Folks I love this guitar. This is an all original Parker Fly Deluxe when Ken Parker was doing some truly revolutionary things with the advancement of the electric axe. I really love this quote from Ken in the spiral bound manual that accompanies this listing because I think it is the perfect compression of what Parker was back in the mid-90's:
"Increasingly, I saw the guitars available to modern musicians as clumsy, limiting, and gimmicky. I began to envisions advances in form and function. A superlative instrument must be beautiful, balanced, powerful, accurate, versatile, durable which, at its best, inspires musicians to greatness, but at least doesn't get in their way"
To that end this is the highly sought after "pre-refined" version when it was truly a manifestation of Ken's vision. This guitar weighs just under 5.5 pounds and will undoubtedly be, the lightest guitar you ever play. It doesn't feel insignificant though. On the contrary it feels so naturally balanced and intuitive. The guitar is also so beautiful. There is a little pick scratching exactly where you would expect it. Apart from some minor scratches near the input jack, and at the tip of the lower bout and the tip of the headstock the guitar is in perfect shape. Not too shabby for a 23 year old guitar. Freshly setup by my tech.
The pictures are all of the actual guitar you will happily unpack. Soak them in. The finish is Emerald Green but it has this metallic luminescence which almost has a chameleon aspect to it where it appears blue and blue green. The neck is perfect. The ebony fretboard is immaculate, and the unstoppable stainless steel frets will be just as robust when you and I are long gone.
The listing includes the (non pictured) original hexagonal trem bar, along with the original manual. The manual contains so many of the hand drawn mechanical sketches that are fascinating to look at. It is also very helpful with all of the technical features such as the stereo/mono switch at the input jack, the selector switches that go to the Dimarzio humbuckers, to the Piezo acoustic pickup, and to blend, to the killer "balance wheel" which either increases or decreases the spring's force on the bridge (this was super costly and one of the features that had to be eliminated in future years, to the Sperzel locking tuners. Listing also includes the original pictured Parker padded bag.
This is one of the last guitars I got from my good friend and guitar wunderkind Gil Parris. Like most pros with Signature models, Gil recently found himself saddened that many of his guitars didn't have a chance to see the light of day. I told him I had a great way to help release them back in the wild!
Gil actually had sent an email directly to Ken Parker asking him if he should buy this guitar. Ken said yup.
Really unique and cool piece here folks do not sleep on this one.
As for me I've been lucky enough to carve out a living in the music products industry for my entire adult life and I had the privilege of owning Monster Music in Levittown for 14 years before selling the shop in 2019. Many of my former customers are still with me here online now as Brian's House of Music & Fun! Thanks for keeping the music alive!
