MatrixClaw « Awesome guitar! »
Published on 03/20/11 at 15:43USA-Made Parker Fly Stealth Features:
- One-piece basswood body
- Slim basswood neck
- Slim, contoured body
- Patented neck-through design
- Textured glass/carbon fiber exoskeleton
- Two custom-wound DiMarzio humbucking pickups (DiMarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton)
- 6-element Fishman piezo pickup system
- Custom active Fishman filtering preamp
- Hardtail
- Carbon fiber fingerboard
- Sperzel locking tuners with "D-Thing" detuner on the 6th string
- 24 stainless steel frets
*Mine has the Piezo circuit removed, and a Killswitch has been added to replace the top pot, as well as a Detemer Fatboost and tap tempo button that runs out of the second output to control delays and other modulation effects.
*Only 100 of these guitars were made, making it one of the rarest, if not THE rarest Parker ever made.
UTILIZATION
I was a little hesitant at first to get this guitar, these guitars seem to have a huge love/hate relationship with people. The people that like them, REALLY like them, and tend to only use Parkers, the people that don't like them, wouldn't touch one with a 30 ft pole. Personally, I think the people that don't like them are NUTS!
This thing has got to have the most comfortable neck I've ever touched. I've always been a huge Ibanez fan and... dare I say, its neck is even more thin than an Ibanez Wizard neck! It's also more rounded, as apposed to the more flat feel of an Ibanez, so it sits in your hands much nicer.
The upper fret access on this guitar is second to none. I've never played a guitar that you can actually reach the 24th fret with ease. The neck plays like an absolute dream, and the carbon fiber fretboard is amazingly smooth!
SOUNDS
Since mine isn't stock, I can't comment on how the piezo system sounds, but will certainly touch on everything else.
The bodies on these guitars are probably the thinnest I've ever seen on a guitar. They have an odd contour on the back that makes it look like it's hollowed out. Because of this, I've always been a bit hesitant about buying a Parker, because I thought the tone would suffer, since I'm a bit Les Paul user, and a believer in a big chunk of wood for the best tone. Boy was I wrong!
This guitar sounds absolutely huge! The lowend on this thing is crazy! Something I didn't think was possible with this thin of guitar (from past experience with thin guitars). This Stealth has the clearest tone I've ever heard come out of a guitar before, the pickups are perfectly matched for the guitar (since Parker has such thin bodies, DiMarzio has to make custom pickups that will fit, since normal sized pickups would go through the body), and provide a tight, defined sound that can go from the heaviest of heavy to the lightest of light. I wouldn't change a thing about this one!
OVERALL OPINION
I really can't recommend this guitar enough. If you ever get a chance to buy one of these guitars, don't even question yourself, just do it!
I love this guitar so much, that I've been searching around for other Parkers to buy and compare to it. If the Stealth is any indication of how great USA Parkers are, I can't see myself ever being disappointed with one of their guitars.
This guitar is the perfect harmony of brutality, elegance and singing tone.
- One-piece basswood body
- Slim basswood neck
- Slim, contoured body
- Patented neck-through design
- Textured glass/carbon fiber exoskeleton
- Two custom-wound DiMarzio humbucking pickups (DiMarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton)
- 6-element Fishman piezo pickup system
- Custom active Fishman filtering preamp
- Hardtail
- Carbon fiber fingerboard
- Sperzel locking tuners with "D-Thing" detuner on the 6th string
- 24 stainless steel frets
*Mine has the Piezo circuit removed, and a Killswitch has been added to replace the top pot, as well as a Detemer Fatboost and tap tempo button that runs out of the second output to control delays and other modulation effects.
*Only 100 of these guitars were made, making it one of the rarest, if not THE rarest Parker ever made.
UTILIZATION
I was a little hesitant at first to get this guitar, these guitars seem to have a huge love/hate relationship with people. The people that like them, REALLY like them, and tend to only use Parkers, the people that don't like them, wouldn't touch one with a 30 ft pole. Personally, I think the people that don't like them are NUTS!
This thing has got to have the most comfortable neck I've ever touched. I've always been a huge Ibanez fan and... dare I say, its neck is even more thin than an Ibanez Wizard neck! It's also more rounded, as apposed to the more flat feel of an Ibanez, so it sits in your hands much nicer.
The upper fret access on this guitar is second to none. I've never played a guitar that you can actually reach the 24th fret with ease. The neck plays like an absolute dream, and the carbon fiber fretboard is amazingly smooth!
SOUNDS
Since mine isn't stock, I can't comment on how the piezo system sounds, but will certainly touch on everything else.
The bodies on these guitars are probably the thinnest I've ever seen on a guitar. They have an odd contour on the back that makes it look like it's hollowed out. Because of this, I've always been a bit hesitant about buying a Parker, because I thought the tone would suffer, since I'm a bit Les Paul user, and a believer in a big chunk of wood for the best tone. Boy was I wrong!
This guitar sounds absolutely huge! The lowend on this thing is crazy! Something I didn't think was possible with this thin of guitar (from past experience with thin guitars). This Stealth has the clearest tone I've ever heard come out of a guitar before, the pickups are perfectly matched for the guitar (since Parker has such thin bodies, DiMarzio has to make custom pickups that will fit, since normal sized pickups would go through the body), and provide a tight, defined sound that can go from the heaviest of heavy to the lightest of light. I wouldn't change a thing about this one!
OVERALL OPINION
I really can't recommend this guitar enough. If you ever get a chance to buy one of these guitars, don't even question yourself, just do it!
I love this guitar so much, that I've been searching around for other Parkers to buy and compare to it. If the Stealth is any indication of how great USA Parkers are, I can't see myself ever being disappointed with one of their guitars.
This guitar is the perfect harmony of brutality, elegance and singing tone.