My Parker Dragonfly experience

[Cooleyman]

Terrible guitar IMO! I have owned a Parker Nitefly and a Fly Mojo in the past, both of which I enjoyed thoroughly. BUT, this Dragonfly? Sorry Parker but I knew within 30 seconds that I hated this guitar. It was too light first off (5 lbs)- just to pick or strum it I felt like I had to stabilize the body with my forearm or it would wiggle and wobble from the small force of the picking motion. The neck was no where near the quality or feel on my previous Parkers and the tone was nonexistent! No kidding, I know Parker guitars are known more for playability than tone, but man there was no amp tweaking or pedal stomping in the world that would've helped this axe.
Believe me, this write-up is not to bash Parker guitars. As I said, I've owned other Parkers and they make some great stuff. I just wanted folks to know my experience before buying because the only reviews I could find online were glowing praise from Parker fanatics. I almost ordered from a 'no returns' company but luckily decided to wait until another company that does take returns got them in stock. Thanks goodness I did. If you are considering a Dragonfly, do yourself a favor and try before you buy. I wouldn't pay $150 for this guitar that they are pricing at $1500!
As always, the usual disclaimers apply: This is my experience and my opinion. YMMV
Cooleyman

 

[PennyCentury]

Cooleyman, your Tele misses you. Please come back!

 

[rackham]

Sorry to hear of your bad experience Cooleyman.

I've got 2 Parkers (albeit P-series ones) and my PM10 is a belter. I stuck a pair of Bareknuckle Warpigs in it and it's truly awesome. I wouldn't swap it for anything.

Out of interest, was your Dragonfly a bolt-on or set neck?

 

[Cooleyman]

Yeah, now that I think about it the PM10 was my first Parker. That was a great guitar! Sold it to a friend and later offered to buy it back and he refused

The Dragonfly was the satin finish bolt on model. I was fully expecting to fall in love with it. Sent it back and got a G&L Legacy instead!

 

[vox Phantom]

other guitars other instruments

I'm using a 1997 Parker Fly Artist and this guitar
is so easy to play. In June I lost my Job and sold my
G&L Asat Classic and my reissue Fender 40th Anniversary
Twin Reverb to pay bills. I wish I still had the G&L but that's
in the past and thru a good friend I have one of his Parkers
he has 5 of them. The one I have I will buy from him when I
have the money. Its one of their (High End) guitars and at 4.5lbs
my back does not hurt at all

 

[Blazer]

At the Knooren Handcrafted workshop we've fitted several Parker guitars with MIDI hex pickups, or replaced the stock Dimarzio pickups with either EMG or Duncans, I've always been impressed with them.

Save from one particular guitar that has been gathering dust for almost ten years now because of the owner never coming around to collect it, that guitar is a Parker Nightfly which had a very badly twisted neck, via us the owner ordered a replacement neck from Parker (The Nightfly has a bolt on neck) but when it arrived, it also was twisted, we couldn't do anything with it, so in a corner of our workshop stands a Parker Nightfly with two unusable necks and the owner seemingly vanished from the planet.

 

[rorycalhoun]

I recently acquired a Parker P-36 from a friend for $150. This one's an older Korean-made instrument - excellent fit, finish and feel. He had problems with the electronics from day 1 and basically wanted to dispose of it.

I went through the electronics and found that it was wired incorrectly at the factory - the 3-way mini-toggle wasn't connected to the magnetic pickups at all. Also the tiny "mono-stereo" switch on the battery box was redundant to the "smart jack" and utterly useless. I replaced the pre-amp with a stock Fishman Powerchip and re-wired everything under the hood. The guitar now plays and sounds fantastic in all modes.

All of that said, for a total investment of roughly $225 I'm very pleased. Had I shelled out the full price for this guitar when new, I'd have been highly pissed. I love the guitar now, but would be cautious about Parker's quality control especially on imports.

 

[Paul in Colorado]

There's some kind of Asian Parker at a local shop. It has fret sprout and a twisted neck. It has Tele wiring. It could be a nice guitar, put such horrible QC for a guitar that sells for over $1000.