Bought my Deluxe in 1999 and was totally hooked. Used to frequent the original Parker forum; in fact, that’s where
I found my Supreme in 2008. Thanks to everyone for keeping the greatest brand alive.
New member Carcass here from Kentucky.
Re: New member Carcass here from Kentucky.
Welcome back to our little fan club, @Carcass. Thanks for sharing your Deluxe, Supreme, and FrankenHornet XII with us. Now that you've had these years of proud fatherhood for these guitars, how would you compare or contrast the Deluxe and Supreme, at this point?
Summary of the Parker Guitars speculator market from 2020 onward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
Re: New member Carcass here from Kentucky.
Hi mmmguitar. Hope I’m not being an overly pretentious newbie. Let me know, okay ?
A tale of two pre-refined Flys. Here’s the long version including some tips and pix:
I bought my brand-new Emerald Deluxe in 1999, and within the first hour of having it home, DISASTER struck. With the guitar strapped on, I stood up from the couch with the stereo cable plugged in. Right foot pinned the cable to the floor and
the 90 deg plug somehow snagged the guts of the output jack and ripped them out. It looked like a partial metallic bird claw had emerged. Using all manner of tweezers, hemostats, needle-nosed pliers, jeweler’s screw drivers, patience and luck, I eventually got everything bent back into shape and re-installed. Though the 1/4” hole. Took me a couple days, a half hour here and and hour there, very frustrating. Made me sweat bullets, because the company I worked for had closed for good, and I’d just spent $1,800 on this toy despite being unemployed. Felt like karma had bitten me ! However, there's a happy ending. It’s worked fine for the last 24 years.
I played this thing constantly, always using 0.010”s; over the years, the bridge mounts migrated towards the headstock about a mm, crushing the wood and neatly contacting the exoskeleton. I dismantled the system and shimmed up the slightly distorted areas with aluminum shims cut from a pop can. No more issues from those areas have surfaced over the ensuing years.
Playing classic rock, occasionally in the heat of battle my plain E string got trapped under the bobbin plate of the neck pickup. Friction fitting some rubber seal into that area solved the issue. Another problem with aggressive playing was that I was constantly pulling the plain E string off its ball end. The straight path through the bridge let that happen, and for a time I’d degrease and superglue the string windings. Which failed at times, too. The easy fix turned out to be a simple loop method which sort of ties the string on. Pass it through the bridge normally; route it backwards through B string hole; route it back through E string hole normally and then to the machine head. Then string up the other five normally.
Full-floating whammy proved so delicious, but I play lead in rock bands, and bent note double and triple stops made using the vibrato in that mode impractical. As you know, you bend a string in full-floating mode, the increased tension pulls the
bar down and any additional strings played simultaneously go flat. To prevent this, I put a ~4mm spacer under the master volume knob, in its bore, atop the pot post, thus raising it. Then I set the bar‘s free height so that it lightly rests atop this knob when not in use; I also increase the rotational friction so the bar stays where I park it. Some pressure has to apply on the knob top or the bar will rattle from lower string vibrations. The bar’s fit into the bridge ferrule on the Deluxe was so snug that it stayed in place without further modification. So, I can play anything, as though the guitar’s a hard tail. When I want vibrato, I simply dismount the bar from the knob/rest. Over the years I learned to manage this aspect of playing Flys without even thinking. I nearly wore the top of one master volume knob off before replacing it !
Despite the fact that I liked the ‘quacky’, disco-like tone when selecting both pups, I didn’t like the resulting volume drop. Somebody on the old forum posted a simple mod that changed the circuitry from selecting the two outside single coils to a full four coil Les Paul style setup. I did the mod and like it.
I loved this Deluxe, and bi-amped it stereo at times, blended the output other times. Parker’s super accessible neck and versatility eventually led to playing live in bands, which made me decide to get another Fly as a backup. One day in 2008 I found an ‘as new’ Supreme for sale on the Parker Forum, and bought it. A previous owner had swapped the Gen1 pups for Gen2’s; and the seller even threw the loose Gen1’s in for free. I prefer the Gen1’s in the Deluxe; they’re brighter and cut through the mix nicely playing live. The Gen2’s are darker, fatter I think. But they’re really good too, just different.
Of course, I set the Supreme up like the Deluxe, and it’s very similar in most ways. The big-leaf maple’s never yielded to string tension at the bridge mounts. The neck’s about 2mm thicker than the Deluxe’s, which is odd; the Supreme is about a pound heavier. Its whammy bar wouldn’t stick in the bridge ferrule so I drilled and tapped the end to add a retaining screw. Neither guitar has had any electronic issues, no fret failures, no spring breakages. Never touched the truss rods. I have had to rebuild the plain E and B notches in the nuts, but infrequently. I use baking soda/superglue then re-cut. Yeah, this kills the natural lubricity, but I always use a touch of lip balm at the nut, so no biggie. The Deluxe has over 4,500 hours on it; the Supreme maybe 1,000. The fret wear on both guitars is negligible - what a fabulous design !
In conclusion, here’s my sad story of missed opportunity. Back around 2008 someone on the Parker Forum was selling new, pre-refined black Fly Deluxes for $800. Man, I wish I’d bought a few…
A tale of two pre-refined Flys. Here’s the long version including some tips and pix:
I bought my brand-new Emerald Deluxe in 1999, and within the first hour of having it home, DISASTER struck. With the guitar strapped on, I stood up from the couch with the stereo cable plugged in. Right foot pinned the cable to the floor and
the 90 deg plug somehow snagged the guts of the output jack and ripped them out. It looked like a partial metallic bird claw had emerged. Using all manner of tweezers, hemostats, needle-nosed pliers, jeweler’s screw drivers, patience and luck, I eventually got everything bent back into shape and re-installed. Though the 1/4” hole. Took me a couple days, a half hour here and and hour there, very frustrating. Made me sweat bullets, because the company I worked for had closed for good, and I’d just spent $1,800 on this toy despite being unemployed. Felt like karma had bitten me ! However, there's a happy ending. It’s worked fine for the last 24 years.
I played this thing constantly, always using 0.010”s; over the years, the bridge mounts migrated towards the headstock about a mm, crushing the wood and neatly contacting the exoskeleton. I dismantled the system and shimmed up the slightly distorted areas with aluminum shims cut from a pop can. No more issues from those areas have surfaced over the ensuing years.
Playing classic rock, occasionally in the heat of battle my plain E string got trapped under the bobbin plate of the neck pickup. Friction fitting some rubber seal into that area solved the issue. Another problem with aggressive playing was that I was constantly pulling the plain E string off its ball end. The straight path through the bridge let that happen, and for a time I’d degrease and superglue the string windings. Which failed at times, too. The easy fix turned out to be a simple loop method which sort of ties the string on. Pass it through the bridge normally; route it backwards through B string hole; route it back through E string hole normally and then to the machine head. Then string up the other five normally.
Full-floating whammy proved so delicious, but I play lead in rock bands, and bent note double and triple stops made using the vibrato in that mode impractical. As you know, you bend a string in full-floating mode, the increased tension pulls the
bar down and any additional strings played simultaneously go flat. To prevent this, I put a ~4mm spacer under the master volume knob, in its bore, atop the pot post, thus raising it. Then I set the bar‘s free height so that it lightly rests atop this knob when not in use; I also increase the rotational friction so the bar stays where I park it. Some pressure has to apply on the knob top or the bar will rattle from lower string vibrations. The bar’s fit into the bridge ferrule on the Deluxe was so snug that it stayed in place without further modification. So, I can play anything, as though the guitar’s a hard tail. When I want vibrato, I simply dismount the bar from the knob/rest. Over the years I learned to manage this aspect of playing Flys without even thinking. I nearly wore the top of one master volume knob off before replacing it !
Despite the fact that I liked the ‘quacky’, disco-like tone when selecting both pups, I didn’t like the resulting volume drop. Somebody on the old forum posted a simple mod that changed the circuitry from selecting the two outside single coils to a full four coil Les Paul style setup. I did the mod and like it.
I loved this Deluxe, and bi-amped it stereo at times, blended the output other times. Parker’s super accessible neck and versatility eventually led to playing live in bands, which made me decide to get another Fly as a backup. One day in 2008 I found an ‘as new’ Supreme for sale on the Parker Forum, and bought it. A previous owner had swapped the Gen1 pups for Gen2’s; and the seller even threw the loose Gen1’s in for free. I prefer the Gen1’s in the Deluxe; they’re brighter and cut through the mix nicely playing live. The Gen2’s are darker, fatter I think. But they’re really good too, just different.
Of course, I set the Supreme up like the Deluxe, and it’s very similar in most ways. The big-leaf maple’s never yielded to string tension at the bridge mounts. The neck’s about 2mm thicker than the Deluxe’s, which is odd; the Supreme is about a pound heavier. Its whammy bar wouldn’t stick in the bridge ferrule so I drilled and tapped the end to add a retaining screw. Neither guitar has had any electronic issues, no fret failures, no spring breakages. Never touched the truss rods. I have had to rebuild the plain E and B notches in the nuts, but infrequently. I use baking soda/superglue then re-cut. Yeah, this kills the natural lubricity, but I always use a touch of lip balm at the nut, so no biggie. The Deluxe has over 4,500 hours on it; the Supreme maybe 1,000. The fret wear on both guitars is negligible - what a fabulous design !
In conclusion, here’s my sad story of missed opportunity. Back around 2008 someone on the Parker Forum was selling new, pre-refined black Fly Deluxes for $800. Man, I wish I’d bought a few…
- Attachments
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- Bobbin mod, high master V knob, E string loop
-
- Heftier Supreme neck at right
Re: New member Carcass here from Kentucky.
If this community was concerned with such things, I surely would have been expelled long ago. Contrary to your worry, I found your detailed post well-considered and much appreciated. For what it's worth, I not only encourage - but humbly request you contribute to any topic which spurs your interest: Repair and modification experience and insight such as yours are essential to what this site can hope to document and provide to the rest of the Parker Guitars fandom.
I deal with the same double/triple-stop issue with my Fly trems; and think the way you utilized your master volume pot as bar retainer is a terrific solution. I'm also going through the motions of seeing what works with the "leaning posts" issue (first time dealing with it after purchasing my 7th Fly): I first experimented with another poster's suggestion to build up the difference in inner/outer diameter between the trem posts and bushings with copper tape wraps; and found the tape simply too fragile to hold up under the friction requirements. I currently have the aluminum can shims in, and am still getting binding when using the trem. I'm next going to get ahold of some stabilizer rings, to see what else might be going on to cause the issue.
Summary of the Parker Guitars speculator market from 2020 onward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
Re: New member Carcass here from Kentucky.
Good deal, mmmguitar — thanks for the encouragement.
Wow, you’ve cycled through 7 Fly guitars ! That really impresses me as another true believer. Cue envy tape.
Just wanted to mention that I only shimmed up the distorted and crushed areas in the bridge mounting bores.
And I made those big posts fit, um, snugly; I had to tap them back in pretty ‘smartly’. Re-doing the exercise in
the future was not in the plan. Yes, I was terrified.
Here’s a tip regarding parking the trem bar on the Master V knob: I always pull it onto the knob top to the point
that it's about flush with the knob O.D. to keep the tuning accurate. On my guitars, the bar ascends a slight
incline as it traverses the knob, causing the overall tuning to sharpen slightly. I tune the guitar in this mode,
with the bar stopped in the position pictured below.
The fingertips can find this parking ‘sweet spot’ consistently without ‘hunting’. And the guitar returns to perfect
tuning. Plus, of course, this is also the quickest and most efficient way to make the transition between modes.
Again, to prevent rattling from showing up in the piezo output, you need a very slight step up onto the knob.
Trial and error experimentation applies here. So, yeah, the overall tuning flattens a tad when using the trem,
but it’s negligible; I bias the bar sweeps up slightly to counteract that subtle issue if I notice it while fully floating.
We’re splitting hairs here, to be honest.
That’s all from Kentucky for now…
Wow, you’ve cycled through 7 Fly guitars ! That really impresses me as another true believer. Cue envy tape.
Just wanted to mention that I only shimmed up the distorted and crushed areas in the bridge mounting bores.
And I made those big posts fit, um, snugly; I had to tap them back in pretty ‘smartly’. Re-doing the exercise in
the future was not in the plan. Yes, I was terrified.
Here’s a tip regarding parking the trem bar on the Master V knob: I always pull it onto the knob top to the point
that it's about flush with the knob O.D. to keep the tuning accurate. On my guitars, the bar ascends a slight
incline as it traverses the knob, causing the overall tuning to sharpen slightly. I tune the guitar in this mode,
with the bar stopped in the position pictured below.
The fingertips can find this parking ‘sweet spot’ consistently without ‘hunting’. And the guitar returns to perfect
tuning. Plus, of course, this is also the quickest and most efficient way to make the transition between modes.
Again, to prevent rattling from showing up in the piezo output, you need a very slight step up onto the knob.
Trial and error experimentation applies here. So, yeah, the overall tuning flattens a tad when using the trem,
but it’s negligible; I bias the bar sweeps up slightly to counteract that subtle issue if I notice it while fully floating.
We’re splitting hairs here, to be honest.
That’s all from Kentucky for now…
- Attachments
-
- Preferred Parker tremolo bar parking position