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Parker Fly Deluxe
I love this guitar! It plays like a dream, and is so versatile sounding. Split coils, the hums are DiMarzios, the piezos blend in nicely, and the construction and feel is immaculate. Heavenly. I’ve been playing for more than 30 years, and have played some really nice guitars. I’ve never been a fan of Les Pauls or Strats though. Probably because my first guitar was a 1967 Hagstrom III way back in ‘75. I still have it, although I don’t gig with it anymore. I had to gut the electronics and put in Dimarzio hums a long time back, and that super thin fast action neck ruined me for more ‘ordinary’ guitars. My Ibanez Prestige 1320 (RG-style) has been a solid workhorse for the blues and rock style I play. Gigging duties are split between the Ibanez and the Parker now. And for acoustics, it was that neck feel thing again, I use a Taylor 710CE.
Wait… you didn’t think this was photos of me, did you?
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Paul, I’ve heard great things about the Parker Fly Deluxe. How does it perform as an “acoustic” guitar? Aaron
Hey Aaron – as an acoustic replacement? no… doesn’t work *that* well. As an additional timbre to mag pickups, and sounding something like an acoustic in the same way an amp’d Ovation does perhaps, yes it sounds great. I have a Variax 600 as well… play that live and it really does pass as multiple acoustics. everything from 12-strings, dreadnoughts, dobros, banjos, as well as the regular electric models. Listen closely in isolation, and it has a ‘modeling’ tone to it, especially the 12-string. But in a band context live? Sounds as good as the real thing.
The best things about the Parker are the playability, the feel, the tonal variety with the hums and split-coil taps, and the piezo to blend in. It gets played hard and unlike my other guitars, the steel frets show no signs of wear and tear. You’d either love it or hate it from a feel perspective. It’s light and yet sounds ‘heavy’, and at the same time it somehow seems to ‘fit’ around you.