90's Nitefly questions.

[destropiate]

Hi everyone. Glad to have found this forum while I was trying to find info on my Nitefly.
It was advertised as a 1997. It had the pickups changed to Seymour Duncan's. A JB in the bridge and Hotrails in the neck. Middle pickup is the stock Dimarzio.
I'm trying to date the guitar but it doesn't seem to fit any model based on the year. I don't have the on/off push switch for the piezo but there is a battery door on the back that seems to power the system. I was under the impression that the model without the push switch should be passive and not require a battery?
The three way switch on my guitar seems to switch from magnetic only/blend/piezo only and the smaller control knob seems to blend in the piezo volume when the 3 way toggle is in the middle position. Is this standard on any version of the Nitefly? Or did the previous owner maybe change the piezo to an active system and add a battery compartment?

I cant seem to post pics from my phone but I will try from my PC tomorrow. The serial is 87350USA

[vjmanzo]

Hi @destropiate, and welcome!

According to the info we have on serial numbers and this NiteFly history document, you have a NiteFly 3 or 4 from 1997.

[destropiate]

Hi thanks for the response and the welcome.
I just read over those documents again but I'm still confused. The serial does seem to date it to 1997. The version 3 and 4 are supposed to have a stereo toggle, however mine does not. Mine also has a battery compartment on the back for the piezo which the version 1 and 2 are not supposed to have. Did parker ever release a Nitefly with an active piezo but no stereo/mono switch?

[vjmanzo]

Good question...If the battery compartment route on the back was done at the factory, then it’s more likely that the previous owner installed a different piezo preamp.

Can you take a photo of the back of the guitar, the controls on the pickguard and, the electronics underneath the pickguard?

[destropiate]

I have a feeling the previous owner might have swapped the piezo as well. Here are links to the front control panel and the back. I'll have to take the pickguard off over the weekend to get a shot of the wiring. The small knob between the bridge and the toggle seems to be the volume for the piezo. The tone control on the other side of the toggle is a tone and splits the coils on the Duncans. The toggle seems to switch magnetic only/blend of the two/piezo only.

[destropiate]

Its hard to tell until I take the pickguard off but it seems like the previous owner may have based some of the mods off of this guide.

https://www.guitaryoudreamabout.com/sin ... ver-guitar

I don't think it has a "hyper-quack" circuit but the pickup change and the addition of a push pull pot are similar. Either way I love the guitar, just wanted to clarify if was modded further than just a pickup swap. Ill get the pickguard off as soon as i can and post a picture.

[vjmanzo]

Got it! Thanks for posting these. Looks great BTW!

I suspect the guitar you have originally had the Fishman NiteMix in it, which looks like this:

C82FDE37-0C95-4A63-B3D4-052D06C2D82E.jpeg (34.88 KiB) Viewed 5912 times

If you lift the pickguard and see a small blue dial, it’s the Fishman Powerchip.