Presentation and question

[Caronte]

Hello there,

I'm Jose and I'm from Spain. I've been playing guitar for 10 years. I really like classic rock, hard rock and some prog metal like Dream Theater or so. I'm not so virtuous but music heal my soul.

Now, the doubt:

I have always liked Parker guitars but, unfortunately, very few have arrived in Spain. I have the opportunity to buy a second hand PM20 (in very good condition) but I have found very little information about it, since it is the model made in Indonesia (3 + 3 headstock). I can buy it for 350 euros (about 390 dollars). Do you recommend it? Thanks and best regards.

[mmmguitar]

Welcome, Jose. I’m sorry I seem to have missed this thread when it was first posted. I’ll repeat what I replied with via PM:

My two cents are that the guitar won’t be anything like a NiteFly or Fly. I think of it as being like any other Indonesian-made Les Paul copy, but shaped a little like other Parker guitars. Some find the PM20 shape and cutaways uncomfortable (particularly the lower horn, when it’s resting on their leg).

Do you have the option to try it before buying? If not, I would suggest saving your money. Hopefully some other good folks chime in. I’d love to be wrong about underestimating the PM20.

[Caronte]

Welcome, Jose. I’m sorry I seem to have missed this thread when it was first posted. I’ll repeat what I replied with via PM:

My two cents are that the guitar won’t be anything like a NiteFly or Fly. I think of it as being like any other Indonesian-made Les Paul copy, but shaped a little like other Parker guitars. Some find the PM20 shape and cutaways uncomfortable (particularly the lower horn, when it’s resting on their leg).

Do you have the option to try it before buying? If not, I would suggest saving your money. Hopefully some other good folks chime in. I’d love to be wrong about underestimating the PM20.

Thank you so much for the information abour the guitar. I'm going to try it, but I want to know more about that guitar. There´s not much information abour this model.

[vjmanzo]

Hi @Caronte and welcome! Did you look through the catalogs here? As noted on the FAQ page, reading the catalogs is a great way to learn about the different Parker guitar models. The PM20 first appeared in 2005 and there’s not a lot of documentation beyond that, though as mmmguitar noted, formulating a subjective opinion of your own by trying one is good idea.

Keep us posted!

[Caronte]

Hi @Caronte and welcome! Did you look through the catalogs here? As noted on the FAQ page, reading the catalogs is a great way to learn about the different Parker guitar models. The PM20 first appeared in 2005 and there’s not a lot of documentation beyond that, though as mmmguitar noted, formulating a subjective opinion of your own by trying one is good idea.

Keep us posted!

Thank you so much!

I've seen that the model that I want to buy is from 2009. I take the catalog of this year and I've found it! Is the Parker PM-20 Tangerine, with mahogany body, mahogany neck, maple top, phenolic fretboard and good hardware. Now my question is, is it worth for 350 euros?

[Patzag]

I paid a little over $500 for my PM20 Pro. I love it.

[vjmanzo]

Happy to help!

Now my question is, is it worth for 350 euros?

That’s a somewhat personal question, but if you’re asking if that seems to be the “going rate”, I don’t think that’s unreasonable. You can check the price lists on the catalogs page, see what they sold for new, and adjust for inflation.

If you like/need that guitar, then, to me, it’s worth it. Patzag seems to love his!

My personal opinion is that the novelty of Parker guitars compared to other guitar brands is 1) the combination of traditional materials and composite materials and 2) expert craftsmanship/quality control. As such, I am personally less interested in models like the P-series that don’t have these treatments; that doesn’t make them bad guitars, but, perhaps they are comparable to many other good guitars made by many other good companies—and of course, I want to own those too! Do you ever stop looking at Strats for sale?!

At a good price, I would buy a Fly sight-unseen given my familiarity with that model and what could go wrong, though I don’t have the same familiarity/confidence with any of the P-Series Parkers. Patzag put in some effort/money and set his PM20 up in a way that he seems to enjoy; I suppose if you decide you don’t like it, you can always put it up for sale—even if you take a bit of a loss on it, it’s not the worst financial shortcoming you could imagine…it would really be great if you could play it first, though.

[Caronte]

Happy to help!

Now my question is, is it worth for 350 euros?

That’s a somewhat personal question, but if you’re asking if that seems to be the “going rate”, I don’t think that’s unreasonable. You can check the price lists on the catalogs page, see what they sold for new, and adjust for inflation.

If you like/need that guitar, then, to me, it’s worth it. Patzag seems to love his!

My personal opinion is that the novelty of Parker guitars compared to other guitar brands is 1) the combination of traditional materials and composite materials and 2) expert craftsmanship/quality control. As such, I am personally less interested in models like the P-series that don’t have these treatments; that doesn’t make them bad guitars, but, perhaps they are comparable to many other good guitars made by many other good companies—and of course, I want to own those too! Do you ever stop looking at Strats for sale?!

At a good price, I would buy a Fly sight-unseen given my familiarity with that model and what could go wrong, though I don’t have the same familiarity/confidence with any of the P-Series Parkers. Patzag put in some effort/money and set his PM20 up in a way that he seems to enjoy; I suppose if you decide you don’t like it, you can always put it up for sale—even if you take a bit of a loss on it, it’s not the worst financial shortcoming you could imagine…it would really be great if you could play it first, though.

Hello everyone,

First of all, I want to thank you all for your help. Yesterday, I finally went to try the Parker PM20. And...wow, I had never played a Parker and I was very amazed. The neck is comfortable, the frets are very well executed (except the three first that are a little worn-out), the fretboard is soft, the body is light and well balanced. Even so, there are things that I don't like: the humbuckers sounds very muddy and without character, the pots are ok (are alpha) but the previous owner make some modifications that I don't like. As you can see, these are things very simple to solve and I buy the Parker. Some pictures:

https://ibb.co/sqyGBZg
https://ibb.co/YjgBDpd
https://ibb.co/j8Szg1V
https://ibb.co/0CsTB7R
https://ibb.co/0G3RSSF
https://ibb.co/7Gk94mG
https://ibb.co/8KJG2FX

As you can see, I have to clean it deeply. The guitar has a lot of dust, the strings are rusty and the action is very high (I think that I'm going to touch the trussrod). Is the first guitar that I have with phenolic fretboard. How can I clean it? I also have to take off the stickers. How can I clean the rests of glue? The stickers are made of vinyl.

Now... I'm one of yours!!

[Barry]

Very nice Jose, I love the tangerine colour.

If you haven't removed the vinyl yet I would warm it up with a hair dryer first. It should peel off.
Any glue residue can be removed with GooGone and light scraping with a credit card.

You can also soften it up with vegetable oil. It will take longer to work but it should do the trick. Some Naptha should remove any residue.