

Already Stated in several reviews below. I got the solid black finish.

This guitar is beautiful! The piezos make an amazing acoustic sound, with it's piercing twangs, you can really fool some people. This guitar was meant to be versatile, and that's exactly what it is. I wouldn't use it as a "metal" guitar, but the humbucker does just fine for distortion in my opinion. If you want to play purely metal, get something else, but for someone like me with such a ridiculous array of musical interest, this guitar is perfect. The ONLY thing that pissed me off was a small amount of fretbuzz, but I'll talk about that later...

I got mine set-up when I bought the guitar. The guys that did it were idiots though. The fretbuzz on the top three strings were ridiculous, the locks on the tuning pegs were actually falling out, and my pickups were loose! The first thing I did was to screw the damn pickups in so they didn't wobble all over the place. Then I fixed the locks on the tuners, without any difficulty, although I was surprised the strings didn't come loose. The action when I got the guitar was ridiculously low, so the fretbuzz was expected. I wish I could have kept it that low, just as most people would, but I raised it a bit, and there is absolutely NO fretbuzz now. As I said, I blame this on the store, not Parker. Other than that, I don't see any problems at all with guitar. The frets don't seem "squarish" to me and sliding is a breeze. It was used so there were minor scratches in the finish.

This guitar seems solid. The only thing that worries me is the extreme light-weight of it. While I like the fact that it weighs the same as a feather, it does have a tendency to make me worry about its durability. I haven't had any problems so far. No problems with strap buttons, and the knobs and switches seem solid. I've slammed on it pretty hard, and no problems thus far. One thing that did screw me over and scared me a bit was this: the guitar has an active pre-amp. I had no idea it had any active electronics in it, so when I picked it up one day to find a disgusting warped sound coming from it, needless to say, I was surprised, and a little pissed. After a while I did realize the problem, popped out the dead battery, and put in an Energizer e-squared. Haven't had any problems since, but that was only a month ago. Just in case, I have spare batteries on hand.

Now here is the part where I discredit myself. I've been playing guitar for 4 months. That's it. Until I got my Parker, I was using some POS tiny acoustic, so next to that, this guitar is phenomenal. Right now I got a crappy Peavey amp, so the range of my guitar has not been fully realized.

Korean guitar, which is made by Cort and supervised by Parker. 22 Frets. 2 Single Coil, 1 Humbucker and 1 Pizeo. Active pre-amp. Transprant Red Finish. Neck is Satin finish. Body is made of Ash and Neck is maple. Neck is thin like an ibanez, bridge is a Wilkinson, nothing special about tuners. Came with cables, stereo to 2 mono 1/4 inch. A few allen keys and nothing else, oh yes, did came with strings.

8 for being made Korea. I like thin necks.

I play alot of music varity, from jazzy tunes to heavy metal. The sound varity out of this guitar is more than you need. Except metallers might want to ahve a neck humbucker, but im my own opinion they can simply add a mini humbucker in the neck pickup. Pizeo pickups are great, except i have a problem with my 3th Pizeo pickup, it makes a buzzing sound, and ive tried chaning strings and hitting it vigrously which fixed it for about 5 minutes playing. I think i'll order a new pickup since they cost about $12 exc shipping from http://stewmac.com/parker/

strings i use are Elixir nanoweb 11-49, I didn't like the bright sound with the strings it came with, almost as bright as a fender strat. With heavier strings it still sounds bright with the single coil pickups, dispite the buzzing pizeo pickup, the guitar's sound is great. I use my korg AX1500G effects pedal and i run into hi-fi for pracitcing with the pizeo pickups (my personal PA simulation) and at the moment i am using a marshall MG250 amp which gives a fairly nice sound. I shall be getting my line 6 vetta amp soon which means ill have more sounsd to play with but the pick ups are not that great compared to expensive gibsons then again, you can always upgrade them.

overall sounds are great for everything, suits most styles but might not be perfect or if you are looking for a very specific sound like high gain, then you probably want to buy another guitar or change the pickups.

The guitar had a pretty high action from factory, i didn't complain or anything since i perfer a high action than a low action guitar. I had gibson guitars, i think because i have smaller hands the thin neck made it easier to hit harder. The guitar is easy to play, elite players should not find it too hard even with a high action but i find it more comfortable to solo with higher action than a low action. Then again im not really a soloist so i should have no say, i can play most of the hotel califorean solo.

The neck is not flat as someone metioned, but doesn't bother me really. Guitar made flaws like the stupid pizeo pickup. otherwise the guitar is very well made.

I don't know if it is me or the guitar but i seem to hate the C chord sound, it sounds horrible for whatever reason, it sounds really dull, it could be me but it sound fine on my acoustic or other guitars i play. Its not a bad point but it makes me feel bad when i hear myself playing my recordings even other people don't notice it, i do!

The look of the guitar is either Love it or Hate it. Most peopel hated my headstock, i love it. Most people hated the look of my guitar, I love it. Most people say they'll have a gibson over a P-40, up to you, i hate gibson, big bulky neck, heavy body to leave you with shoulder problems and back problems. They do sound better, richer sound but I don't care, i don't play as well and thats all i care.

Guitar has been gigged twice, don't have a problem. Hardware do feel durable. Battery is one issue, always have spares, i thought i bought my guitar when actually the battery went flat. I need to change strings (once every 4 weeks)to keep the nice sounds otherwise the guitar gets a bit stupid and moans. Finish does get scratched, shame i didn't buy the P-38, ive scratched it and you can see alot of strum marks which i hope you can polish off.

Oh yes strap buttons, it did came lose once, and only once but that scared me.

Can you depend on this guitar? Yees! playing day and day, you'll love it more and more. Although Fly users complain about this guitar, well its not as expensive as those Flys, but it does the job, you strum it makes some nice sounds, unlesss you are really picky about everything, this guitar is great.

Well I would use this on a gig, but just remember to have spare batteries and a screw driver. I guess if i ever get a fly, ill still buy another P-40 because they are very good sold guitars, shame they still wear a high price tag and still be made in korea. Guitar is well made but does scare me at times

I have bothered about customer support partly im not lazy to complain and i don't enjoy leaving a bad impression on a company that i like by an individual who spoke to me over phone. Usually those people make the company all look bad and wrong but thats just me, im happy to let my guitar guru at local shop to sort out all my problems, ill post again when i do get my vetta head, hopefully this christmas.

Been playing for 1 whole year wooooohooooo!!!!! Own an ibanez RG axe, don't have many gear, have a korg ax1500g multi effects pedal which doesn't do good distortions, i leave my zoom pedal to do that.

If this guitar was stolen, erm.. uh oh, i think ill go buy another one or consider upgrading to nitefly or fly.

Love the playbility of the guitar. I hate the piezo buzz.
I compared it to SGs, Strats, RGs, and random guitars like Line6, decided P-40 wins in terms of playbitlity and also its special.

I wished it had some carbon in it and made in USA.

Try one, im not saying this guitar will suit you but you should try one because its worth it. Then you'll realise you need to buy one. :P

This parker was made in Korea.There are 22 frets and it as a lovely solid body that gives it loads of sustain.There is a volume toggle , a tone toggle(which doesn't seem to have any effect), a 5 way pickup selector switch , a 3 way piezo switch and a piezo volume toggle.There is 1 parker humbucker and 2 single parker pickups.The electrnics are obviously passive.I got the grey matt finish which makes it look like steel.I love the unique shape of parker flies that is of this guitar also.There is a string through body style bridge with a 'Fishman' tremolo system.The tuners are non-locking sperzel , and the neck is fairly wide but after a while you get used to it.

I play Muse , Siverchair and a bit of Rage Against the Machine. The guitar suits my sound perfectly , as like on many Muse songs I can quickly change to acoustic via the piezo system. This is my setup:
Parker p40 - Zvex fuzz factory - Zoom 606 - Laney hard core 100 watt amp. My 606 is creating all if any noise. This guitar has a lovely sustain.This guitar can make gibson sounds with the humbucker , fender sounds with the single pickups and acoustic sounds with the piezo system. You can also hook the double lead tat you get with the guitar into two amps at the same time with one amp on electric and the other on acoustic.There is nothing I dont like abuot this guitar.

The action is great as are the pickups. It has a great finish the only one bad thing I can say about this guitar is the tone toggle having no effect which doesn't bother me. I'll probably find out how to use it in a couple of days anyway.

This guuitar will last.I would defenitely use this guitar without backup in a gig.

Never had to deal with them , but the people at the shop were really helpful and nice.Ihave a one year warranty with this guitar.

I have been playing for a year and a half and am self taught , dont let that fool you I'm actually good.I can play every single muse song and numerous Brian May solos.I've already listed some of my gear.I ha ve a crap boss distortion pedal , a crybaby and my old Yamaha pacifica.I love this guitar , it does everything I would want a guitar to do.

Set of features is right on. 2 single, One double coil in the bridge. Plus the piezo, trem bridge. Has all the feeatures I want short of MIDI. All Pickups sound great. Lot's of tonal flexibility. And the trem has a nice traditional action (unlike the Parker tram on the deluxe models- I've owned one of those for years and I still can't get used to the trem action, so i leave it fixed)

As I mentioned. Stock pickups are nice. Can't give it a ten. But they are very workable. And the guitar is solid. No dead frequencies.

O.K. Here we go. the stetup was fine. I always adjust new guitars to my specks, and setup was a breeze. But I'm still scratrching my head over the way the neck was put together. I grabbed this guitar to use as a backup for my Deluxe (I can't affor two). But I'm stunned at how poorly the neck was designed compared to the Deluxe. The frets are horrible. No buzzez or anything. But the shape... they are almost squared off. There is no crowning, or rounding at all. Makes a tought go when you need to slide up and down the fingerboard. My fingers are always getting hung up. I own, or have owned, dozens of low-mid and high end guitars in my days (been playing for 28 yrs). I've worn the frets off of Strats, Pauls, Teles, PRS. And I've never seen or played a guitar with such crappy frets as the P-40. If I decide to keep it I'm going to have to have it refretted. Cant stand it. But i might just unload it and save up for another Deluxe.

The other odd thing is the spacing between the two e-strings and the sides of the neck. I don't mean string hieght. I mean looking straight at the neck, the distance on either side seems excessive. It feels very strange to play.

My main guitar for the last 3 years has been a Parker Deluxe. In all my years of playing I have never been so happy with a guitar. The neck on that baby is unlike anything I have ever played. feels like it was made for me. And as I said, this P-40 is intended only as a backup. I realize that you get what you pay for. And the P-40 is several steps down the food chain from a Deluxe. But compared to other guitars in this price range, the neck on this guitar blows.
An "off-the-shelf import fender" is more playable in terms of fretwork and design. The build quality of the P-40 is fine. It's the blueprint that needs some adjustments.

Built very well for a factory import

I've dealt with parker in the past. They are prompt and pleasant. A good company to deal with.

Like I said, been playing for 28 yrs. Professionally for around 22-24 yrs.
I've played many, many gigs. Way too many to count.
A low cost Parker is a ver attractive idea. But It doesn't quite live up to the hype. I've pent a lot of time trying to get used to it in the last month or so. But i cant seem to. I bought it as a backup. And I'm sure it will do the job just fine in a pinch. But I dont think I'll be reaching for it very often. Because of the crappy frets and the strange string spacing, it's just not much fun to play.

Select Ash Body/Maple Bolt-On Neck/Rosewood Fingerboard 22 Frets.

1 Humbucking and 2 single coil Custom-wound Parker Alnico Pickup
Fishman Piezo Active Pickup/Preamp/Mixer System

Wilkinson Vibrato System
Steel Gray Finish

It sounds awesome! The first thing that I did when I got it was drop a Duncan Invader into the bridge. The stock pickup wasn't as hot as I would have liked it to be. This guitar now a high gain machine from the Invader, and an acoustic guitar from the piezo. The Invaders clean isn't that great, but that's where the piezo comes in. The piezo is unbeliveable. With a flick of a switch, it sounds exactly like an acoustic guitar. It has miles of sustain, and I can hold artificial harmonics for a lot longer than any guitar I recall playing.

I bought the guitar shop worn, and the site said that it had minor finish flaws. I got it in the mail and prepared myself for scratches, but there weren't any! I lucked out there. Here comes the part that pissed me off. The website said minor finish damages, but there was something else wrong with the guitar. I plugged it in, played out of the piezo, then switched over to the magnetic pickups. No sound. I changed the battery, and that did nothing. I took it to my local repair guy, whose site is www.ericsguitarshop.com He opened it up and found that there was some bad wiring. He also said that it looked like someone was screwing around with the wiring, either Elderly Music or the Parker factory. He took care of that and put the Invader in. Now it sounds great and the magnetic pickups work! .The action was a little goofy, or so said my guitar repair guy. In my opinion it wasn't that bad, but I'm going to have him set up the guitar properly. Besides that, it's great!

I've had it for about 3 weeks now, and it seems like it will last a life time.

Have not delt directly with Parker, so I wouldn't know.

Overall, I am very happy with the guitar. I only paid $493 for a $699 guitar, so the $35 for the repairs was acceptable for me. I made out like a bandit. After the modifications, it is one of the best sounding and playing guitars I have played. If it were stolen or lost, I would buy another and put an Invader in the bridge. Check out my brothers band at www.onelastepidemic.cjb.net

It has everything that I want in a guitar. Mine is steel gray which by the way, I think it looks really cool. I fell in love with it, the first time I lay eyes on it.

This guitar sounds very different from the others. Its very "electric" and very "stand out". You can get a wide range of sounds through the 5-way selector. It sounds so much better than the P38.

The shape of the guitar is very stylish and looks very cool. However, nothing is perfect. The neck is'nt 100% flat (I didn't notice that until later.) and there is a little flaw on it which is no big deal. Also I hope the strings are closer to the frets but then again I guest that's a good way to improve your skill.

I've only had it for 3 months. No problems at all. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Who cares? Don't really want to deal with them anyway!

This is my first guitar and I've looked at a lot of the others. None could compair at that price range. The only one came close was the Ibanez S520. This is a great guitar at a reasonnable price. Personnally I would choose this guitar over any Fenders or even a Les Paul. Keep up the good work, Parker.

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.