Parkwood H4

I bought this off ebay about a month ago. It is made in Indonisia in 2007. I was looking for a guitar like this for awhile, so I wouldn't have to switch guitars between songs, I play in a country rock band, and tried a few other hybrids, but the Ibanez montage just had too many gadgets and gizmos for something to go wrong, and i didn't like the look to Frankensteinish, the Taylor T5 is great guitar, but didn't have the electric sound I wanted, I played one of these at GC a year ago, but didn't have the cash at the time, and was blown away, 2 mini humbuckers gave me all the crunch I needed, and the fishman bridge works great, blending the 2 has opened a new door of sounds for me.

I love the sound of this guitar, I play through a Peavy classic and this thing sounds great for the electric, I split the acoustic and the electric, and run the acoustic through the board, I do have to equalize the sound to get a rich acoustic sound, but I do that anyway on my Tacoma.

This guitar was set up perfectly, when I got it, like I said, I bought it used and the previous owner had it all set up. This guitar is one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen, it is also balanced well, which is important for comfortable playing on stage, the action is great, really easy on your fingers.

So far I have not had any issues, but I haven't had it that long.

Hadn't had to contact.

I've been playing for 20 years, I also own a Tacoma Roadking acoustic a great acoustic by the way, and an Epiphone Nighthawk, which gave me alot of versitile sounds. I hope I never have to replace this guitar, cause you can't find them.

I am a worship leader and a lead guitarist. I need to be able to switch from tender acoustic strumming and thumbing all the way to ripping high gain leads at the drop of a hat. I have been looking for something like this for a long time. I tried the VXT, the Variaxes, and this, and the Parkwood is what I went with. My favorite guitars are Gretsches, and the SD mini-buckers do a fine job of nailing my Gretsch-esque tone, while the piezo sounds are more faithfully organic than the Variaxes I owned. My girlfriend thinks the Australian Blackwood top is the most beautiful cut of wood she's ever seen on a guitar. I think it's the most versatile guitar in this price point.

I lead modern worship, and it's literally everything from hard rock to mellow acoustic stuff, urban gospel/soul, and classic hymns. My guitars have to be all things to every style. The H4 does this without issue. It twangs when I need it, it fills out for thick chording and comping, it can open up and rock, and it can do a great job as just a piezo acoustic. The mini-buckers are quiet, and the output is such that it allows me to play with nuance and expression. Sustain is great. I play it through a PODxt Live straight to the board, and it sounds organic and musical.

It needs a major setup. I'm going to put 11s on it and lower the action. It was a floor model at GC, so it's in need of some TLC. I would play this thing at any gig with no backup, though, I'm going to save for an H2 so I have backup. I put a LOT of live miles on a guitar, and I have no doubts that with a good pro setup, I'll be playing this guitar for years 2-3 times a week.

Never dealt with them.

I traded in a Gretsch on this. That should say everything right there. I loved the sound of the Gretsch, and the H4 gives me that tone, piezo sounds, and tuning stability, as well as a great look and a much lighter guitar. I would desperately work overtime to save money for another one if I were to lose this one.

AWESOME FEATURES!!! I was looking for something exactly like this guitar and was pleased that someone had read my mind! I saw the clearence ad for Guitar Center and went in to check out this "hybrid". I spent most of my time on the H2 because it was $200 cheaper and I'm not rich. I ended up getting the H4 because it was clearenced for a rediculous price w/hard case! Construction, and style are amazing. The wood is beautiful! Grover tuners, Duncan mini humbuckers, Fishman "Powerbridge"/"Powerchip" technology, it doesn't get much better than that. Three way toggle for the pups, mini three way switch for piezo/pups/blend, separat volume and tone controls for the humbuckers, a volume+tone knob for piezo.

I love the sound I am able to get with this guitar. From milky chorus to attacking crunch, there is a lot of room for creativity in sounds and also the ability to copy almost any style out there. I personally love this "hybrid" concept because I use a lot of delay sounds (U2 ish) and by blending the piezo in with the pups I can get that percussive attack that makes the delay stand out and drive band. My dream guitar has always been a Rickenbacker but the H4 provides a very similar sound for half the price.

Okay, so here's my one gripe. I got this guitar on clearence because it was the last one in the store and according to Guitar Center I may have got the last one in any store in the nation. I got the one that has been on the wall since they first got them so it had already been played and messed around with. The action wasn't setup right, the pickups were adjusted too low, the volume and tone knob for the piezo would move together instead of seperately (a simple adjustment took care of this)and the truss rod needed some tweeking. I don't blame this on the factory, but anyone form Guitar Center reading this should consider that I wouldn't have payed full price for this guitar in the condition it was in. With everything adjusted the action is great and the adjustability of the setup is simple and accurate. The strings are through the body so you get full sustain. I can't say enough about this guitar! Worst feature I can complain about is the volume+tone knob for the piezo...why not seperate?

Solid guitar! Great finish! We'll see how it looks in ten years

Don't know, haven't need it yet.

I've been playing for about ten years and play often in different bands. My other two guitars are a Tacoma C1C accoustic and a Washburn RR150 electric. Both great guitars!! The Parkwood H4 is what has been missing in my life and now I am complete!

This is a nice, solid guitar with good looks, vibe, and tones. I have always been a fan of mini-humbuckers since owning a Les Paul Deluxe. The Fishman Power Bridge sounds awesome and I think that being mounted on a semi-hollowbody really improves the piezo-acoustic sound due to the added resonance. I thought that putting the concentric vol/tone pots on the Piezo control was a good idea until I tried it: what I have always found to be true of Piezo pups is still true. You still need a SIGNIFICANT amount of EQ'ing offboard to get a good acoustic sound. Period. Also, I am not a big fan of the mini-switch selector. They are nice for modding your own guitar unobtrusively, but on a production guitar, it's like, hey, why beat around the bush?? Put a real man's 3-way switch on there! Not some dinky little thing that is going to poke me in the finger when I go to grab it in mid-song!
The finish is gorgeous and I'm a sucker for rare Australian woods. The neck binding---eech, I'm not a big fan of fancy necks, especially when the frets could have used the attention.

The Seymour Duncan mini-buckers sound great for classic rock, blues, country, jass, maybe even hard rock. I guess without doing any internet research I would however have to assume that you would be stuck with them and swapping them out later could be a real problem if you decided you want something different. The mounting rings are made out of rosewood and look sharp, but again I don't know a lot about different mini's that may be on the market. Something tells me that there aren't dozens of different aftermarket pups to choose from if you decide you want to do some tweaking later.
As I said before, the Piezos sound better on this type of guitar than they would an a solidbody, IMHO. However the tone control only serves to muddy an already dull tone (if left un-EQ'd) and the mini-toggle switch is a PITA.
The guitar seemed to stay in tune once I gave the strings a good stretch and started bending them. I still give the guitar a 9 for tone, but will I still feel that way a year or two down the road?

Finish on the guitar top is absolutely gorgeous and unique. I don't care for the neck finish but that's just me, a lot of people like that shiny feeling and I don't consider it a deal breaker.
The action was pretty good, esp considering that I played it at GC and like most guitars there it was not set up with any kind of loving attention to detail. The H2 sitting next to this H4 really suffered from that, unfortunately, since that was the guitar that was priced closer to what I would consider spending for something like this.
The parts and pieces all fit together flawlessly except for the neck binding and frets which could have used more attention before leaving the factory.

The guitar seemed rugged enough. The pots on the H2 seemed to be of inferior quality compared to the H4, which were nice and tight and had just the right amount of friction. I hate pots that turn too easily, they always seem cheap to me. The machine heads seemed good, pups, switches and input jack all solid.

Don't know. Took a while to find their website.

Overall, this is a very impressive guitar and a gutsy move in the right direction by a new player (new to me at least- Parkwood). However, I feel that it is overpriced and only time will tell if it's a success. This guitar is made in Indonesia and for that reason I think it could and should sell for a couple hundred dollars less. For a comperable production hybrid solid body made by a known company like Fender, I can get something like a Nashville Power Tele for around the same price as the H2. In which case, the H2 would not stack up. The H4 sells for $250 more, and what do you get for that? Seymour Duncans and a nice Australian wood top? Sorry, that doesn't cut it for me.
I think the H4 should sell for around $750- 800 and the H2 should be a couple hundred less.
I've been GASsing for a piezo hybrid for some time and this baby is really tempting, but the price is just too high and in my opinion, not justified. I could by a really nice semi-hollowbody from Epiphone or Ibanez for less than half the cost of this guitar and mod it myself with the Fishman power bridge (which is and has been available to consumers for some time) and still save hundreds of dollars, AND still have all swappable aftermarket parts and pups for later.
Sorry, Parkwood. Really nice try.
If someone bought this for me, I definitely wouldn't say no!

Made in 2007 in Indonesia. Australian blackwood top (similiar to Koa), mahogany sides and back, semi-hollow chambers. glued-in mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard. Seymour Duncan mini-humbuckers, hardshell case. Fishman Powerbridge with Fishman Powerchip with active tone and volume for the piezo which is blendable with the magnetic pups. Grover tuners.

Sounds great for jazz, very articulate and clean. Bridge pup is moved 2 inches in front of bridge for more string vibration and warmth. The Duncans are bright but warm pups. The piezo is blendable with the Duncans via a small toggle switch. This requires a 9 volt battery for the Powerchip. Not great for distortion, but i get amazing results with my Route 66 pedal through my Princton Blackface. For acoustic, I use a Genz Benz Shanandoah and it sound great. Don't expect this to sound all acousticie with your Marshall stack. It ain't gonna happen. This guitar like clean - as clean as possible - solid state or tubes. As with any guitar, it sounds a lot better with tube amps, mine being Mesa, Fender blackface (3) and silverfce Bassman. It really shines most using the Shen, with the EQ adjusted, sounds fantastic. A little 60-cycle hum from the Duncans, but all my axes humm a little. Very nice electronics, very responsive. I hate giving any guitar a 10, but it does sound much better than expected through any amp. Plenty of top end shimmer for humbuckers.

This is where this axe falls a little short, typical of Asian assembly-line guitars. All Asian guitars seem to have trouble with getting the frets dressed properly, this is no exception. Plenty of fret buzz, and the piezo controls were so loose and wobly, i had to disasemble the guitar to fix it. Plenty of excess glue all around, but that is the least of my worries. The list goes on, but there are minor faults everywhere. Yes, I'm super critical. I paid $1000!

I have no idea. never heard of them untill I saw this stiing on the wall and had to have it. I tested it using a Vox AC15, and any guitar that sounds good with a Vox amp made in Asia can't be bad. It is factory made in Asia, but I am not biased.

I have no clue.

Well, the sum of parts would warrant a perfect 10 rating here, however I'm going to nick 2 points off. One for poor neck finishing, the other for the high price. I know the parts porably coast $100 separatly, but the final product does not have a personal cleaned-up professional look to it. It is essentially a poor-man's (me) Taylor T5. Yes, I have played the T5 several times, and it is a much better guitar, but twice the price. I played the ovation hybrid for several hours, and when I went back to buy it, I saw this and was smitten. The Parkwood is $600 cheaper, but has a much woodier acoustic sound that I was looking for compared to the Les Paul-like heavier sound of the Ovation. The Ovarion I played was set up very poorly also. The Taylors, maybe 4 or 5 that I tried were all perfect, as you would expect from them. Overall, this is perfect for my needs, clean, cleaner, and acoustic!