Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

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mmmguitar
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Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by mmmguitar »

IMG_3070.jpeg

As has become typical of me, I forgot to photograph the thing during the daytime: So enjoy a harsh LED lamp illuminating one corner of my music room.

Circa July 2015, the word that Parker Guitars was officially kaput didn't come as a surprise to me: I had kept an eye on the floundering brand in its final years, and there had been a growing consensus that quality seemed to be dropping as prices managed to keep increasing. Having previously sold my 2008 Mojo in 2012 with the sentiment of leaving the Parker Fly behind altogether, I felt I had no stake in the brand beyond perhaps acquiring an Adrian Belew model the next time I had ten thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket. In any case, I had a cross-country move and other grownup matters demanding my attention.

Come January of 2016, I was settled in to a cheap apartment in a new state, with the income from my new job affording me the budget to resume acquiring guitars. I found that, in the meantime, the bottom had fallen out of the Parker resale market; with dozens of panicked owners competing to offload guitars they were paranoid would be worthless once a proprietary component failed. Two such people had beater Deluxes for sale: One was a black '96 purported to be in decent shape, which the seller wanted $1,000 for. The other guitar will get its own thread after I paint it.

At the time, nostalgia had led me to become reacquainted with Ibanez guitars. However, my impressions of the guitars I tried served only to reinforce the sad reality that I had been utterly spoiled by my experiences with brands such as Parker, Vigier, Steinberger, etc. So even though the RG565 reissue I had most recently acquired did the job, I knew a used Fly would blow it out of the water.
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Days later, amidst a very cold midwestern winter, I was reminded of why I had fallen in love with Flys in the first place: Compared to the Ibanez, the Parker played itself. It had terrific sustain, sounded great plugged in, and my back appreciated that it weighed a few ounces shy of five pounds - To this day, it's the lightest Fly I've owned (even after having fit some extra weight in under the hood).

I think of the character of the guitar as being what people would generally associate with a Gibson SG: snarling and aggressive, with pronounced mids and highs. Though not lacking for bass, my heavier '97 Deluxe is much warmer and rounded in the top end (which is actually more in line with my preferences).
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(Guess who)

I came to refer to the guitar as "Guinea Pig" because I found myself using it as a testing ground for every electronic mod I thought might improve other guitars needing to bridge the gap in quality: Different pot and cap values, push-pull vs push-push, '50s tone pot wiring vs '60s and modern, pickup baseplate swaps, tuned coil splits and treble bleeds, new string alloy formulations, etc. I even used the guitar to audition pickups I purchased with the intent to install in other Flys. I don't like to think about preserving the resale value of my guitars; which is what makes a beater Fly such fun.

The previous owner had moved the strap button to the crook of the horn as an experiment (something I immediately changed back). They had also replaced the hex bushing with a round one, rather than track down a hex bar. Some day, I'll get around to reinstalling the original bushing.

This thread details my more recent endeavor to pair an appropriate pot value with pickups which might otherwise sound too dull or too shrill in a Fly. The current component scheme I've arrived at is as follows:
black fly scheme.png

The Dimarzio Air Classic bridge pickup I used previously was far too bright in the Fly without a 250kΩ pot to tame it. So I decided to try a higher-wind pickup with a lower resonant peak, ran into a 1MΩ volume pot and 500kΩ tone pot. The 12kΩ Pete Biltoft Vintage Vibe Fly bridge humbucker with asymmetrical coils (previously bought off Patzag) was too hot for my tastes; so I modified it to have a lower inductance (closer to PAF levels). I enjoy the 1MΩ volume pot at 10 - but the taper and high end-rolloff when turning down left much to be desired; so I dialed both in with a trimpot-adjustable high-pass filter that cleans an overdriven amp right up by time the volume knob hits 7. I used a 330kΩ resistor to have the Bluesbucker see the volume pot load as 250kΩ. I'm liable to change that between now and when I get around to putting a Sustainiac driver in. [Update: Never did do that; because I sold the thing in 2023].

The six position FreeWay pickup selector switch covers the Les Paul and Tele tones and, until I rout for a middle pickup, the 13 pin-out allows me to queue up those position 2 and 4 strat tones whenever I need my GR-55 to produce them.

The reason all three pots in the guitar are push-pull is due to my desire to install a Sustainiac at a later date (effectively test-fitting the components to get an idea of how much I'll need to enlarge the cavity route to accomodate the Sustainiac board). For the moment, none of the push-pulls are connected to anything. More excitement to come!
Summary of the Parker Guitars speculator market from 2020 onward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
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jb63
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Re: Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by jb63 »

That is my kind of post. Lately I’ve felt that I’ve spent too much time tinkering and not enough playing.

This reminds me how much fun it is to test stuff out!
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vjmanzo
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Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by vjmanzo »

This is so great! Thanks for sharing the backstory on this too! 🖤

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jb63
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Re: Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by jb63 »

More and more I find that I want to read about moving from city to city and economics an guitar playing. It makes me think of the old guitar players I knew in the 70s. A lifestyle that US economics has all but destroyed. My favorite line is:

“the next time I had ten thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket”

That’s what got me started modding guitars. My dad died and his insurance paid out $10k to each kid. It seemed like a fortune so I spent it all, over time, testing out possibilities for guitars. Discovery was a daily thing.

Now it’s just a bitch to learn new songs.
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mmmguitar
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Re: Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by mmmguitar »

vjmanzo wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 11:37 am Thanks for sharing the backstory on this too!
If it helps anyone pass time on the toilet, I'm happy to write it. I'm still hoping to share how the darned thing sounds.
jb63 wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 11:45 am More and more I find that I want to read about moving from city to city and economics and guitar playing.
That's flattering; even if you're not necessarily referring to me. The Steinberger photo in the other thread (featuring a California swimming pool and blue sky) contrasts succinctly with the gray Ohio snow pictured in this thread. I was fortunate enough to say I paid my bills as a "musician" in CA - But I was only scraping by, despite working six days a week. And socializing primarily with musicians will make a misanthrope out of anyone (They know where the best restaurants are, but aren't willing to mention that they can't afford the meal until after everyone has ordered). Through relocating to a state with a lower cost of living and working brogue-and-tie jobs unrelated to music, I've been able to waste tons of money on guitars and projects - Though I don't think my playing has ever been worse!
Summary of the Parker Guitars speculator market from 2020 onward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
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vjmanzo
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Re: Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by vjmanzo »

I would LOVE to hear how it sounds, but that’s a whole thing, I know, but yes: count me in for a sound sample! 🔥🙌
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jb63
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Re: Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by jb63 »

Ha!
You are supposed to move from Ohio TO California, not the other way around!
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mmmguitar
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Re: Black '96 Deluxe "Guinea Pig"

Post by mmmguitar »

Bump. I ended up selling this guitar to a forum member who PMed me after I posted about the Belew. I removed most of my personal tweaks and put in a set of Gen 1 pickups, 500k volume and tone, an Acousti-Phonic board, and a 250k dual concentric pot for piezo and hex volume. The buyer wanted the control layout to be like a '90s Fly - But the 13 pin board and controls already being in and on the guitar led to the master volume and piezo tone controls remaining omitted (I felt bad enough for drilling an extra hole to add the mag/mix/piezo toggle). As with the original, the magnetic circuit routs through the piezo preamp. In my '97 Classic, the mag/mix/piezo switch bypasses the preamp in the "mag" position.

96 outside.jpeg
96 outside 2.jpeg
96 controls.jpeg

In the last image, you can see that I had forgotten to tighten the mag/mix/MIDI toggle nut back into place after experimenting with swapping its spot with the S1/S2 switch prior to taking the photos.
Summary of the Parker Guitars speculator market from 2020 onward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
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