the Fly Clone Project

Hi guys,

I bought this off of eBay from the original owner who got it new from the states in 2001 and brought it back here to the UK. I got a great price and it quickly became my pride and joy. Weirdly though it not only lacks a piezo system, but also any routing for such a system. I've had a Google around but not found much, I was wondering if anyone on here could help me identify what model it actually is.
The original owner thought it may have been some kind of prototype, but who knows eh?

Please excuse my awful photography, my phone is a potato

Hi @Mildmrmustard! That is, in fact, the non-piezo Fly Deluxe; it’s in the catalogs, if you’d like to take a look. It’s quite literally a Fly Deluxe just like any other, but without the piezo components. It is definitely not a prototype. Knobs are volume and tone, switch is a pickup selector.

Congrats! Looks great!

That's a Parker Fly Deluxe Standard. The "Standard" designation is for the original pre-refined Fly's which were non-piezo. I've had three Standards, fun guitars!

there’s one on Reverb right now that a Fly collector has declared to be fake:

https://reverb.com/item/55671541-parker ... t=55671541

There's no reason I can see to suspect that that guitar is, in fact, a fake or has been altered. Perhaps the collector has mistaken this for a fake because of the reduced number of knobs?

vjmanzo wrote: ↑Tue May 31, 2022 12:57 pm there’s one on Reverb right now that a Fly collector has declared to be fake:

https://reverb.com/item/55671541-parker ... t=55671541

There's no reason I can see to suspect that that guitar is a fake or has been altered. Perhaps the collector has mistaken this for a fake because of the reduced number of knobs?

Given the screencaps the seller uploaded show that the self-described “biggest Parker collector in the world” is exactly who I expected it to be, the product ignorance and unsavory behavior is unfortunately par for the course.

mmmguitar wrote: ↑Tue May 31, 2022 2:40 pm Given the screencaps the seller uploaded show that the self-described “biggest Parker collector in the world”...

Yeah, we obviously don't have the full context of the thread/convo, but "you are trash" etc. seems particularly harsh especially if the collector/buyer did make a mistake thinking this Fly was a fake (because of the reduced number of knobs/switches).

@Ken Parker actually called me before about this listing commenting on those unusual screenshots.

vjmanzo wrote: ↑Tue May 31, 2022 3:31 pm @Ken Parker actually called me before about this listing commenting on those unusual screenshots.

Was Ken concerned about the guitar, or just found the screenshots of the conversation odd (which it is!)?

And who is this supposed "biggest Fly collector in the world"? I wonder if I've interacted and/or sold a Fly to him at one point. I've dealt with one particularly obtuse Fly guy over the years so my curiosity is piqued.

@dayn, I think someone told Ken about the listing because of those screenshots, and Ken was like, “It’s just a non-piezo Fly—we made hundreds of those; what’s the big deal?!”

dayn wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 10:51 am And who is this supposed "biggest Fly collector in the world"?

The buyer in the Reverb post is obviously shown in the two screenshots to be “Jason Clark”, who is most likely a familiar seller if you watch Reverb and eBay listings for Flys as this seller has had a high throughput of Flys especially in the last few years; the same seller has sparked some discussion here about questionable albeit legal practices related to some of the Flys he sells.

On this subject, I’ll point attention to a healthy result of such discussions has been a helpful “What to Look for When Buying a Fly” thread initiated by our very own @mmmguitar!