Parker guitars---why do ya 'spose they didn't make it in the marketplace?

[Willie G. Moseley]

Seemed to be an innovative, well-developed product built around player comfort while maintaining resonance. Were the looks too unusual?

I'd think there might be a tendency to compare this line (which apparently ended production over five years ago) to (the business history of) Steinberger, which also had commendable innovations.

Every time I tried a Parker guitar, it seemed to be a decent instrument,. I was impressed with their developments with piezos (including that solidbody acoustic which looked really cool IMO). However, I never played one of their basses, which was my primary instrument, so my perspective isn't quite complete.

Opinions solicited

Edited April 29, 2022 by Willie G. Moseley

[specialk]

Ugliness. No matter how good the guitar. Ugliness. 

[JGale]

Mine was a beautiful deep red. Still my favorite finish. They look like Pokemon.

Edited April 29, 2022 by JGale

[Steve Haynie]

I hate flies. 

[django49]

Way back when, when playing out, I rotated between an early Parker Fly, Gibson 347, Hamer Artist (slightly modded) and a PRS Swamp Ash Special. The Parker actually worked best for what I was doing back then, as I could blend a bit of "acoustic" sparkle into the tone. And with the coil split, I had plenty of tools in a situation where we had a large and rotating cast of players and singers.......I always seemed to be able to sort out a place in the mix backing everything from classic rock to folk to early rock/doo wop to blues to things from the "Great American Songbook". Which is to say, from the Stones to The Band to Allman Bothers to Ella Fitzgerald to Bonnie Raitt to Santana to BB King to The Beatles to Skynrd. And on and on. Backing a singer with soft arpeggios to lead breaks (trying to cop) Carlos and others.

My point of reference.....Another guitarist (much younger than me) came off stage at one gig and asked how I was able to get such a clean and crisp sound (when not doing the lead breaks). I just laughed...."Keone, you are playing a Les Paul into a Marshall! What sort of subtlety are you looking for?"

I still have one. A later Fly Mojo with mahogany body rather than resin over (I think) a light wooden core.  It seems a bit easier to get classic tones. But I use it seldom anymore. Among other things, my custom built Shishkov does all of that even better. But I think it was ahead of its time, more flexible than such as a DuoTone (although the custom DuoTone "Ultimate" I had later on was pretty much an equal in a prettier package).

One thing for sure.....It was an attention getter. It did take a bit of getting used to.

I understand Ken Parker's archtop is/was highly regarded. Way the hell outta my league at $30k or whatever they were going for!

ETA.....Another "different" take on a way to get a lot of versatility from a single guitar is recently deceased Rick Turner and his Model One. And, in reference to the more specifically acoustic, his Renaissance line. And they DO look a bit more like a "normal" guitar. But not exactly in the mainstream either.

Edited April 29, 2022 by django49

[stonge]

The way it looked turned off a lot of folks so they never tried one.  I thought the ergonomics were actually really good and the guitars played great.  A local shop had one plugged into a JTM45 with the vintage (tall) 4x12 cab and the Marshall acoustic combo (AS80 maybe?) and that setup sounded ridiculously good.  Every once in a while I borrow a Parker Fly from Darc - his main axe is a MIDIFly and the sounds he gets out of that with his Helix and synth plugins are just jaw-dropping. 

I still like Steinbergers and have been on a headless kick lately mainly due to a Strandberg (that I loaned out to Darc) and a Carvin Holdsworth that is always within 6 ft of me.  The Holdsworth sounds really good with a JB in the bridge, and it's convenient for noodling during long conference calls.

[stobro]

The one time I noodled around on a Parker in a store I didn't like the way the kink in the bass side horn poked me in the chest. That's the extent of my experience with them.

[cynic]

I had a P-36 years ago and it was a very good guitar at any price, but a fantastic guitar for the $400-$600 range they traded for used back then.  Made in Korea, it had the usual Parker silhouette but lacked the carves and curves of the Fly.

It was probably 2003/2004 timeframe when I got it.  Hardware configuration was essentially tele with the addition of a Fishman tele-style bridge with built-in piezo that provided a very passable acoustic option.  A small 3-way gave electric/combined/acoustic and there was also a stereo/mono switch on the back that allowed the signals to be routed together or separately.  

Played as well as it needed to, very lightweight and comfortable, and copped some great tonez.

Crap....I want another one.

Not mine, but representative pic:

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by cynic

[django49]

Small add.......The discomfort factor (for me) disappeared when playing live.....Meaning standing rather than sitting and hunched over it.

Wish I could find a picture of the blue one I had.....A prior owner did not like the horns and cut them off. If you think it looks weird in stock shape.....I got it very cheap and it played just as good as an unmodded one. More of less made it a "travel guitar".

[JGale]

Still delicious, after all these years...

[JGale]

This was the creme de la creme. Solid Sitka Spruce.

[kizanski]

Just begging to be smashed.  

[topekatj]

17 hours ago, JGale said:

This was the creme de la creme. Solid Sitka Spruce.

What’s the black roly-poly on the front for, near the butt end of the guitar?

Edited April 30, 2022 by topekatj

[duncans]

I had a Nitefly waay baaack. Found myseif using the piezo way too much and discovered that I didn't like skinny necks. Off it went.

[joshoowah]

I can't speak to the issues of performance and sounds on them, as I never wanted or needed anything to be both acoustic and electric simultaneously, but for me, there's a beauty in design in the electric guitars I love, whether Hamer, Gibson, PRS, or even Fender. The Parkers I saw could never be accused of being beautiful. Even a butterscotch/black guard '52 Tele had a simplicity of design I find appealing in a way the Fly just wasn't.  It was too busy without being pretty. Just my $0.02.

[mrjamiam]

16 hours ago, JGale said:

This was the creme de la creme. Solid Sitka Spruce.

The body shape here puts me in mind of the torso of Homer Simpson lifting something over his head.

[crunchee]

Seems like I remember an old Keef quote, when he gave a Parker a try.  To paraphrase: 'Nice guitar, but why would I want one that looks like a 'f'n submachine gun?'

[GuitarGuy65]

23 hours ago, topekatj said:

What’s the black roly-poly on the front for, near the butt end of the guitar?

It's used to adjust the tremolo.  They did away with it on later models but the one I had had it too.  I had the solid mahogany version (I believe the Fly Classic) and overall a cool guitar, but I couldn't get the "girth" out of the electric sounds the way I can with a normal electric.  The acoustic tones were cool, but it just wasn't my bag...  Plus, the upper horn absolutely dug into my chest/ribcage which drove me nuts.  Only kept it a few months and moved it on. 

[mudshark]

Anything different faces a steep climb to acceptance.

[Willie G. Moseley]

Mark Farner still uses one, and has a backup Fly as well. Both are hardtails. His switch in the mid-'90s was definitely because of the light weight, as he had had spinal surgery that included the implantation of a cadaver bone in his neck. Here's his go-to Fly:

[django49]

That reminded me......Joni Mitchell was also a user of the Fly Mojo (as well as an Ibanez GB-10, another guitar I like a lot). Due to having had polio as a youngster, she was weak. Those guitars are smaller and lighter than many guitars, so they were easier for her to handle in performance. IIRC, her Parker was set up to be able to run a synth.

Apparently she traveled with multiple identical guitars so each could be tuned differently.....She used many unusual tunings.

[scottcald]

4 hours ago, mudshark said:

Anything different faces a steep climb to acceptance.

Yeah, people want innovation as long as it's not different. 

[LucSulla]

I used one of the original Flys for some clean rhythm tracks years on an album 20 years ago. I enjoyed the wealth of different sounds in it vs. the usual Strat/Tele/LP continuum, but I just hated the neck. It felt like a toy to me. It clearly wasn't, but that's just kind of how it felt. Very stiff and cold. 

Cool guitar for studio work, particularly embellishments, but I don't think I could have lived with it as a live guitar. 

I think all the clean stuff on this is a Parker Fly. 
 

 

[jwhitcomb3]

I bought a Parker Fly new in 1995. I thought it was really innovative, was really impressed by the overall design, and the flat-spring trem was the first I'd ever experienced that returned reliably in tune. Two factors ultimately led to my selling it:

1) The neck was really skinny (front to back). I don't like baseball bats, but there wasn't much to hold onto. My guess is that was partly because the body was so light - any more beef would have resulted in neck-dive issues.

2) It didn't have a distinctive voice. It was versatile and could approach the general ballpark of classic guitar tones, but didn't inspire me to play it for its own sound. I like a wide palette of guitar tones, and have several that I love that don't fit into the strat/tele/LP/335 pantheon. I play mostly clean to moderate drive, and while serviceable, I found myself reaching for the Parker less and less. Parker more-or-less acknowledged this with later models (the "Mojo" series), and perhaps I missed the boat by not picking up a Fly Mojo, but it still didn't address the thin neck.

I really like innovative guitars - I currently have three Vox Virage type guitars that bombed commercially (they got a little more attention as being favored by Prince, but that was after production had ceased). My favorite Strat is a first series MIJ Aerodyne (w/o pickguard) with Fishman Fluence pickups, and my favorite Tele-thing is a stock Ibanez Talman 1702. I've never cared much what was on the headstock (hey, I had a bunch of Hamers!), or paid much attention to the status quo. So the Parker Fly should have been right up my alley. Cool guitars, just not for me.

 

[Jimbilly]

Lynn Ellsworth (Boogie Bodies, when he was trying a new body style) told me that guitar players are really-really hesitant to try anything different (I think he used more colorful language), but bass players are much more open to new styles. I wonder if Parker would have done better if bass was the primary design?