the Fly Clone Project

I have a PDF-100 in my area I am interested in checking out and was curious if anyone knows if these have nickel silver or stainless (glued) frets? I know these are not made in US models so I suspect I know the answer and its not stainless, but I cant find a definitive answer anywhere. Thanks!

Hi @goodluckpete! You are correct, that these are not the same stainless and tangless frets as a on a Fly. I do not know for sure what material they are, but I’d be willing to bet that they are nickel.

Edit: Ninja'd by VJ. Someone is liable to correct me, but my recollection is that It was only the US-built guitars (RF SKU/price tier and above) that could be ordered with the choice of either ebony or carbon boards (with the tangless frets); due to the USM Washburn Custom Shop being converted to a build-to-order model in their last years of operation. I don't recall any non-US Parkers having stainless frets - For certain, they exclusively used wood fingerboards.

mmm is correct. No imported (PDF) models had stainless frets.

Within the USA-made DF line (Dragonfly/Maxxfly), the DF8xx models had carbon wrap and glued SS frets. The DF4xx had tanged SS frets on a rosewood board, and DF5xx, DF6xx, and DF7xx had tanged SS frets on ebony.

I'd think these number conventions held to the RF line as well.

mmmguitar wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 2:50 pm the US-built guitars…could be ordered with the choice of either ebony or carbon boards (with the glued frets)…

I don’t recall seeing this as a custom shop option—was the choice possible in the USM custom shop?! The choice was definitely not possible during the Ken-era decade of Parker Cigars. I know some people who became frustrated with fret issues and elected to have a traditional fingerboard installed on their Fly, but that required a lot of other things to change in compensation like the nut and the bridge.

I’m very curious about this!

@vjmanzo Yes; late Buffalo Grove production. It’s mentioned in the 2015 catalog I consulted for my earlier reply. To reiterate, these ordering options weren’t emphasized in marketing or within the official forum until US production switched to a build-to-order model (“Washburn Custom Shop” was the new title thrown around by Strandberg and whichever other brands were being produced under the same roof).

Wow! Great find, Marc! I’d missed that!

That sure was a looker! I wonder how many were ever made? Here's a gorgeous maple fretboard one from Reverb. I'm partial to ebony, but that birdseye is beautiful!

Wow! I agree—looks killer!

The composite fingerboards could have been dyed other colors than black, and I know that Ken wanted to explore this very thing further One of the many things that got sidelined…

Here’s the Fly he built for Fender during the brief pre-Korg time when they were interested in buying Parker Guitars:
The fingerboard is just like ours only painted. More of what could have been!

#ParkerPrototypes

Ken also made at least one Fly with a one-piece nickel fingerboard...no photo (he knows where the guitar is!), but here's the mold he used to make that:
Ken had all sorts of experiments in mind and others, like this, that he tried out!

#ParkerPrototypes