Rare Parker models?

[Mike987]

What are the rarest models? I would imagine any of the koa or Belew ones. Of my collection, I’d say my blue bronze fly, red gator skin p36, and my left handed p42. Although not that rare, my p32 and p40 were pretty hard to track down.

Anyone have any idea how many left handed Parker’s were even made? It’s something I’ve been curious to know. It’s hard to even find pictures of them online. Mine looks like the black p42 on the google image search. Cheapest of all my Parker’s too as it was $225 shipped and in mint condition. I really didn’t think the seller was going to send it with a price like that. Or i thought his price was a typo.

[mmmguitar]

What are the rarest models?

As far as SKUs, I recall reading that something like only four PB12 basses were made. Adam Dutkiewicz supposedly pulled the plug on his Parker endorsement before many had been built. I'd be surprised if the number of Adrian Belew models (1.0 and DF842 AB combined) reached twenty. There may have been even fewer Vernon Reids built. Dave Martone and Deron Miller had signature Flys on the drawing board at different points but, as far as I know, Dave got two custom Mojos/prototypes built and Miller got none due to requesting it built with four strings.

Concerning lefties: To my knowledge, the Parker bridge (trem or hardtail) was only ever produced in a righty orientation, and Terry or someone else once joked that Paul McCartney would have to order a Parker before a left-handed Fly would even be attempted. Hence, the import models spec'd with Wilkinson or Tune-o-Matic bridges were the only guitars with the Parker shape used to test those waters.

There's bound to be a number of weird one-offs from the final built-to-order era of production. I remember feeling oddly disgusted circa-2014 when I saw photos of the latest Fly "refinements": Duncan-produced Gen 2s in pickup rings, ebony fretboards, and mahogany necks standardized across all set-neck models, with a spec weight of 6+ lbs, a MAP of $4,099 + tax, and a six month lead time (with a number of buyers who had placed orders near the end of 2014 being informed via email in July of 2015 that their guitars were simply not going to be built). I've seen some serious lemons from the end of production pop up in the years since, and you can tell they were shipped out with the knowledge that no warranty would be honored. I really hope those are the rarest of all.

[Mike987]

Wow that’s interesting! Deron Miller is the one who got me into parkers! I loved cky and when I found out guitar center had a Parker fly in stock that was a decent price back in the day I tried it out and fell in love with it! Yeah he said he always used 4 strings due to the B and high E not sounding good with the octave pedal he usually uses. Also why he only uses a wound G too. I missed out on buying his Parker’s when he sold them. His fly was a non piezo model. But yeah a fly with 4 strings would have been pretty odd.

I believe one of my p40s is one of those goofy models as I’ve never seen one in a hardtail before..also it only has two knobs and a a switch since it has no piezo. It has two humbuckers instead of two single coils and a humbucker. Surprisingly it sounds pretty good though! My other p40 has a trem and a piezo and the regular configuration. I’ve seen some other ones that seem kind of odd like a p42 pro and a p40v. They all have those slanted headstocks with the little “beak” on them. I imagine the p42 being made in a lefty wasn’t too bad to make since it was a lot less detailed and a lot less was involved than the fly. Everything is just mirrored and the p42 doesn’t have a trem or anything.

I’m just now remembering this one listing from a while ago too of a Parker the seller claimed was made of some 800 year old piece of wood. If I recall, Ken Parker had no recollection of this guitar ever being made. It appears to be a legit looking bronze fly but has no serial number or Parker guitar logo. If I had to guess, an employee/employees made it on the side for some extra cash. I’ve also seen a cedar bronze fly too. I’m just glad to have been able to finally get a bronze fly after years of people price gouging I managed to get a good deal. The blue on it looks awesome and really sets it off. I wouldn’t have been upset regardless of the color though as it’s always been a dream guitar of mine.

[Mike987]

Ah yes after looking back at the prices in the old catalogs it seems as if the prices were going up but the quality was going down. Although none of my Parker’s with the tangless frets are the years with the bad fret glue or severe quality control issues, I still bought some extra fret wire and other parts just in case..factory pots and a spare output jack, etc.

[vjmanzo]

Some of the rarest Parkers are the non-production one-offs that Ken had his hand in during the early years: you can review the #ParkerPrototypes for more examples, but my favorites include the painted fingerboard Fly, the Douglas fir Fly, and the Potato Chip:

[Soloaxer]

I have some questions about the 2003 production year. This was interesting to me for several reasons. I am thinking that during this ownership transition year there would possibly be a few unique or very limited runs due to the "dialing in" period of various electronics changes, and possibly some additional features that were briefly combined but not seen at any other time. I am also wondering if the upper horn had been modified then to be more ergonomic.

If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be thankful.

Also, is there any info on the exact date that the serial number changed from 6 digit to 7?

[vjmanzo]

Hi @Soloaxer—2003 was a transitional time in the sense that, in the fall it was foretold that everything from Wilmington was soon to be loaded onto a flatbed and hauled to Illinois. According to the history thread, USM was using Flys that were mostly made in Wilmington during 2004 and 2005, so I think 2006 was actually the “dialing in” period.

[Soloaxer]

Thank you, VJ. I also checked your history link and now have the two missing pieces I was looking for. (Triple Cool)
As I recall, I think that 2006 was when the fret attachment issue happened about mid-year.