1997 Parker Fly Deluxe

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[@lemonmanlbc]

I've owned one since 1999. This model and color is still my main go to guitar for playing out. I shaved with soap and ate ramen to afford one back then, but I was determined to have it.

[@jeffwilliams3224]

Same here!

[@ApostolisPaspalakis]

Just got a white 2003 fly deluxe. My favorite color , and i cant wait. Used to have a 1996 fly deluxe and sold it. Regret, regret, regret. I have/had many high end guitars. There's nothing like a Parker. So ahead of their time

[@learguitarist]

I scored a Parker Fly Classic from year 2000 just before the brand went to be part of Washburn and man it is great, super lightweight and the padded Levy's gigbag is a nice addition, every single time a friend picks up the guitar they are amazed by how it feels. Maybe I'll need to make a video on mine for the sake of more Parker goodness on KZbin.

[@levibeaulieu7870]

Top 5 guitars for home defence?

[@Guitarsenal]

LOL maybe!

[@DisappointedScrosh]

1-5. Dean DB Razorback

[@chrisdigital]

My 1998 BC rich Acrylic green mockingbird. 14.5 lbs.

[@jshudd]

I love Parker’s! I’ve got 4!! A Parker Fly Classic (same as Deluxe but with mahogany body), Fly Hardtail (no trem), a Nitefly version 3 (3 single coils like a Strat), and a Nitefly version 4 (Hum, single, single config). I would run them with the stereo cable so my magnetic sound went to my Mesa and the piezos went to my Fender Acoustasonic Pro. Just flip the switch & it went from awesome acoustic to heavy distortion!

[@cesardarito]

I have 4 too!!! Love them!!!

[@micemr76]

I got u both...I have 7😂 Prices are getting ridiculous glad I got most pre 2010! Flys are awful scary. Between the ribbon cables, all the carbon/glass wrapping, etc etc, one bad move and it's a wall piece. I trust my niteflys way more! They're repairable, but parts for either are tough. Take care of your Parker's there's only so many pre revised out there!

[@johnhendricks8140]

Great demonstration of the great qualities of the Parker fly i wish had one. These guitars selling for over over 2 grand used. I would probably if it fell around a grand.

[@deyoloco3110]

I once played a Parker Fly, only difference was that the one I played was colored gold, nice guitar!!

[@gerryk3114]

I’ve Got 2 Parker’s: Classic in Red (1999) and a Pearl White Nite Fly !!!! PERFECTION !

[@StefP.]

Never really liked the shape of Parker guitars, but the tones that you can get out from those guitars is really inspiring! Your playing is also really inspiring my friend :)

[@noeditbookreviews]

I think these things are just cool as hell.

[@NateParkerPhoto]

I owned that very guitar. I know its the one. I sold it on Huntington Ave in Boston on a cold rainy day in 1997 then moved to Maine. gonna get one again. I swear though i can feel it that was the one I had.

[@NateParkerPhoto]

lol I just saw the year it was made. Mine was a few years old by 1997. Alas.

[@micemr76]

@@NateParkerPhoto call Ken and say you're a long lost relative 😂

[@Tifys69]

Holy shit! Didn't realise you did guitar videos too! Already a fan of your gun videos, guess I'll subscribe to this channel too :)

[@Danger.86]

Great guitar and great hardware BUT the only thing that will ever come to mind is that one dude from ORGY playing it lmao . As always, great video sir . Cheers !!

[@Buzzode]

Great Demo , Great Guitar , Great Playing ... I have same guitar Black ... Love It !!

[@BYLRPhil]

My youth pastor had one of these when I was a kid. I always thought it was hideous, but it sure sounds nice :-).

[@tonio19]

Youth pastor? Someone who lies to children for a living.

[@ThePedroDB]

It isn't a Basswood body. It's a Poplar body with a Basswood neck. The Serial Number will have a "BP" suffix to reflect this. I have a '97 Deluxe in Majik Blue. It's the one guitar in my collection that I willl never sell

[@EgeCoskun]

I was about to write it but you were first :) I have also Deluxe Majik Blue from the year '94. Never sell it either ;)

[@micemr76]

@@EgeCoskun wow a second yr fly!! Rare

[@Blackcat-s5f]

This is a Parker Deluxe Fly model. The leaf spring is written as 9 in Arabic numerals. Then should I use 0.9 for the guitar string gauge?

[@robeissens4342]

yes

[@dwightshumate7614]

Hey Guitarsenal. I have the exact guitar you are demoing. I've recently developed a problem with tuning. No matter what I do I cannot get all 6 strings in tune at one time. Any thoughts?

[@dbuck01]

Very cool. This was a pretty radical design when they came out, with the graphite neck and integrated piezo and all. And they didn't look like anything else on the market. Pretty high-end, nice guitars but they were competing with another newcomer called Paul Reed Smith and, well...we know how that turned out.

[@anthonyptak8650]

I remember I had an opportunity to buy a white Parker Fly preowned, I hesitated cause even the sales staff didn’t understand the instrument , it sold before I could make up my mind $600. In 1997 was a good deal. Regretting it ever since.

[@ChrisTopheRaz]

What are the last four of the serial number? I’ve been trying to reunite with mine for years now. Long story but still breaks my heart that I had to sell it during a rough time.

[@micemr76]

Sorry to hear that, but nobody who's in the know will share the serial number. U could say it was yours and make a police report. And anyways for the fly you'd want the first four not last four, just find a replacement! It's worth it!

[@ChrisTopheRaz]

@@micemr76 I’m looking to buy mine back, not file a missing guitar report. There is clear evidence at the pawn shop that I pawned it at, that it was taken into their ownership and they sold it. I knew that back then, and all I’m trying to do is reunite with that same guitar. For my own personal reasons, and I don’t care what you think about that so maybe try not to tell someone else what they should do about something they care about.

[@tedeisner822]

@@ChrisTopheRazwhere?

[@ChrisTopheRaz]

@@tedeisner822 I gave it up to Golds Pawn in Mesa, AZ. If I remember correctly (I do have the paperwork but not with me right now), it was somewhere around 2004. It’s the guitar I used when I joined my first band. I was going through a hard time back then and lost a good friend to an OD, my sons mother moved him across the country and I lost my job all in the same week. I had to sell some stuff to get by and hoped that I wouldn’t have to let it go completely which is why I pawned it rather than sell it on the private market.

[@ChrisTopheRaz]

@@tedeisner822 Strange, I responded to this a couple days ago and now it’s been deleted? Mesa, Arizona. Somewhere around 2004. I have the paperwork too. I’m only looking to buy it back! It would make me so happy. You know, like those shows where a son finds dad’s old car and buy it back for him? That’s the quest I’ve been on for my self for years now.

[@jeffwilliams3224]

I have that exact one. I call her Jazzmine lol

[@michaelwoods9005]

Awesome guitars, but too far ahead of their time for their own good, unfortunately. These pioneered the use of stainless steel fretwire, which is just now becoming an industry standard. They were made with really expensive materials and cutting-edge construction techniques. Ken Parker said it was a $8000 guitar that he had to sell for $2500, just to move them, because it didn't look like a strat or a les paul

[@micemr76]

His actual words were we were building 10k guitars and selling them for 2k.😊

[@slatendooley6344]

Nice axe Chad! I could spend a year fiddling with the gear in that room. 😂

[@greenguitarfish]

I have a 95 deluxe, and a 98 Nightfly. I’ll never sell them.

[@micemr76]

Am I crazy or don't u and a buddy have a firearms channel? I know I recognize u. U got a couple things wrong re the fly, huge Parker fanatic! One there no graphite. The neck is a fiber glass, carbon fiber composite, and the fretboard is all carbon fiber. Also it's not an acoustic pickup under the bridge saddles it's a piezo pickup. With that said, you def got the guns side way better then I. My two hobbies...guns and guitars 😂 also u can use the trem with the piezo, just stick a piece of electric tape over the 3mm gap behind the bridge, that's where it's emanating from. Also noiseless springs can help!

[@oncameramastery]

I remember reading about these when they first came out. I think I remember reading that the fancy neck materials should make it super stable with pitch hardly effected by changes in temperature. Has Chad found this one particularly stable?

[@jeffwombold9167]

I've had a 98 fly deluxe, and have never had to do anything to it. My only complaint was the battery insert, but they addressed that on the later models. Plays better than even my very high end Music Man guitars, but it is a jazz sound. Playability second to none.😊😊

[@Johnny.Fedora]

I have two, one the Concert model, which has no magnetic pickup, and both are incredibly stable over time and temperature. The neck isn't made of carbon fiber -- the back of the guitar, the body and neck, have a carbon fiber sheet bonded to the surface, which during the manufacturing process effectively becomes one with the wood body and wood (typically basswood) neck. The fingerboard is made of a similar carbon fiber/glass fiber material, bonded in a similar way. That makes the guitar, which looks so slight (the models with sitka spruce bodies are ridiculously light) extremely strong and stable.

[@alexlermontov87]

That strange feeling when you see iraqveteran playing the guitar for the first time....

[@coreyrocha7986]

I had a Parker fly but the frets fell out

[@Iraqveteran8888]

WHAT?!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣👋🏻

[@ivanasin1268]

Very common. That was the biggest issue with these guitars. Fantastic instruments otherwise

[@michaelwoods9005]

The frets had no tang and they weren't pressed into a slotted fingerboard like other guitars. They used half-moon shaped fretwire that was epoxied onto the fingerboard.

[@thesameeffect]

That only happens when people leave them in extreme temperatures, humidity and also if they “oil” their fingerboards. Only supposed to clean with water since it is not a wood fingerboard. If none of those things were done to it then they won’t fall out. Some models had the best glue used but still shouldn’t just fall out like that.

[@robzagar4275]

⁠only fell out of a very few later models not associated with Ken Parker

[@jonmagnus3510]

Is that IraqVeteran8888?

[@dshteynvil]

If you’re into acoustic sounding electrics you should check out the Taylor T5.

[@lynnfrancesanderson1829]

It’s not basswood, it’s poplar.

[@morganb.3430]

wtf its iraqveteran

[@jasonkight2211]

That has to be the ugliest piece of shit ever made

[@Guitarsenal]

They certainly arent pretty, but they are cool and quirky and sound neat too.

[@robzagar4275]

They aren’t pieces of shit. Ken Parker took chances, was bold and bad-ass. Not everyone wants cookie cutter boring caca..