Parker Flies

A

azraelswings

New member
I have decided that the next (electric) guitar I buy will be a parker fly. I have a nitefly and absolutely love the way Parkers play. I'd like a fly for the lighter weight, one-piece construction, etc. Having decided on a fly, the major decisions left to make are wood and pickups.

Fly Classic - Mahogany Body, Basswood Neck, Custom Dimarzio

Fly Deluxe - Poplar Body, Basswood Neck, Custom DiMarzio

Fly Mojo - Mahogany body and neck, seymour duncan Jazz (Bridge) and JB (Neck)

All 3 have a 3-Way p/u selector and push-pull coil taps.

I'm wondering if anybody has any personal experiences with these guitars, or these pickups. If anyone has general info about these particular tonewoods, I'd appreciate that as well. I'd like a guitar thats at home with a pop/rock
distortion (Think Third Eye Blind's first two records) and a cleaner, funkier tone.

Thanks for any help.
 
I was this close to buying a Fly Deluxe when they first came out (this was before I started making electrics, I was making acoustics at the time). I thought they were great, though that upper horn hits me right in the sternum with where I wear my guitars. In the end, I just didn't need it.


A couple of things to keep in mind. Those stainless frets are a fine idea, and will last a long time, but if there are ever any problems with them the guitar needs to go back to the factory every time. The will wear, in time, and every now and then one of them pops off completely. You better have a back up, because you will be without that one for up to six months, which sucks. Also, the finish is structural on those things, so you need to be pretty careful about not letting your guitar get bumped. It is pretty rugged, but it WILL chip. A little chip on the body is fine, but if you get a chip on the neck, it needs to go back to the factory again.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Thanks Light, I hadn't really considered the finish. I'm content with those little flaws though, I'm just in love with the way the guitars play.

Being that you build guitars, I don't suppose you could tell me anything about these particular tonewoods and pick ups?
 
Light said:
I was this close to buying a Fly Deluxe when they first came out (this was before I started making electrics, I was making acoustics at the time). I thought they were great, though that upper horn hits me right in the sternum with where I wear my guitars. In the end, I just didn't need it.

A couple of things to keep in mind. Those stainless frets are a fine idea, and will last a long time, but if there are ever any problems with them the guitar needs to go back to the factory every time. The will wear, in time, and every now and then one of them pops off completely. You better have a back up, because you will be without that one for up to six months, which sucks. Also, the finish is structural on those things, so you need to be pretty careful about not letting your guitar get bumped. It is pretty rugged, but it WILL chip. A little chip on the body is fine, but if you get a chip on the neck, it needs to go back to the factory again.
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Why does a neck chip cause it to go back to the Factory? Something about how its sealed? I put a ding in my Tele when i hung it on a sub-par stand....I really should get a second one.
 
TelePaul said:
Why does a neck chip cause it to go back to the Factory? Something about how its sealed? I put a ding in my Tele when i hung it on a sub-par stand....I really should get a second one.
Click to expand...
The wood they use is too weak to take the string tention. The finish is part of the structure of the guitar. If you get a chip in the neck, it's like having a chunk of the frame of your car missing.
 
I don't have any real experience with Flies other than picking one up, playing it, and not liking it, but personally I wouldn't trust anything whose integrity is based on, of all things, the paint job.
 
The plural of a Parker Fly is Flys. Flies means Parker is flying around the room.

The 'paint job' is a carbon fiber composite. Same as the 'paint job' on the steath bomber.
 
my ol' man has a parker fly supreme & a midifly & we love them, it's one of the truest necks I've ever played & sounds unbelieveable

we liked the neck so much we got a replacement neck for the midifly with a view to building a guitar round it

you should have heard my father cutting up purple haze with the whammy bar & all
 
Farview said:
The plural of a Parker Fly is Flys. Flies means Parker is flying around the room.

The 'paint job' is a carbon fiber composite. Same as the 'paint job' on the steath bomber.
Click to expand...

Eh, chemicals are fickle. No matter how strong the paint, there is always a possibility that it will just fail. But to each their own.
 
timthetortoise said:
Eh, chemicals are fickle. No matter how strong the paint, there is always a possibility that it will just fail. But to each their own.
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It's not paint. It's a carbon fiber shell.
 
timthetortoise said:
... but personally I wouldn't trust anything whose integrity is based on, of all things, the paint job.
Click to expand...



Oh, they're plenty robust. The first guy to start endorsing them, as you may remember, was Reeves Gabrel. He is from Boston (where I went to school), and I talked to him about it after the Earthling tour with Bowie (on a side note, it was very surreal to hear someone refer to David Bowie as "Dave." Confused the shit out of me for a moment). I asked him about it, and he said that with all the (very hard) abuse of the road (they did a part of that tour with NIN, including spending a few songs on stage with NIN, so VERY, VERY hard on gear), and he said he never had any problems with his Flys. If something DOES go wrong, your kind of fucked, but it is not common for anything to go wrong.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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