the Fly Clone Project

Ok, here goes. Taken with my mobile phone this morning. The shown flaws, if you can call them as such, all were there when I bought the Fly in maybe 2006. Except for the slight markings on the backside, which most probably stem from me wearing a belt.
SN plus some surface scratching on the tuner for the lowest string.
Backside, tried to show the light belt scratchings in the clear coating next to the cover.

More:

The knob layout.
The two switches. Left is the kill swith, that cuts all output from the guitar, right the normal mag/piezo switch.
The pushbutton (red) is now defunct. I can't remember what it was for before the electronics were altered.
Here is one of the small chips that I covered with shellac. It is in the curvature towards the lower horn

Last:

Hardly visible markings from the guitar strap near the upper horn
The backside markings again
Stuff that comes with the guitar
The Parker gig bag
The other chip at the lower rim, halfway betwen the lower horn and the knobs. Also covered with many layers of shellac.

Other than the shown flaws (I don't know if flaw/chip/ding are the right words. All are very very small), the guitar is in a really really good state. I played it with a set of 09 strings, never bothered to change to 10. Since about 12 years, I haven't played it at all, except for the quarterly jam session at home.

I would like it to have a good home where it can be used the way it was meant to be.

Cheers,
Oliver

Goldtop 57 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 5:37 am The two switches. Left is the kill swith, that cuts all output from the guitar, right the normal mag/piezo switch.

The pushbutton (red) is now defunct. I can't remember what it was for before the electronics were altered.

Beautiful!

Wait, if one switch is for selecting the mag/mag+piezo/piezo modes, and the other just a kill switch, how do you select the bridge/bridge+neck/neck?

The button was to choose whether you wanted mono (both mag+piezo) or stereo output (seperate outputs for the mag and the piezo).

I would put in in the Classifieds here:viewforum.php?f=16&sid=155d9c6edb03020097085aeab585d1a1 and I'd take from there.

Hi and thanks for the reply.

The knob below the mag volume is the pickup selector with 5 positions.

I am still hoping to get a feedback as to how much this guitar is worth. At the moment I consider 4000$ to be a starting point.

Cheerio,
Oliver

Hello Oliver,

I went through some past eBay and Reverb listings and at the moment the asking prices for a pre-refined fly supreme seems to be around 4500€ to 6000€ with examples in very good condition and all the accessories even going for up to 7000€.

For example this one fairly recently sold on eBay for 6999€ from Switzerland https://www.ebay.de/itm/126163253101 and there is another one in Tobacco Burst with an asking price of 6500€ form Croatia https://www.ebay.de/itm/225953690188.

Another Tobacco Burst sold 7 months on Reverb for 4852€ in the US https://reverb.com/de/item/71215418-par ... _sold=true. Another one has been sitting in the US for 4 months at 5435€ https://reverb.com/de/item/74404061-par ... re-refined.

However as your guitar has been extensively modified its not easy to give an estimate. I think if you are able to reverse the modifications you could fetch a higher price. If thats the case I would put it on eBay and Reverb for an asking price of 5000€ and wait until you get an acceptable offer. Its also possible that someone here could be interested.

@vaya

Thanks for finding those listings!

I cannot reverse the mods, as I don't have the original knobs, or pickups anymore. As much as I could understand the desire to have an all original guitar, I cannot for the love of my heart understand why anyone would rather use the dull and boring (and honestly, ugly) black original knobs. Or the quite useless tone pot, which simply muffles the sound....

Well, to each their own, I guess.

Aside from the mods, what do you think the condition of the guitar to be? Is it "very good", or "near mint"? Or something else?

Oliver

Goldtop 57 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2024 6:15 am I cannot for the love of my heart understand why anyone would rather use the dull and boring (and honestly, ugly) black original knobs. Or the quite useless tone pot, which simply muffles the sound....

Well, not to argue, but to me the knobs are, well, just knobs, as long as they are doing their job, I am OK with them (that's for every single guitar/bass I own, I only have two Parker Flys).

As for the tone pots, of all my guitars (including my strats which are loaded with Obsidianwire harnesses, with great treble bleed cicrcuits and all that), the most useful tone controls I've ever come across so far, are the ones in my Parkers...

But I understand, different players, different tastes and needs, it's all good.

@Goldtop 57 That's a beautiful guitar! As someone who's had a lifelong dream to own a Fly Supreme, here's my slightly biased two cents .

I think it's a buyers market at the moment. There have been a couple examples of mint 100% stock Supremes which have sold for top dollar recently, as pointed out already in this thread, but there's also been some priced at a premium that have been sitting for months unsold.

There's been a 99 for sale for at least 6 months that the guy cannot move at what he's asking (which has been all over the place). It recently has been relisted on Reverb for $5595 which is somewhat inexplicable as just a few weeks ago that guitar on Reverb was down to $5295. I've seen that guitar posted on other sites where he's asking even less than that and no one is buying. Now, that guitar has a nasty chunk out of the lacquer so yours in definitely in better shape, but I'd probably value them similarly as yours has a couple small dings and electronics mods.

Anyway good luck with the sale. Hopefully you get a price you're happy with. Where are you located btw?

@colliderman

I am living in Germany.

Generally, shipping to the US is of course possible, but at the moment I wouldn't know how much that costs. AFAIK there are also some minor % of import tariffs due, right?

Thanks to you, too, for the provided information on prices. Nobody really knows why prices are what they are....

Oliver

PS: I just remembered that the input jack was also exchanged to one that recognizes whether a mono or stereo cable is put in. That's why the red pushpin is useless now. Memories slowly coming back.....

Goldtop 57 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2024 10:55 am I am living in Germany.

I wish I had that kind of money Oliver, it's so difficult to find decent Flys in the EU nowadays, let alone Supremes and Artists...

And of coutse to us, EU citizens, buying from the US or UK is kinda suicidal in terms of customs fees etc.

What I think is crazy is all that work that went into building it and they sold it with a gig bag.

I *do* swear by the parker gig bags, though.

I spent a fortune buying an artist recently (2 years? 3 years ago.) that was a beater and STILL overpriced for what it was and I had to buy 2 deluxe to salvage parts off of them to return it to stock. Dayn did all the work and put up with the delays and in the end I spent something like $5000 on what is now a "custom artist"...

...BUT...

...its my (2nd) favorite parker guitar ever! (I should never have sold my 1st artist but there were bills to pay.)

So all this is to say that, if you are willing to do the work, or pay someone to do it, all the holes are still here and the parts can come from another guitar and a buyer can get this back to stock if that's what you want to do, because the innards are the same as any other parker. Hopefully anyone that wants this won't take 3 years and a couple of beaters to get it there!

Now, after busying myself with my long-almost-forgotten guitar, I find the thought to part with it .... difficult. It is a one-of-a-kind axe. Hm.

My other great guitar is a LP Goltop 57 darkback Reissue Custom Art and Historic, also from 2001. This one, while being the guitar that I always fancied to have - even before I starting playing at age 33 - is probably worth more, and one of the two has to go. A good Goldtop can always be found again, if need should arise in my remaining lifetime. This kind of Parker most probably not.

Need to think this through.

Darn.

Goldtop 57 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 5:00 am Now, after busying myself with my long-almost-forgotten guitar, I find the thought to part with it .... difficult. It is a one-of-a-kind axe. Hm.

My other great guitar is a LP Goltop 57 darkback Reissue Custom Art and Historic, also from 2001. This one, while being the guitar that I always fancied to have - even before I starting playing at age 33 - is probably worth more, and one of the two has to go. A good Goldtop can always be found again, if need should arise in my remaining lifetime. This kind of Parker most probably not.

Need to think this through.

Darn.

Just food of thought...

I have zero attachment to guitars and materials in general. I love music, guitars, basses etc to me are just the mediums to be creative with music and express myself. To prove that, half a year ago, I sold my very first good guitar, a Fender Stratocaster MIA Reissue '57 which I had bought during a trip to London back in 1993 (I live in Greece btw). That was my only guitar for more than 10 years, I composed and recorded a buttload of music with it. Still, I had retired it since 2008 when I made my custom strats (based on my specs, therefore, better tools for me to do what I wanted). I sold it, didn't drop a single tear and that was it.

BUT, and here comes my point...

Logically, I would be willing to sell at least one of my custom strats because since my Flys came in, one of them has no role at all, no purpose.

Am I going to sell it? I don't think so...

Why?

Because not only it took time, energy and money to mod it to my specs, but both these strats essensially have been made/modified for me and for me only. Neither of them are instruments that you can just enter a store and buy them. They are one-of-a-kind (OK, two, lol).

So, no, as much as I really hate having instruments I don't use anymore, I won't sell them.

If your Supreme was exactly how it got out of the factory, I wouldn't have written any of these.

But you modded it to meet your requirments, it's your axe.

Would I sell it? No, for the reasons mentioned above. An instrument with so many and drastic modifications is personalised.

But, that's just me.