In '95ish I really wanted a Parker, but they were not distributed in Maine yet. I called Parker, Ken answered, and invited me to the factory. He very generously gave me a tour of the factory and helped me decide what Parker to buy. I will never forget how awesome that whole experience was. Parkers are awesome. (thanks for the forum)
That's awesome. I've wanted one since I started playing and I think I finally found one used in my price range. So hopefully here in a week or so I'll be sportin a Parker Fly Mojo very similar to the one in this video. (refined version)
The Fly in my photo is an original 1993 and is one of my main guitars for practice and gigging. Its range of sounds are almost unequalled - very few guitars can go from jazz, to out-of-phase strat, to metal, to acoustic with just two switches. Weather and temperature has almost no effect on the neck or playability. After 26 years of playing the stainless steel frets, there is zero visible wear. It is a pleasure to play.
Exactly. How about the contoured fit of the body. It is so light and we'll ballanced. I used to have a first gen fly deluxe. Man I miss it. Soon I hope to get another Parker.
John Clark I agree completely, LOVE my green 98 Fly! Playability & versatility & beyond. I am a Parker fan (Ken era obviously) and have a 97 Nightfly and a P36 (Korean Parker Tele) also. Good stuff.
I bought one Parker Fly deluxe in Rudy Pensa's shop in New York (1995) , and I loved this guitar, although the little E-string had a tendancy to break easily. Unfortunately, when I came back to France, my guitar teacher harassed me until I sold her to him. I still missed her. When Rudy opened his little shop on 169 W 47th street NYC, in 1980, my brother and I were his first buying customer. We bought two electric legend ovation, one wine red Les Paul Custom, and one super heavy Twin reverb. I was amazed to come back in 1995, and see how he expanded so much, four floors shop, Pensa-Suhr guitars, etc. Rudy recognized me instantly. He was happy to see his first customer again, and offered me plenty of little stuff. Old memories... Thanks for your nice guitar descriptions.
The first year these guitars were available(I forget when) I was in a guitar store in time to see a dozen of the Parkers come in. They were in gig bags laid on the floor, waiting to be examined and hung on the wall. ALL of them came out of the bags in tune. Astonishing!
5:21 The wheel actually changes the angle of the bridge. To change how firm the tremolo feels, you need to open the back - there are 3 slots that the leaf spring can sit in - each one of those settings changes the firmness of trem arm. When properly setup, a Parker should be able to switch from floating to fixed tremolo without any change in pitch on any of the strings. The wheel is designed to facilitate this. Set the small plastic lever on the back to make the tremolo fixed. Tighten the wheel until there is no change in pitch when you pull up on the tremolo arm. Tune the guitar. Flip the lever on the back to set the tremolo as floating. Now loosen the wheel until each string is brought to the correct pitch. DO NOT adjust the tuners. Now you should move that lever between floating and fixed without the guitar going out of tune. It was designed this way so if you break a string while playing with the trem floating, you can switch it to fixed and still play in tune. Great video by the way about these awesome guitars!
Not exactly correct, when you set it up the way you described (at least for the original, Ken-era ones, I've never used a later one) the toggle will select between fully floating and down-only (Strat-like) tremolo. The lever only stops it from bending up past its neutral position, not down. To set it up as fixed, you would set the lever so that it was in down-only mode and then tighten the spring tension until just wast the point where bending a string aggressively doesn't loosen any of the neighboring strings - at that point the spring tension will hold the bridge against the stop-block with enough force that it will behave like a fixed bridge. I got mine at the factory in '95 from Ken, who was a friend of my family for a long time, and that's how he taught me to set it up.
The main problem with the Fly was probably timing. Five years earlier they would have been huge but they came out just as Grunge and Britpop were hitting their stride and all anyone wanted was retro, retro and more retro. It will be interesting to see if the relaunch in 2017 will see them catch on any more.
That and they weren't cheap, at a time when people would probably go for fender or a Gibson, even though it wasn't the same quality the resale value and ease of sale were a lot better. Plus you could get a big standard fender for a lot less so you could keep a backup for on stage.
+Unbelievaball my guess is he hasnt needed it. and to do it, you have to somehow get the frets off of it, maybe heat would do it? or just prying them? then epoxy back on the new frets just like the originals.
In 1997, I bought the last one ("Italian Plum") the local G.C had when they stopped carrying the brand. I did only two things to the instrument after I took ownership. I had the nut slots widened to accommodate 10-46 strings as it came set up for a 9-42 set. The vibrato uses a leaf spring rather than coil springs, and it came with two - one calibrated for 9-42s and the other for 10-46s, so that was swapped. After this, I set the intonation. That's it. String height was perfect, action was perfect, pickup height was perfect. I have not had to adjust anything other than tuning on this guitar in almost 20 years.
I've got a Parker Fly Deluxe in Antique Gold since a couple of weeks and by far the best guitar I ever had. And I've had Fenders, Gibsons PRS and more. Plays absolutely like a dream
Your vid helped me get off the fence about buying one at my local haunt. I’ve played it like 4 million times but could never decide. I’m buying it. Thank you!
Ken Parker and I were both had gigs as artists in residence at artpark in Lewiston New York in the summer of 1986. One of the other artists was working in very high tech cement and he and Ken built a guitar out of concrete that was very lightweight and would sustain till next tuesday. I sort of lost track of Ken in about 89 or so when I got married, but I remember that the concrete guitar was the same shape as the fly guitars. The first time I walked past a guitar store on 48th street in NYC and saw a fly in the window I immediately recognized it. Super nice guy.
I just finished watching the video on the Parker Fly. I was Enlighten Ed to say the least. I tried one way back when they first came along. I thought they where really comfortable and played great. The concept was so new and me being a traditional LP or Strat kind of guy I never gave it a second thought. After that video, and thinking about the weight and all the other great features on this guitar, I'm going hunting for one. I'm 62 years old. I have been playing for 48 years, it's time for something light, sleek, strong, with great playability. Thank you KYG
I bought a Parker Fly the first year they came out and it is still my favorite guitar to play. There is a truss rod under the headstock but I have never had to move the truss rod. Great playing guitar and very versatile.
Hi Phillip, many thanks for your video. I have a gold pre-refined Deluxe just like the one you were showing. On the whole your information is good. There are a couple of things I spotted that are not quite right. Pre-refined Flies do have a trussrod, or more accurately, a truss wire. Bundles of piano wire were crimped together. This was lighter than a traditional trussrod. If you look at the end of the neck behind the nut where the headstock starts you will find it. Secondly until very late in the production run Deluxes, Classics, Supremes and Artists had Di Marzio pups and Mojos had Seymour Duncans. The very last switched over to Duncans if I remember rightly. Finally the wheel below the trem on a pre-refined Fly is for adjusting the tension so that correct pitch is achieved when the bridge is in floating mode. When set for dive bombing only it can be used for tension adjustment. As to the weight a pre-refined Deluxe will weigh around 5 pounds or 2 and a smidge kilos! As a last comment Ken Parker was fascinated by lute construction and wondered if the combination of hard and soft materials might be used to create a more resonant instrument. Received wisdom is that heavy = resonance and sustain. In truth the energy of the string is better preserved when it has less body and neck mass to move. Hence the Fly is an extremely resonant instrument which produces all kinds of rich overtones other guitars don't.
I just came across this and it told me many things I did not know..... THE COMMENTS BELOW FROM OWNERS ARE EXTREMELY GOOD AND I'M GOING TO LOOK FOR ONE!!!! Many thanks, Phillip!!!!!!!
@@officialWWM I think the Flys that came with Seymour Duncans (Fly Mojo and most post 2013 Flys) have the screws through the high and low E strings instead of the A and B strings.
Had the pleasure of playing one of these at a local shop here in NC. This bad boy is an absolute joy to play. So fast, so light, and I played this through a Peavy 6505 combo. I wish I would've bought that axe!
I've never actually seen Adrian playing a Fly, however I've seen Joni Mitchell playing one in her open tuning setup. The sound was crystalline and very organic sounding. The other notable player was Walter Becker who just tore it up, from clean to a scream!
I bought a 724 Koa beautiful. It is different yet it plays great and can sound like any guitar you want.It does so many sounds and feels so good. I'm glad I found it.Got a great deal an craftsmanship is Great !
Bought my Fly (pre-refined) in about 2001. Never have had any problems with it. And it plays like a dream. Hands down the most responsive guitar I’ve ever had the joy of playing.
how cool! I actually had a sponsorship with Parker Fly many years ago and they sent me the green deluxe. My right hand loved it for the fingerstyle stuff (from hours of nylon string), but my left hand didn't like the wide string spacing (as I was accustomed to Gibson string spacing for electric). I'm glad I kept the guitar because I love it now. Zero fret wear - they still gleam like new. It's the fastest guitar ever and very expressive. I still like my heavy all-wood guitars (maybe because you feel like you can lean into them more). It's a keeper though because if nothing else, it's the one guitar I'll still be able to lift when I'm 80!
I've had a black pre-refined Fly for about 16 years and I'm still madly in love. It's like driving a Ferrari. The only other guitar I'd want to have would be another kind of Fly.
I have a Parker Fly. I bought it in the 90s. It plays well. I love it and play it daily. It is a real treasure. I had Semore Duncan pickups. Ed Roman did the changes on the pickups.
You taught me 1.they all have solid single piece of wood 2. They were bought by Washburn 3.necks were made of balsa wood at one time 4. No truss rod was. Used or needed originally 5.the heel remains one of the slimmest in guitar world only protruding at the last 2 frets and that was one of Parker's goals and solutions 6 the fretboard is so thin you could barely see it 7 there was a. Wheel to adjust the whammy tension 8 Fishman and Parker started these ideas together
I have a 98 SuperFly made in Jan 98 weighs5 1/4 lbs and I bought it new in 99 and has been my favorite guitar! I have had over 150 guitars but this my favorite.
Interesting to see the carbon fiber method/parts. I never did deep homework on Parkers, but recall they were often marketed as carbon fiber bodies or necks. I've only ever touched one and it was an early 90s model. Fascinating guitars.
I have been your subscriber from the first video o saw of yours and have been watching every video you post. I as a luthier from Nepal have learnt a lot from you. Thanks..
I have the pre refined and it's an exact copy including the color of the gold you showed. Absolutely awesome guitar. I can't say enough good things about this guitar. Sounds amazing and light enough to play a gig all night. Minds been road tested pretty hard with a lot of nicks on it but it's always in tune plays like a dream.
I played the original in a boutique guitar shop in Rochester NY in 1993, they told me it's just come out. Anyway, it was without a doubt a revolutionary guitar but it didn't make a lasting impression on me at the time, though I wished I had bought that on the spot back then. BTW. I didn't know 99% of what you shared here, great information and I really enjoy your delivery. Thank you.
My understanding is the wheel also helps you tune to pitch in floating mode. So you lock the bridge tuneup unlock the bridge everything drops but remains in tune and the pitch wheel brings it back up to correct pitch. Believe that’s the primary function of that wheel not adjusting the tremblo tension.
I was so lucky to play one back in the day when i was learning the basics. It was so easy to use and played like butter for real. If i find one in good condition, i'm going to buy!
I have the exact same Fly, same color and everything. I like your "pre-refined/refined" distinction. I prefer my pre-refined to the refined that I have played ANY DAY.
I just found a series of videos that Ken made on his acoustic arch top guitars, the guy is a meticulous machinest and file artist to build some of the items required. A beautiful work of art they are. Search for them to really get impressed.
Thanks for the info Phil, much of which I wasn't aware of. Admittedly, the first time I ever saw a Parker, I was quite taken back by the design; I started with a strat, moved to a superstrat and have settled there. It's funny to admit that after watching your video, I have a stronger appreciation for the pre-refined Parker fly deluxes that are beginning to look not half bad. I'm appreciated your video series "5 things you may not know." Keep'em coming!
I've never seen a parker fly in a music shop before.. only saw them on the Internet, this video made me curious about playing one cause Phil says they're so light. hey Phil, these videos are awesome, can you do one about Gretsch as well? I'm just loving all these new facts about guitars!!! maybe even Ibanez... Jackson... why not even acoustic Martin's or Taylor's??? awesome video Phil, really cool
When I was young, I held a bias against the Fly because I thought it was a hideous looking thing (I still do). When I got to play one though, I was amazed at how thin and light it is. It also plays and sounds fantastic.
Of all the guitars I have played over the years, the Parker Fly has to be the smoothest and most easy in terms of the action. As for tonal palette, this machine is endless, making it hard to remember how one got that nice sound at last week's session...
I worked at Parker in the late 90s in the original Wilmington Mass shop. There was a parker, that had been in a fire, hanging above the door to the R & D room. Much of the wood had been burned away, the pickups were mostly melted, but the neck was still true! Try that with a Gibson or a Fender!
I've always had a thing for these...just because they are so weird looking yet so well thought out and designed. I remember hearing they were carbon fiber, but thought that was a shell all around the guitars...never even saw a wood finished one, so thanks for showing them in both iterations...I have yet to own one..maybe there's a deal out there waiting to be had, but until then I'll just admire from afar...thanks again for your amazing videos Phil!
They also did a cheaper version (but still an expensive, U.S.-made instrument) called the NiteFly. It had a thicker body and a bolt-on neck with 22 frets, but still lots of classic Parker goodness like the piezo bridge, the carbon fretboard with stainless steel frets, and pickups all made by DiMarzio. A person could even genuinely prefer some things about the NiteFly, though it would remain a matter of individual taste.
My ‘99 Fly Deluxe is completely stock except adjusted for 10-46 instead of the original setup of 9-42. Stays in better tune after dive bombs and trem use than ANY guitar I’ve ever used. It’s so versatile and even by modern standards, beautiful and ahead of its time.
I loved mine. After having a Carvin made for me I sold the Parker for hardly any money to a friend who i knew would love it onwardly. After one plays a Parker, all other guitars seem like toys.
I bought a brand new Parker PDF60. There were numerous cosmetic issues that were just not acceptable this day and age. Overspray, masking tape left on, areas that didn't get any paint, etc. I can live with those to a point, but the mechanical issues were a show stopper. Two of the locking tuners would not function at all, and two were so tight that I almost had to use pliers. The neck route in the body was so oversized that I could get a .056 shim around the whole cavity. There was a missing bolt that mounted the neck to the body, and it was not level. The neck was at an angle to the body so that the high E string actually was flush with the edge of the fingerboard at the first fret! Impossible to play. And the output jack was completely loose and the nut was in the bottom of the box. I promptly sent it back and they sent me another one. This one was almost perfect. They made it right, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth. The USA stuff is top shelf. The import stuff is...well, buyer beware.
They are fantastic to play. I’ve a black deluxe. Some big names swear by them. Notable Fly users include The Edge (U2), Brian May (Queen), Pete Townshend (The Who), Lou Reed, David Bowie, Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), David Lynch and more.
Phil - just a small point. The back is "carbon fibre", not "carbon fibre glass". Carbon fibre and glass fibre are 2 different things used to reinforce a plastic polymer resin. (sorry for the britsh spelling of Fibre!)
Ridiculously Awesome Guitar! Mine is original Fly Deluxe, mid to early '90s Thanks for posting this. I like all of your videos I've seen. Good job man!
I am glad to hear you still love yours. I worked at the factory back in the early to mid 90's so the one you have would have been a guitar I worked on. I still have mine from 94 which was a b-stock they would sell to the employees. It has a minor cosmetic flaw and I was lucky enough to only pay 400 bucks for it!
I had cheaper version of a Parker years ago . Piezo & double Humbucker with stereo out . I Split a wire to 2 amps . Was phenomenal. Seemed that every music college guitarist around me had one . I ended up selling it back to the guy who sold it to me for the same price ( $450). Had it about a year . Loved that shape and look . Very easy to play .
I loved how good looking my parker deluxe was, natural wood finish, but the master volume used to drive me nuts, and other Parker owners, because when you were strumming hard, you could hit the master volume and turn the guitar down. It happened all the time to me and so many people, so some people started modifying them and having the master volume relocated out of the way. I’m surprised you didn’t address that here, as that was a big thing. But great video, thanks!
Just got a 97 nitefly last summer and i must say it has rocketed itself to the top of my list of favorite guitars. Now I am saving money to nab a fly mojo or a maxx fly or something this year.
I tried one in a store years ago and was very impressed with how light, balanced, and comfortable the body was; it was head and shoulders above any guitar I'd ever tried, just incredible! I like being able to lock the tremolo, that's very important for a gigging musician, although if this thing never breaks strings... Another weird guitar I tried back then had no frets; the fretboard was a series of angled steps. I think it was called a Bond guitar. Have you ever heard of that one?
Ken said that the Fly was a $5K guitar that cost $10K to build. I've owned 3 Flys and still have a custom made from Bastogne Walnut (a billet which I provided to them for the build). There is a harsh brittle sound that seems to be inherent to the Fly. Everyone who owned them was always commenting on the forum about how they tried to tame it. Carbon fiber does that to a guitar IMO.
A few of my friends gave me crap about buying a Parker, but pound for pound I play it probably more than any other guitar I own, including a signature series Alex Lifeson Les Paul,.. The neck and the action are AMAZING,.. and the tonal possibilities are amazing, The only thing I don't like is the whammy. The whammy is unreliable. It's weird,. sometimes it will actually knock the guitar a major second higher than it is supposed to be. Im not certain it doesn't need some sort of adjustment. I love it though.
Great video. As an owner of a 97 Fly Classic and a Supersonic 22 I must say I like your style ;) Interesting to hear the differences between the old classic Fly and the refined ones!
I have a Parker Fly that is identical to the gold one in this video, it's been my main guitar for years and is the best guitar I have ever owned or played. I got really lucky when I got mine, I only paid $640. Man, talk about a steal :)
I heard somewhere that a reason they glued in the frets was also because they could use much harder Steels that the strings would not eat into. When you have to worry about that thin piece of the fret that cuts into the fretboard, certain Steel's will be very strong but too brittle and snap at that piece.
