Manufacturer Parker Guitars Body type Solid Double Cut Scale 25.5" | Period 1993–Present. Neck joint Set | |
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Body Various tone woods with a carbon fibre exoskeleton | ||
The Parker Fly is a type of electric guitar built by Parker Guitars. It was designed by Ken Parker and Larry Fishman, and first produced in 1993. The Fly is unique among electric guitars in the way it uses composite materials. It is notable for its light weight (4.5 lb; 2.0 kg) and resonance. It was also one of the first electric guitars to combine traditional magnetic pickups with piezoelectric pickups, allowing the guitarist to access both acoustic and electric tones.
Contents
Inspired by earlier musical instruments like the lute, Ken Parker began experimenting with hardwood exoskeletons to provide rigidity to the instrument but hardwood was too difficult to work with and did not achieve satisfactory results. Inspired by a friend who used carbon fiber to build speed boats, Ken Parker started experimenting with the material. Today, Flys are built with an exoskeleton along the back and around the neck of the guitar. It is made from a carbon fibre/glass/epoxy composite material that is thinner than the paint finish. The same composite also comprises the fretboard material.
The exoskeleton provides the guitar with strength and rigidity, as well as increasing the guitar's sustain. It also gives the added benefit of allowing a smaller, more efficient body. One of Ken Parker's primary goals in designing the Fly was to build a guitar with less mass than a traditional electric guitar but with the same or even more rigidity. The composite exoskeleton is one of the primary reasons why such a design is possible.
Frets
The frets on the Parker Fly are constructed of hardened stainless-steel, they have no tangs, and are instead attached using a high-tech adhesive. Parker Fly guitars typically have twenty-four frets.
Vibrato System
The Parker Fly has a vibrato system that allows the player to select from a fixed-bridge mode, a bend-down-only mode, and a free-float mode. The vibrato system uses a flat spring allowing the user to easily adjust the tension. The spring's natural tension is selected according to the gauge of strings used by the guitar player. The original Fly design incorporated a wheel on the face of the guitar to adjust the spring tension, while more recent models have moved the tension adjustment to inside the guitar. The tremolo bridge has been designed to stay in perfect tune, even with heavy use of the bar.
Pickups
Most versions of the Parker Fly feature a set of two magnetic Humbucker style pickups and a Fishman developed piezoelectric pickup designed to emulate acoustic guitar sounds. The piezoelectric pickup is aided by an onboard active pre-amplifier requiring the use of a 9 volt battery. The magnetic pickups are passive, but sit within the active circuit path. Fly guitars feature a stereo output jack, allowing the piezo and magnetic pickups to be sent to different amplifiers, or blended into a mono signal. Some Fly models have only magnetic pickups, for traditional electric guitar sounds, while some models have only piezo pickups, for use as solid-body acoustic-electric guitars.
The Parker Fly's magnetic pickups are based on the traditional humbucker design, but feature a proprietary mounting system which eliminates the need for pickup rings and mounting brackets. The pickups are instead mounted via two extended pole pieces that screw into bushings sunk into the pickup cavities of the guitar. This mounting system produces a cleaner looking interface between the pickups and the instrument. The first Humbuckers used for the fly were produced by Dimarzio based on their Air Norton (neck position), and ToneZone (bridge position) designs. These pickups are commonly referred to as "Gen 1 Dimarzios". Responding to complaints about their non traditional hi-fi sound, Dimarzio introduced a new set of humbuckers in the spring of 1999. Commonly referred to as "Gen 2 Dimarzios", these new pickups were custom designed for the Fly's unique voicing. Featuring ceramic magnets, the Gen 2 design had more mid range focus, and higher output than their predecessors, and are still used on many current fly models.
Sperzel tuners
The Parker Fly guitars are equipped with Sperzel tuners, which allow the string to be locked into place at the pole in which it winds. This feature allows the string to remain fastened into the pole without requiring more than one wind.
Refined Fly
Shortly before Parker Guitars was acquired by US Music Corporation, the Fly was changed to make it more production-friendly and less expensive to produce. The biggest change was moving the tension wheel, which adjusts the spring tension of the bridge, from its original through body position to behind a cover. The battery compartment was made more accessible and the 3 way tremolo arm switch was moved. The stereo button was removed and replaced with a smart switch. Additionally the ribbon wiring harness was replaced with the less expensive Nite Fly wiring.
Notable Users
Parker Flys have been played by Gustavo Cerati, Adrian Belew, Matthew Bellamy, David Bowie, Carlos Alomar, Steve DeMarchi of The Cranberries, Alias and Sherriff, Amir Derakh, The Edge, Mark Farner, Reeves Gabrels, Synyster Gates, Daniel Gildenlöw, Phil Keaggy, Brian May, Joni Mitchell, Dave Navarro, Lou Reed, Trent Reznor, Paul Simon, Pete Townshend, Juan Luis Guerra, Joe Walsh, Vernon Reid, Bob Weir, Jason Mendonca, David Lynch and Drew Edel.
Fly models
The Fly Deluxe features a solid poplar body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
The Fly Classic features a mahogany body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
The Mojo features a body and neck both constructed of solid mahogany, and uses Seymour Duncan pickups.
The Fly Artist features a solid Sitka spruce body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
The Fly Supreme features a solid big leaf maple body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
Designed to appeal to classical guitar players, this is strung with nylon strings, and has no magnetic pickups.
Constructed of a variety of different tone woods and featuring various pickup combinations, the Nite Fly uses a bolt-on neck, and lacks the intricate sculpting found on the Fly body.
This is a Fly Deluxe with a Sustainiac pickup, Variax components, and a specialized piezo pickup that allows for guitar synthesizer applications.
Based on a Nite Fly body and made between 1999–2002, the MIDIFly featured a mahogany body and Parker's TurboTone neck (also constructed of mahogany) with Virtual DSP Corp.'s MidiAxe guitar-to-MIDI converter system. Equipped with custom DiMarzio magnetic pickups plus an active Fishman piezo system. The MIDIFly's Fishman piezo circuit triggers the internal MidiAxe DSP, resulting in a MIDI guitar controller. An included MidiAxe editor program for Windows PC was provided on CD-ROM.