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drkorey « Great player but thin sound »
Published on 07/26/11 at 20:40This was an older NiteFly SA guitar made in the USA by Ken Parker.
DiMarzio pickups: a humbucker in bridge and 2 single coils. A piezo in the vibrato.
1 volume + 1 tone, piezo circuit: 1 volume.
5 way pickup selector switch positions and a a mono/stereo button.
The piezoelectric circuit is active and therefore requires a 9 volt battery.
The guitar body wood is swamp ash and the neck is wood? with carbon fiber or all carbon fiber, I can't quite remember.
The bridge is a Parker trem and comes with stainless steel frets, a graphite nut and Sperzel tuners.
It is easy to set the bridge height and to adjust the neck for great playability.
UTILIZATION
Upper fret access is very good on this guitar. The neck carve is very nice, kind of a D mixed with C shape that is very comfortable.
It is a very ergonomically designed guitar - very light and easy to play in all positions. One drawback was the upper horn can dig into your chest when you are sitting down and playing it, otherwise it's great.
It has stainless stell frets, that are fantastic, and the fast neck make playing leads very easy.
There are a wide variety of sounds available due to the 5 way switch and humbucker and two single pickups.
The bridge is solid, but I bought it used without the trem bar, so I was never able to use it to see how well it worked. In the five years I owned the guitar I didn't need to reset it up - it was very stable.
SOUNDS
I used this guitar with custom built Peters amplifiers, which are kind of a cross between a Peavey 5150 and high gain Marshall/VHT with a little Boogie thrown in. It was also used with these amps:an Egnater IE4 pre, Marshall TSL, Mesa DC-5 and Peavey 5150II. The amp was paired with an Avatar 4x12 that had Celestion G12h -30's and a Splawn 4x12 with Governor/ManOWar speaker combo,a VHT FB cab and a stock Marshall 1960B.
I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band.
The guitar had a very open sound to it and all frequencies were represented fairly when it was played UNPLUGGED. When amplified with distortion and not the sound was very thin and uninspiring. The neck single coil had some good tones in it but for what I needed this guitar to do it was disappointing!
I couldn't use the amplified sound so I just kept it to practice on.
My favorite sounds with this guitar were the unplugged and neck pickup sounds. Least favorite tones were all the other sounds. Overall, it did not suit my style of music very well!
OVERALL OPINION
I absolutely loved the stainless steel frets - this was the first gutiar I bought with these and they spoiled me. Now I only have and buy guitars with ss frets! I beat the hell out of this guitar and the frets still looked perfect when I sold it.
I also liked it's light weight.
I didn't like how this guitar sounded amplified at all. Very thin and no punch. I am not sure if it was because of the pickups, wood or both. It sounded ok unplugged but never worked for me amplified.
Knowing what I know no, I would not have bought this. Maybe would have gotten a NiteFly M or saved my money. But it was a fun experiment and I abused it and the frets never wore so I didn't lose much money when I resold it.
Value for the used price was ok 6/10 as well.
I have owned many guitars and had a number of years where I would buy, try and flip, which enabled me to have many guitars around to try out.
This guitar had a very limited sound I could work with but was a great player.
DiMarzio pickups: a humbucker in bridge and 2 single coils. A piezo in the vibrato.
1 volume + 1 tone, piezo circuit: 1 volume.
5 way pickup selector switch positions and a a mono/stereo button.
The piezoelectric circuit is active and therefore requires a 9 volt battery.
The guitar body wood is swamp ash and the neck is wood? with carbon fiber or all carbon fiber, I can't quite remember.
The bridge is a Parker trem and comes with stainless steel frets, a graphite nut and Sperzel tuners.
It is easy to set the bridge height and to adjust the neck for great playability.
UTILIZATION
Upper fret access is very good on this guitar. The neck carve is very nice, kind of a D mixed with C shape that is very comfortable.
It is a very ergonomically designed guitar - very light and easy to play in all positions. One drawback was the upper horn can dig into your chest when you are sitting down and playing it, otherwise it's great.
It has stainless stell frets, that are fantastic, and the fast neck make playing leads very easy.
There are a wide variety of sounds available due to the 5 way switch and humbucker and two single pickups.
The bridge is solid, but I bought it used without the trem bar, so I was never able to use it to see how well it worked. In the five years I owned the guitar I didn't need to reset it up - it was very stable.
SOUNDS
I used this guitar with custom built Peters amplifiers, which are kind of a cross between a Peavey 5150 and high gain Marshall/VHT with a little Boogie thrown in. It was also used with these amps:an Egnater IE4 pre, Marshall TSL, Mesa DC-5 and Peavey 5150II. The amp was paired with an Avatar 4x12 that had Celestion G12h -30's and a Splawn 4x12 with Governor/ManOWar speaker combo,a VHT FB cab and a stock Marshall 1960B.
I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band.
The guitar had a very open sound to it and all frequencies were represented fairly when it was played UNPLUGGED. When amplified with distortion and not the sound was very thin and uninspiring. The neck single coil had some good tones in it but for what I needed this guitar to do it was disappointing!
I couldn't use the amplified sound so I just kept it to practice on.
My favorite sounds with this guitar were the unplugged and neck pickup sounds. Least favorite tones were all the other sounds. Overall, it did not suit my style of music very well!
OVERALL OPINION
I absolutely loved the stainless steel frets - this was the first gutiar I bought with these and they spoiled me. Now I only have and buy guitars with ss frets! I beat the hell out of this guitar and the frets still looked perfect when I sold it.
I also liked it's light weight.
I didn't like how this guitar sounded amplified at all. Very thin and no punch. I am not sure if it was because of the pickups, wood or both. It sounded ok unplugged but never worked for me amplified.
Knowing what I know no, I would not have bought this. Maybe would have gotten a NiteFly M or saved my money. But it was a fun experiment and I abused it and the frets never wore so I didn't lose much money when I resold it.
Value for the used price was ok 6/10 as well.
I have owned many guitars and had a number of years where I would buy, try and flip, which enabled me to have many guitars around to try out.
This guitar had a very limited sound I could work with but was a great player.
