WANTED: PM20 Pro

[Patzag]

Hi.
I'm looking for a white PM20 Pro.
Anyone hears of something, ping me please.
Cheers,
Patrick

[vjmanzo]

Will you be in Latvia anytime soon?

https://reverb.com/item/33805280-parker ... t=33805280


It’s been listed for over a year; maybe they’d ship to you and come in much lower than their asking?

[Patzag]

Nope ...
No traveling these days, yet.
I sent the seller a PM. We'll see.

These guitars have been selling around $500-550.

That's about all I'm willing to put in there.

[vjmanzo]

These guitars have been selling around $500-550.

That seems right; good luck and please keep us posted! I’ve never played one, so I’d welcome your feedback!

[Geardog]

Here's one on Reverb. It lives in Italy

https://reverb.com/item/41428908-parker ... an-sperzel

[Patzag]

Thanks. I bought one and it should be in my hands in about 2 weeks ....

[Geardog]

Great. Congrats & enjoy it.

[Notes_Norton]

HNGD in advance, the PM20-Pro in white is a fine looking guitar.

[Patzag]

HNGD in advance, the PM20-Pro in white is a fine looking guitar.

Hey Notes!
Nice to see you hanging here again.

I'll have this baby in my hands - if all goes well - before end of day tomorrow. I'll be sure to post a review. It's a fine looking instrument for sure. I want to see if it has the Mojo I expect!

[vjmanzo]

if all goes well - before end of day tomorrow. I'll be sure to post a review.

Very cool, Pat!

[Notes_Norton]

Hey Notes!
Nice to see you hanging here again.

Thanks. I've been working on 20 new styles for Band-in-a-Box and a half dozen fake e-disks. Very, very time-consuming.

We haven't been gigging due to COVID, so it's our attempt to make up for some lost income.

The gigs are starting to come back, but summer is traditionally the slow season here in South Florida. Booking a lot for next winter, so things are looking up.

Can't wait to see the pictures of your new Parker -- HNGD in advance.

[Patzag]

Update!
I'll post photos when I get a chance to shoot a couple of nice ones. You know what the guitar looks like and mine is no different.

1. The guitar arrived in poor condition. I don't mean that the guitar was beat up, I mean it arrived with old strings, dirty and dusty, with a broken zipper on the gig bag. This was NOT a well taken care of instrument and Guitar Center shone in it's lack of care for it. They did not even bother cleaning it before packing it and shipping it off. Absolutely gross.
So I spent a good amount of time taking it back to its shiny self, cleaning and put on fresh strings. I did a few minor adjustments and plugged in.

2. The guitar is beautiful. It is well made and balanced. The finish is quite attractive (pearlescent white) and the abalone trim is beautiful without looking ostentatious. The 8-pointed star insert on the otherwise bare fretboard also looks cool.

3. Adjusted the pickups a bit. They were so high that they nearly touched the strings. Plugged in to my Fractal unit and bang! The guitar sounds great. A little "looser" than my Classic. Mostly due I think to the neck pickup position at the 24th fret place. (The guitar has 22 frets). The coil split at that place sounds glorious - though I am not a single-coil kinda guy.

Tonally, it's like a mojo. The Duncan pickups are very cool - like I said, a little looser than the Di Marzio, which some people make like or object to. I am very used to a very tight bass response from the Classic and Deluxe so this was a little weird at the beginning. It also sustains a little less, but not enough to be an issue.

The main objection I have is the fretboard/frets. The board itself is wood - I forget who "woody" that feels. But the frets are medium flat (worn) nickel wire and I can't stand that. I am in the process of investigating getting SS wire on there.

It's the first non-fly that I'd willingly play at a gig, though. It sounds great, it's not heavy despite the Les Paul heritage (about the same weight as my classic) and it looks good.

I am still in the first love phase so I'm going to let this settle a bit more before I make my move. But I am keeping it. Not sending it back to the bad Guitar Center people!

To be continued ....

[jb63]

Definitely want to replace those frets when you get the $.
My guy here in SLC HATES working with SS frets but said he'd do it fir $500.
So that's the mark I use. That was a few years back, though, and in the past year and a half all techs I know are swamped.

But once that neck is the way you like it I'll bet you will use that guitar a LOT.

[Barry]

Happy NGD Pat!
I've never played the Pro version but the specs have always looked delicious.

If I missed it in the earlier posts I apologize but what year is your Pro?
I ask because my 2005 Red Bubinga PM20 has an Ebony fret board with SS frets. From your description it sounds like you have a Rosewood board with Nickel frets.

That's a pretty standard build for most guitars, but very unexpected on this upgraded version of the PM20.
I'm wondering why. Part of a cost saving move perhaps? Pity.

[vjmanzo]

I ask because my 2005 Red Bubinga PM20 has an Ebony fret board with SS frets.

Interesting…I don’t see the fret material noted in any of the catalogs; did you get your PM20 new, @Barry?

[Patzag]

Happy NGD Pat!
I've never played the Pro version but the specs have always looked delicious.

If I missed it in the earlier posts I apologize but what year is your Pro?
I ask because my 2005 Red Bubinga PM20 has an Ebony fret board with SS frets. From your description it sounds like you have a Rosewood board with Nickel frets.

That's a pretty standard build for most guitars, but very unexpected on this upgraded version of the PM20.
I'm wondering why. Part of a cost saving move perhaps? Pity.

I think the fretboard is ebony. At least it looks black enough to be. But the frets are definitely nickel. They are well "used", whereas my flyes are still looking new after over 20 years of usage.

My PM20Pro is a 06 made in Korea.

As VJ suggest - without saying so - maybe your PM20 was retrofitted with SS frets by an earlier owner?

[Barry]

No, not new but as good as.
I purchased it from a young fellow whose dad bought it for him to learn guitar on. Nice dad!
The lad then decided he'd rather play drums!
It had barely been touched, so definitely no re-fret was done.

Without digging back through a couple of terabytes of storage info (!) I did contact U.S. Music soon after I bought it in 2009 and they confirmed that the Red Bubinga was part of a very limited run. Somewhere in my digging around for info SS frets was mentioned more than once and I had no reason to doubt it.

Certainly it plays as slick as whale snot, and the frets are shinier than nickel and have not tarnished nor needed polishing in the 12 years that I've had it! If they are nickel, they're like none that I've ever seen. Beyond that I got nuthin'.

It seems reasonable to me that it would have upgraded frets to match the limited run, and don't forget, this was an also a fairly early build (with hockey stick head stock) before the specs kept changing.

[Patzag]

Nice Barry.
Hold on to it! It's a beauty.
I've started to investigate into the SS refret thing. Ouch! But still, I think I'm going to go for it. As soon as I can!

[vjmanzo]

I've started to investigate into the SS refret thing.

Very cool, Pat! I do love a good "mod thread"

Agreed--Barry, looks like you've got a gem there!