Any Parker Fly love here?

[UglyDog]

I've long said that if I was a gtrist, I'd have a bashed up old Tele and a Parker MIDI Fly and that'd probably be it. The Fly guitars look great, sound great, weigh next to nothing and, to my mind anyway, are [i]desperately[/i] cool. Agree/disagree?

[jazzyvee]

I had a P44 for about a 7 months I think I paid about £300 for it from PMT. I quite liked the guitar and used it instead of carrying an electric and acoustic when we had to travel light for overseas gigs. I sold it when we dropped the acoustic tracks from the set list.
I'd probably buy one again if I was doing the same kind of gigs but go for a used one with single coil pickups.

Jazzyvee

[BigRedX]

A friend of mine used to work for the company that distributed Parker Guitars in the UK in the 90s and he had one of the early models with the vibrato balance adjustment wheel behind the bridge. It was a fantastically comfortable instrument to play, and I might have bought one if I hadn't been more taken by the even more radical looks of the Gus G1.

Unfortunately these days there are lots of different Parker Fly Guitars and none of them seem to have the features that made the originals so impressive.

[paul j h]

Hi I love Parker guitars, they look so cool, watching the Joni Mitchell youtube clip. However, the basses are just damm ugly. Incidently, Chandlers are selling a used midi fly at the moment or were last time I looked. Cheers Paul

[warwickhunt]

Parker P38 owner and former owner of a Parker Fly bass... the guitar is way better than the bass yet the guitar cost about 1/10th of the bass! LOL

The guitar is light, resonant and just simply a joy to play. The bass was a fine instrument but the proportions just weren't right in my mind (the neck was one of the skinniest).

[leschirons]

I love them. Used a Fly for three years as guitarist in a French blues band. There was a Dragonfly for sale on here about 18 months ago for £595. I was a mug not to buy it.

[Angel]

I bought a deluxe about 10 years ago. Easiest neck ever to play. As mentioned by many though, they got the shape wrong in that the upper horn can really dig into you. It's really cool, but to be honest I never play it, I think I just prefer a more vintage vibe overall for instruments. I probably would have sold it by now but son no 1 likes it unfortunately!

I should have a play on on it again!

[fretmeister]

I had a Nitefly-M (Proper neck with a mahogany body)

The stock pickups were a bit crap but with a change it was lovely.

I traded it for a PRS CE22 in the end.

The only problem with the original Fly is the frets. The glued on, tangless frets can become unstuck if you store the instrument too hot.

I've heard from luthiers that using the recommended super glue to put them on again just doesn't work, and a much stronger adhesive is needed.

[Kiwi]

I've played the P-38 and came so close to buying it but plumped for a custom strat instead because it sounded a bit warmer and funkier...and it was cheaper . The P38 was a great feeling guitar.

I did read in my research that they had some issues at one point with the phenolic fingerboards delaminating. That didn't put me off at the time but it did make me careful about which questions to ask.

[winterfire666]

i love my p38, i wish i had enough cash for a fly though

[Ancient Mariner]

In all honesty I've never played a Parker that sounded good in my hands - always thin and weak - so maybe it's an issue of technique. I also can't get on with blank fingerboards, as I get lost when looking where I'm going (which I don't always do - depends on the song). No Parker love here then.