the Fly Clone Project

I got a Nitefly M a couple of months ago and immediately fell in love with it. However the neck pickup started behaving oddly (working only on single-coil, but not humbucker) and then it started making odd crackling noises.

I took it to a tech and the crackling noises turned out to be some short in the power circuit that meant the battery was always on and drained in only a few days.

When it came back, the neck pickup was OK for a while but then died again after a few hours practice. I took it back to the tech last week and just got an email from him that said:

"I've done some more work on the Parker. The wiring in this guitar seemed to want to fall apart often, perhaps they used a sub optimal brand of solder in the factory to do the initial wiring.
I've re-pointed a bunch of it with fresh solder, including the neck pickup and everything seems to be working properly now."

Has anyone else had any similar issues?

I don’t have experience with the NiteFly M specifically, but I can vouch for a significant drop in electronics QC being reported from at least 2008-onwards. I don’t know if the Washburn Custom Shop (where US Parkers were being built) managed to get their act together by time they switched over to Graphtech wiring kits, but the pots and switches in my 2011 Supreme were frankly junk.

Understand that, from the 2003 buyout until the 2015 closure, the brand’s owners were doing everything they could to cut down on the labor overhead for these unprofitable guitars (including switching to a build-to-order dealer model). Many corners were cut in an effort to hit a price point that didn’t lose money.

Interesting, thanks. If I'm reading the serial number correctly, my 'M' is from 2002 so pre-dates the "years-of-desperation".

I'll get it totally rewired in the new year I think. It's worth spending a little more cash on it to get it perfect again.

chrissie_c wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 6:05 am Interesting, thanks. If I'm reading the serial number correctly, my 'M' is from 2002 so pre-dates the "years-of-desperation".

I'll get it totally rewired in the new year I think. It's worth spending a little more cash on it to get it perfect again.

I’m inclined to agree: I rewire all my Parkers to my preferences (and also to the ostensible chagrin of those compelled to tell me my mods make their “originals” more valuable ). Given your guitar is apparently twenty years old, this has me wondering if we can expect similar component failure rates for the “Powerchip era” of Parker pots and switches to be reported as guitars continue to change hands.

It’s a shame you have to deal with replacing under-the-hood parts as a matter of maintenance - But I’m grateful for every bit of troubleshooting shared and documented here for future reference; because it all proves more and more helpful as time goes on.

A "valuable" guitar is one you play often