Notes on the "The history of the Parker Fly" article by guitar.com and early truss rod info

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Ken Parker
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Notes on the "The history of the Parker Fly" article by guitar.com and early truss rod info

Post by Ken Parker »

Notes on this article "The history of the Parker Fly" by Justin Beckner published by guitar.com (June 28, 2022)
Most of the information is spot on, but apart from a few minor quibbles, the truss rod story might be usefully corrected..

I can’t remember ever building more than a couple early prototype instruments without rods, and can confidently say that nothing was ever sold without an adjustable truss rod.

A couple of these (early, rough) development/test guitars slipped between the cracks in the late 80’s, when I was getting sick of playing with my first lightweight truss rod design, which was a 1/16” (1.5 mm) 1X19 stainless steel twisted strand cable.

Before any production guitar was shipped, we tested and finalized the unique TR design that was part of every Fly guitar.

This innovative rod was a complex and costly gizmo with six unique component parts instead of the usual 3 or 4, using a .078”  (2 mm) diameter piece of stainless steel music wire, and tested to exceed 1500 pounds breaking strength.

Payoff was the weight, just 1/6th of the Gibson or Fender rods, and worked well until someone got inebriated and tried to “see what it can do”, whereupon all bets were off.

Because I snuck the adjuster opening in the treble edge of the headstock it turned out that many folks overlooked it as there was no TRCover!

Due to the stability of the guitar’s structure, rod adjustments were very rarely needed after the initial setup, apart from when the string gauges were changed.

Broken truss rods are terrible challenges on any instrument, but the one I designed isn’t repairable on this planet.

Again, thanks for your kind words and appreciation!

#TrussIssues
"It's not me that designed the Fly guitar, it was all of you guys." - Ken Parker
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Re: Notes on the "The history of the Parker Fly" article by guitar.com and early truss rod info

Post by Securb »

Thanks for posting this, Ken. My Midifly is a 1999, I think. I have never once had to touch the truss. The guitar plays like a dream.
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