New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

I dig Parkers... forget the looks.... they play like butter and sound amazing.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

But I dig it! That shouldn't be terribly surprising. I'll be rocking a black Parker Fly at my gig this Friday. Sadly, the red one in my avatar needs some electronics work before she can come out and play. Rather than monkey with the wacky electronics, I'm going to gut it and and get a 13 pin MIDI setup.

Mmmmm, i thought you of all people will like it !

What do you think of the one i asked the original question about - that PDF 70 ?

 

[Securb]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

I am not a Dan of the Roland stuff either- but what I didn't like about the midiaxe system was the lack of control. How do you do hold, or something like modulation or foot volume? .

I use a footswitch or expression pedal on the back of the synth module. The first guitar synths I played were the Arp Avatar and the Roland GS 300. After dealing with those beasts the MidiAxe system was a dream come true. My biggest problem with the Roland GR series is the horns and pads sound great but the keys patches especially the piano sound horrible. That is why I bought the Kurzweil module. I was running the Ibanez with the synth pickup through the GR-33 thru the Kurzweil then thru an E-Mu Proteus for pads and Holdsworth type stuff. Now with the MidiAxe system I can bypass the floor unit and I have two neat pieces of rack gear sitting on top of my amp.

Truth be told most of the time I am playing the MidiFly it is plugged in straight to a guitar amp, no syth. I love the playability and tone of that guitar. The cool thing is the MidiFly is listed as a Synth Controller in the Blue Book so the price/value of the guitar is calculated using a synthesizer pricing model. Synths depreciate very fast so if you can find a MidiAxe and the shop doesn't really know what they have you can get one for a song. The MidiFly retailed at about $4000 and they are going for about $2000 on Ebay. I picked mine up for $800 with original case, power supply, software and all of the manuals. It still had the plastic film on the pickguard when I bought it.

 

[aleclee]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

What do you think of the one i asked the original question about - that PDF 70 ?

While I'm one of the bigger Parker 'fans round these parts, I'm not such a good person to ask about the PDF series as it lacks the things that made Parker my #1 guitar. For me the really cool things are the Fly's trem (easily goes from full float to dive only) and the stainless frets.

What at I can tell you is that the radial neck joint provides great access to the upper registers. I think that the neck carve is a bit different from the US made stuff. Whether it's better or worse is strictly a matter of preference. That's about all I have to say about the PDF series. I don't have much hands-on time with 'em because nobody around here stocks them and I never checked them out when I was getting passes to NAMM.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

While I'm one of the bigger Parker 'fans round these parts, I'm not such a good person to ask about the PDF series as it lacks the things that made Parker my #1 guitar. For me the really cool things are the Fly's trem (easily goes from full float to dive only) and the stainless frets.

What at I can tell you is that the radial neck joint provides great access to the upper registers. I think that the neck carve is a bit different from the US made stuff. Whether it's better or worse is strictly a matter of preference. That's about all I have to say about the PDF series. I don't have much hands-on time with 'em because nobody around here stocks them and I never checked them out when I was getting passes to NAMM.

Understood . . . .thank you very much !

 

[gvis]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

One wonderful thing about the new, more traditional upper horn shape is that the sharp bend in the old Fly's upper horn pokes me right in the sternum when I play the guitar sitting down.

I'm not a fan of the new wider head stock though. Supposedly they did that so that it would hang on a typical guitar hanger. Not worth the trade off.

That horn drives me nuts too. And, while I thought my 2001 nitefly looked cool at the time I bought it back then, I've grown to hate the looks more and more each year. And no one I know, I mean no one, has ever thought it was a cool looking guitar, despite it's gorgeous pieces and a black pick guard replacement to down play it's odd shapes.

But it just plays so well and sounds so great and unique, with sustain forever. As I posted in my separate thread on it, I've been seriously considering stripping it and grinding it down into a more appealing shape. That would include both horns and the odd bulge on the lower corner. I've already frankensteined it internally, so, despite it's increasing desirability of late, it's still a possibility.

I actually like the new shape much better, including the head stock (both looks & to be able to finally hang it). Along with the non-black fret board, it has a better chance of general acceptance. Unless the ones cost a butt load, I may have to retrun the nitefly to stock, sell it, and and get a new one. I love that white one; white happens to be what I was going to make the nitefly.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

GREAT . . . thanks . . . never knew he did, but then again, i am not the biggest fan of his band.

funny tho, adam has emgs in it. IMO, you put emgs in bout anything and itll sound bout the same. I guess the playability changes tho. He used to play caparison's.


About the Vernon Reid ones and Adrian ones. The prices are unreal.. VR is about $6k IIRC and the AB is nearly 10k. Holy smokes

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

GREAT . . . thanks . . . never knew he did, but then again, i am not the biggest fan of his band.

funny tho, adam has emgs in it. IMO, you put emgs in bout anything and itll sound bout the same. I guess the playability changes tho. He used to play caparison's.


About the Vernon Reid ones and Adrian ones. The prices are unreal.. VR is about $6k IIRC and the AB is nearly 10k. Holy smokes

But isn't the Adrian B. pretty much a Line 6 Variax built into a Parker ?

http://www.guitarvibe.com/2009/01/parker-line-6-very-cool.html

 

[DreX]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

That horn drives me nuts too. And, while I thought my 2001 nitefly looked cool at the time I bought it back then, I've grown to hate the looks more and more each year. And no one I know, I mean no one, has ever thought it was a cool looking guitar, despite it's gorgeous pieces and a black pick guard replacement to down play it's odd shapes.

I was looking again at their selection, I think if they paint match the headstock like this it looks OK,

but the natural wood ones look out of place in the overall design

And I had the same experience with never meeting a single person who liked my Parker.

 

[gvis]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

I like all the head stocks, really. All black looks more metal, color matched looks modern, and black/wood looks closer to traditional. But to me that first white one is the best looking Parker I've seen. If it's designed to allow any pups, like the nitefly, that makes it even better imo. The regular flys and their shallow cavity was one more eccentric thing to deal with.

Funny how it is about friends not liking it. My wife always prefers the strats I've had and any LPs that make it through the house, and a lot of that is probably conditioning from the majority of what she's seen bands use. Or maybe the original design just had too many different styles going together that, even as art, it failed.

 

[gvis]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

Well, looking at all the models currently offered, it looks like they still offer the usual fly design, and those are the big buck models, although there are some pricey maxxfly's in there.

The OP version is the $550 model. No piezos, which I never liked anyway (removed all the circuitry), but no carbon fiber fret board, apparently no stainless steel frets, no stainless steel saddles & no aluminum bridge. Probably still a nice guitar though.

And one pricey model has a basswood neck, of all things. Never seen that before.

All this is news to me since I've looked into new Parkers in years.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

I REALLY miss the older/smaller head stock.

To me, that screamed Parker !

 

[LatsMcGee]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

I have a P42 and it has the smaller headstock, It's an important but the wide flat neck is really awesome and fun to play, I just need to decide what replacement pups I want in it once and for all so I can just play it and enjoy it.....

 

[Securb]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

Well, looking at all the models currently offered, it looks like they still offer the usual fly design, and those are the big buck models, although there are some pricey maxxfly's in there.

The OP version is the $550 model. No piezos, which I never liked anyway (removed all the circuitry), but no carbon fiber fret board, apparently no stainless steel frets, no stainless steel saddles & no aluminum bridge. Probably still a nice guitar though.

So in a nutshell Washburn pretty much removed everything that made the Parker an innovative guitar.

 

[aleclee]

Re: New Parker guitars - what do you think of 'em ?

So in a nutshell Washburn pretty much removed everything that made the Parker an innovative guitar.

Kind of par for the course in a guitar at that price point.