the Fly Clone Project

Hi dear people!

My name is Oliver, I am from Germany, and this is miy first post here.

The reason I signed up is that I, well, *used* tp play guitar, until about 10 years back, when we moved to another county and I had to leave my band. At that time, I was taken with Roine Stolt (Flower Kings) and his playing style, and obviously his Parker Fly in silver. I just had to have one such guitar.

Said and done, and a while later a 2001 Fly Supreme moved in, and I was just taken with it. Most beautifully designed axe ever. It hat some minor markings in the clear coat, which I treated with several layers of shellac. Some time later - I forgot when exactly - I had the electronics done over. The Supreme now has wooden knobs, a kill switch and a quite sensitive tone pot that just doesn't kill the highs like most others do, but offers 5 different settings of tone. It has Virtual PAF andVirtual Hot PAF (Seymour Duncan? Not sure here).

Now I have one of my only three guitars standing in my bedroom, smiling at me, and I smile shyly back and don't often touch them. More's the pity.... I never was a good guitarist, now I am 56 and I have come to the conclusion that having a Ferrari which I am not and never will be able to use adequately doesn't make much sense, so, with more than just one tear in my eyes I decided to offer it to people who really can appreciate this wonderful instrument.

Since I am completely out of the market for ages, I absolutely have no idea what I can reasonably expect to get for the Supreme. I have seen some going for about 4000$, and that were not even Supremes.

I am not even sure if I may ask for suggestions for pricing my Parker here, when I will later put it in the cassified section......Is that allowed at all?

I can take some pics, which probably makes sense...

Long post, I hope it will be received well.

Regards,
Oliver

Hi @Goldtop 57 and welcome!

You’re right that the asking price for Fly Supremes seem to start above $4,000 these days, but the amount they sell for above that number varies. It’s not easy to obtain accurate data, unfortunately.

Our general recommendation here at FlyClone is to consider a price you’d be comfortable selling it for, and then post it in the Classifieds section with that price.

If you’d prefer to test the waters its market value, then eBay or another site that accepts bids might be a better fit.

Hope this helps!

Hi Oliver!
There are a few guys here who are Parker Fans who would love to see your guitar!
Post some pictures!

Patzag wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 12:31 pm There are a few guys here who are Parker Fans who would love to see your guitar!
Post some pictures!

@Goldtop 57, in the spirit of organization, I lovingly moved the photos of your beautiful Supreme here.

Oh - thanks, and sorry to have caused work.....

Now there's a real miss! Anyone here catch this baby?
Regardless of the neck/fret issue, that would've been a good catch.

https://www.sweetwater.com/used/listing ... tterscotch

Patzag wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 11:39 am Anyone here catch this baby?

I saw it. Hopefully the new owner's happy with the condition.


Now that a week has passed (and the buyer has indicated his overall satisfaction), it seems appropriate to document the informal market experiment I volunteered my '97 Classic for:

Original context for purchase:
I bought the guitar through Reverb on December 2nd, 2020, because I had been wanting a Classic to compare to my other Ken-era Flys. Being as I wasn't keen to feed into the speculator bubble of the time, I told myself I would only entertain listings priced at or under $2,000.

At $1,850 for a "player" condition Fly with four flatsprings, a Hiscox case, and some less pertinent case candy in the form of the original stereo cable and a T-shaped hex key for adjusting the bridge height, I was happy to have found it.

Because 2020 was the first year Reverb mandated collecting US sales tax, the cost ended up totaling $1,988.76.

Are mods equity?
Being an unrepentant tinkerer, I eventually got around to "ruining" the Fly by donating the Ken-era Fishman board, ribbon assembly, pots, switches, jack, and knobs to Dayn for another member's restoration project. Having been satisfied with the performance of my '96 Fly's Graph Tech retrofitting, I again purchased a set of Graph Tech saddles for around $100, and a Hexpander "advanced" kit for $285. The replacement pots, selector switch, and barrel jack were spares from my parts box. When I later decided that the guitar and my '96 Deluxe would need to be sold to offset the costs of having finally acquired a Belew model, I purchased a NOS Acousti-Phonic board off Mike G for $50, and $7 in wiring harnesses from Graph Tech. I ended up needing to purchase a dual concentric pot for $8 after one I had previously installed proved defective, in addition to a $43 FreeWay selector switch. Altogether, the costs of the guitar and parts ended up totaling around $2,481.76.

The experiment:
Though I had no issue selling my '96 Deluxe for what I had put into it ($1,000 for the guitar + $500 in parts, give or take), I know that $2-2.5k is the range within which competing Fly listings have been sitting for many months. So I decided to let the auction block determine its market value:

Despite accumulating eight hundred and nineteen page views over the course of the seven days it was up for auction (during which time several people messaged me with additional questions demonstrating their serious interest), only three bidders ended up competing to drive the price up from the starting bid of $1,500; with none feeling that the Buy-It-Now price of $2,500 was worth it. In the end, bidding closed out at $,2046.00 (before sales tax). So, even before eBay fees and shipping, I lost somewhere around $435.76, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Conclusions:
Some of my expectations prior to the sale included:

-Noting that shoppers looking for a Fly don't seem to care about what's under the hood unless they're flippers looking for an "all-original" to hype up. So, even though the buyer was indeed specifically looking for a 13 pin-equipped, Ken-era Fly, none of the other bidders were - And once the bids crossed that $2,000 line in the sand, the other bidders seemingly shifted their attention to other listings. So this notion was confirmed.

-There's currently not much demand for Flys with asking prices exceeding $2,000 unless they're advertised as being in "mint" condition, and/or known to be a rare SKU in the aftermarket (e.g. Artist, Supreme, Bronze, Nylon, DF824, DF842, etc.). I couldn't really test this; being as none of my guitars are case queens or "all-original"s.

-That an eBay auction would do a better job of gauging demand in my mind than the dozens of competing listings on eBay and Reverb. Rather than claim that the sale strongly confirmed anything, I'll just say that it was in line with what I had inferred from observing the way the market has been trending since approximately June of 2022. After having received my tax refund last week, however: Who's to say that I wouldn't have gotten more bites by holding off until after the US tax season? I suppose I'll have to watch other listings to find out.

So make of it what you will: If you have a Fly you scored for a good price, maybe hold off on putting money into electronics "upgrades" if you intend to resell it in the future. In my case, I never intended to sell off any of my project Flys; because I never thought I'd have the opportunity to buy a Belew model. Easy come, easy go.

Very bummed I missed this mint condition Supreme that just sold on Reverb for 4k. Ugh I've been waiting years to find a Supreme at a reasonable price . Well, congrats to whoever snagged that.

https://reverb.com/item/78816379-parker ... le-i-think

colliderman wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 10:12 pm Very bummed I missed this mint condition Supreme that just sold on Reverb for 4k. Ugh I've been waiting years to find a Supreme at a reasonable price . Well, congrats to whoever snagged that.

https://reverb.com/item/78816379-parker ... le-i-think

Keep the faith!

Patzag wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 7:51 am Keep the faith!

Always do! . Hopefully whoever bought that one will play it and love it, and not just try to flip it for twice what they paid

colliderman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 10:59 am

Patzag wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 7:51 am Keep the faith!

Always do! . Hopefully whoever bought that one will play it and love it, and not just try to flip it for twice what they paid

Nah. Just like the guy who bought a Nylon from Sweetwater, fishing the very same day for selling price on FB. Too bad!

I seem to see a renewed upswing in posted prices. Good specimens posted for 4-4.5K, beaters posted around 3-3.5. Not saying they are selling at these prices, but still - a definite rise.

On Reverb offers from Italy and Spain have been in the 2500€ region. Right now there is this refined Fly in mint burst for 2300€ with the original hard shell case. Although its a bit banged up and is missing the tremolo bar. https://reverb.com/item/79611193-parker-fly-deluxe-2005

There also was a euro red one that went for the same price. Its my favorite color along with the metallic silver finishes and I am still on the lookout for one or the other. https://reverb.com/item/78572381-parker ... _sold=true

This is way out of my realm of affordability but what is this Fly Supreme Spruce?? Is this really a Supreme or is this an Artist? Very little info in the seller description and only a single photo. Weird. https://reverb.com/item/79687920-pre-re ... tch-spruce

@colliderman, It’s an Artist listed by someone who only knows that Parkers are worth a bajillion dollars, and who was in such a hurry that they appended only a single photo which may be a placeholder depicting a guitar that isn’t the one being sold. The listing further claims that the neck is made of epoxy, and that the body is basswood.

mmmguitar wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 10:01 pm @colliderman, It’s an Artist listed by someone who only knows that Parkers are worth a bajillion dollars, and who was in such a hurry that they appended only a single photo which may be a placeholder depicting a guitar that isn’t the one being sold. The listing further claims that the neck is made of epoxy, and that the body is basswood.

Wait, so Parker necks aren't made of epoxy?!?

Ok, I figured it was an Artist although in my excitement of being one of the first to view the listing after it was posted thought I had maybe stumbled upon a rare Supreme model I'd never come across lol.

I had been watching these listings in recent months:

Cherry '96 Classic w/GK pickup holes, 278026BMH, was withdrawn from sale after sitting for five months with no offers (The seller was asking $2,510). Though it's a beater, the conspicuous absence of the marker-side of the first five frets in photos will hopefully be documented the next time we see this one pop up.


Black '95 Deluxe w/D tuner, 311045BP was listed for $2,600 and sold for an undisclosed amount, following ten offers made over the course of nine months. Because the listing body suggests it was being resold by someone unacquainted with the brand, we've likely seen this guitar before.

That white Fly with the airbrushed graphics and no serial popped up on Reverb again and, as of March 6th of 2024, has not yet sold after the asking price was dropped from $5,735 to $3,935.

"My experience dates it around 2000." I'm reminded of the Carlin bit about taking an adopted mutt to a veterinarian to identify the breed; and the vet says, "Well...it is definitely not a monkey!."

colliderman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 9:46 pm This is way out of my realm of affordability but what is this Fly Supreme Spruce?? Is this really a Supreme or is this an Artist? Very little info in the seller description and only a single photo. Weird. https://reverb.com/item/79687920-pre-re ... tch-spruce

I'm confused about something on Reverb, maybe someone here knows the answer to this. The Artist I posted about in the above post (which I see from another thread has been stolen unfortunately ) does not show up for me anymore when I search sold listings on Reverb. It did initially show up the sold listings soon after it sold because I remember checking back on it shortly after making the post about it, but now it's nowhere to be found.

Does anyone know how or why this happens? Or maybe it's something about my location or Reverb settings where it's not showing for me but shows up for others. I like looking at the recently sold listings to get an idea of current prices and to see what I may have missed. But since this sold listing doesn't show up anymore it makes me wonder how many other listings I'm not seeing.

This heavily modified Emerald Green '95 Deluxe (253145BP) with Alan Hoover-installed Sustainiac and holes from a GK pickup popped up on Reverb ten hours ago for $2,480. The seller is including the Gen 1 neck and clipped ribbon assembly components so that the guitar "can be restored to original" - despite the neck pickup rout being permanently modified with increased depth, removal of threaded inserts, and a pair of screws through the rear of the body spaced for the Sustainiac baseplate-only.

Update: The guitar sold after almost exactly a month. At the moment, Reverb is not displaying a sale price or number of offers received.

...

This silver USM-era Deluxe erroneously listed as a '97 has had a Roland GK internal kit installed, and ships in the factory case with an asking price of $3,435. I'm afraid the seller has omitted the serial from the listing - So if this ends up flipped, it will be identified by the mod and paint scratch near the low E bout of the neck pickup. Additionally, any interested buyers should know that the included stereo Y cable won't work; because the impedance of the GK board's "mag-in" connection jumpered in parallel with the 1/4" barrel jack disrupts the auto-T/R/S switching function of the Powerchip (every Mojo MIDI sold by Parker under USM, for example, was mono-only for this reason; with stereo 1/4" piezo output not available until the brand switched over to Graph Tech components in the final era of production).

I'm highlighting the listing because we don't see many "MIDI" models listed for realistic prices.

...

Market tip: If you ever need to quickly increase the value of your '94 Galaxy Gray Deluxe (138094BP), you can use a grease-clogged kitchen sponge to speckle some pink, purple, and green acrylic paints over the clear coat until the guitar's able to be mistaken for an egg laid by a rodeo clown. Then, be sure to rub a birthday cake candle over the serial before you complete the makeover with a coup de grâce of eleven Tony Iommi crucifix stickers. Your guitar should now automatically be worth either $3,900 USD, or $2,900 in the rare event that you wish to spitefully price-match the next cheapest Galaxy Gray Deluxe listed on the same site, for the sake of surprising a seller with some healthy competition they never saw coming.

Highlighting because I'm genuinely curious to see if this sells. Update: Of the two, the one not covered in crosses and contusions sold.

...

Someone was quick to scoop up this pre-refined ruby red Deluxe which a Scottsdale, AZ Guitar Center had mistakenly listed as a $1,319 Nitefly. Unfortunately, I have no info beyond the screencap - Perhaps we'll see it again here or on Reverb?

Pretty good price on Deluxe in Excellent condition, but with a few minor mods ($2195) https://reverb.com/item/81667888-parker ... t=81667888