How worried should I be?

[Alex]

Hi Everyone,

There's a Fly Deluxe for sale local to me. The guitar is well played and has plenty of bucklerash, dings etc and the price reflects that. However I am worried about anl crack at the top under the bridge. I have read that this is due to the spring being overtightened. Also the bridge seems to be at a weird angle. Don't know if that's an issue. I'm fine with the cosmetic damage but should I be worried about the functionality of this fly?

[vjmanzo]

Hi @Alex—that crack is fairly common and, in my experience, it’s something that’s in the finish and looks worse than it is. It’s hard to say, of course, if it is worse than it is, but if I was buying it locally at a good price I wouldn’t be too freaked out.

You can adjust the bridge height—that looks weird to me as well, but I’ve seen that before; the owner might like that sort of setup.

I’d follow Marc’s buying tips and play it enough so you can tell if it’s holding tune properly and feeling like a good instrument. Remind me: you’ve owned a Fly before, correct?

[Alex]

Thank you, that makes sense! Will definitely play it and test everything if I decide to buy it. Yes, I got my first fly almost two years ago but due to moving countries I didn't get to play it much. I also picked up a deluxe recently in the same colour as in your avatar which I've been playing quite a bit

[mmmguitar]

@Alex, even if it ends up being more than cosmetic, anything short of a complete blowout from spring failure is a cheap and straightforward internal repair (one way would be to reinforce the wood behind the spring by gluing a piece of scrap veneer against the rout, then repairing the finish crack with a drop fill of some color touchup and CA glue sanded smooth). My main concern with that guitar is in hoping the sale price is to your liking.

Update: Poster radguitar coincidentally posted a thread with several detailed photos of the rout for the flatspring assembly, which you may reference.

Concerning the back angle of the bridge: A few turns to loosen the spring tension until the step-stop can be moved into place should have it level, again. That just looks like user error, to me - If the owner has a reason for it, I'm curious to know (e.g. if the guitar won't intonate otherwise, then that's a problem).

[Alex]

Thanks for the replies guys, it's hard for me to evaluate these things as I don't have massive experience with parkers to be confident to judge those things so your input is much appreciated! Just to give you a reference, the seller is willing to drop down to about 1200 euro (an extra 9 gauge spring is included). Please also keep in mind that I'm outside of the US so the used market is a bit tamer but it's also harder to sell stuff. For example, this guitar has been listed for over a month for 1600 and only in the last few days there's been more interest.

[vjmanzo]

I would consider that a very good deal, Alex. If I was in your position, I would buy that Fly for sure.

It seems like it just needs a small amount of maintenance work that you could absolutely do yourself. If you discover down the line that something isn’t right with it, we can help you find solutions, but at that price you could disclose what’s wrong with it and most likely make your money back by selling it.

When you play it, you’ll know very quickly if the action seems good and if the instrument is doing what it ought to do. It’s great that you have experience playing another Fly as a mental reference!

[Alex]

Just a small update. After talking to you guys I decided to contact the seller (didn't take much convincing ). The guy is only back from his holidays later this week so will check out the guitar this weekend. He let me know that the tone knob for the piezo is not working but everything else is fine. Is that an easy fix? Couldn't find any info for tone knob issues specifically, so any input is much appreciated!

[vjmanzo]

Thanks for the update, Alex

The root of the issue with the piezo tone knob could be the concentric pot itself or the flex PCB that connects all of the inner components. If it were me in your position, as long as the tone knob was “open” and not mud city, I’d still be happy with this instrument even if that feature didn’t work properly. The “refined” Fly, as you may know, did not have a tone pot for the piezo—the removal of this feature was part of the “refinement”

[Alex]

Okay I went to see the guitar and things got interesting. I noticed right away the frets looked different than other fly's I'd seen and the were also worn down which is weird for ss frets. I quickly realised someone actually refretted this with normal nickel frets that have tangs! The guitar actually played really well, although the spring didn't have enough tension and the trem couldn't be locked into down only properly. Also one of the screws holding the battery cover in place is missing along with the plate. The seller was a really nice guy with little knowledge of these guitars. Has anyone come across anything like this? Will add pics asap

[vjmanzo]

…I quickly realised someone actually refretted this with normal nickel frets that have tangs!

I’ve seen maybe two or three examples of someone scrapping the existing fretboard and hammering in nickel frets—it’s a lot of work to pull off and obviously the instrument loses some of the hot sauce of a Fly, but—ya know—I’ve heard a few great-sounding guitars that didn’t have frets that were epoxied in place Is that going to be a deal-breaker for you?

[Alex]

Pictures added (I had to take screenshots because the files were too large but hopefully you can see it okay).

[vjmanzo]

Thanks for posting those. In the few other instruments I’ve seen like this, a new fingerboard was added—it appears, here, that the new frets were hammered into the layers of composite material and the wood. Interesting…

[Patzag]

Okay I went to see the guitar and things got interesting. I noticed right away the frets looked different than other fly's I'd seen and the were also worn down which is weird for ss frets. I quickly realised someone actually refretted this with normal nickel frets that have tangs! The guitar actually played really well, although the spring didn't have enough tension and the trem couldn't be locked into down only properly. Also one of the screws holding the battery cover in place is missing along with the plate. The seller was a really nice guy with little knowledge of these guitars. Has anyone come across anything like this? Will add pics asap

Personally, I would run away. No longer a "Parker".

[Alex]

Thanks for posting those. In the few other instruments I’ve seen like this, a new fingerboard was added—it appears, here, that the new frets were hammered into the layers of composite material and the wood. Interesting…

Yes the fretboard seemed to be intact, I guess it could have been sliced up where the frets where hammered in. I'm a bit baffled to be honest with this guitar. It played very nicely, it's set up with 11s I'm d standard with a 10 spring (but felt different than other parkers I played for obvious reasons), sounded good and I love the purple. And good point about other guitars where the frets are not epoxyed in sounding good . The lack of composite cover on the fretboard would make it less stable, but would it be less stable than a normal wooden neck? I don't know what to think of all of this to be honest

[Alex]

Okay I went to see the guitar and things got interesting. I noticed right away the frets looked different than other fly's I'd seen and the were also worn down which is weird for ss frets. I quickly realised someone actually refretted this with normal nickel frets that have tangs! The guitar actually played really well, although the spring didn't have enough tension and the trem couldn't be locked into down only properly. Also one of the screws holding the battery cover in place is missing along with the plate. The seller was a really nice guy with little knowledge of these guitars. Has anyone come across anything like this? Will add pics asap

Personally, I would run away. No longer a "Parker".

It definitely felt differently although the parker combined with more normal guitar wasn't necessarily bad. I'm more worried about how this would hold up structurally and how to value it. The frets were also quite worn so another refret would make things even more complicated

[mmmguitar]

It definitely felt differently although the parker combined with more normal guitar wasn't necessarily bad. I'm more worried about how this would hold up structurally and how to value it. The frets were also quite worn so another refret would make things even more complicated

Being as you seem to want to be talked out of it: You would be taking the guitar on as a money pit and curse; with diminishing hopes of passing the curse on to someone else. I'd recommend such a guitar only to someone who performs their own repairs. I predict you will forget this guitar once you've gotten your hands around a better example of a Fly.

[Carcass]

I’m with mmmguitar. Run like the wind…

[Soloaxer]

Well, Alex, I'll throw my "Two Cents" in here.

Did you ever have a girlfriend that everything was great and smooth as silk with?
Did you ever have a girlfriend who had really gone through the grinds of life and was full of issues?
Which one did you like the best?
Which one do you deserve?

The answer is---which ever one you like the best is the right one for you at this time in your life. There's a really great feeling getting your tools out and bringing something back to save it from the trash heaps (people and guitars included). A lot of people on this site have done it and I have too. Taking a beater Parker and bringing it back to life can be a great education concerning these unique instruments and a stepping stone to reaching higher. If that's the way you like it, then that's great. If you have enough cash to walk away from a bad investment that can't go right, that's a little easier than loosing ALL your saved up dinero on something that can't be made fixable.

You're at the Roulette Wheel, Alex. Red or Black? Even or Odd? Spin 'em, baby.

[Musikron]

The top damage isn't instantly a deal breaker, more if a deal maker as far as negotiating a good price.
The atrocity that is that neck however, honestly puts this into the "parts guitar" category for me. How it may or may not play now is a moot point, that neck has been severely compromised and there's no good way to repair it.
My ceiling would be around $800 USD, assuming the hardware and electronics all look great, because I'd just cannibalize that thing for parts.

[Alex]

I decided to stay away from it as I have two more flys that need a bit of work (possible future threads ) and I'd be better off getting a prerefined it good condition sometime when I get the chance. The guy offered to drop down to 800 but still I don't think it would have been worth the effort for me. Thanks for your input everyone!