1996 Parker Fly Deluxe

I remember when I first bought this guitar.  At the time, Island Guitars was a dealer.  They didn't have any in the shop when I went to inquire, and the sales guy flippantly remarked that this wasn't a very good guitar and they didn't know when they were going to get any more in.

So it was off to find a mail-order dealer.  I found Victor Litz Music Center had some in stock, so I called and ordered one.   I remember going to the UPS distribution center to pick it up, and when I picked up the box, I thought there was nothing in it because it was so light.

I also remember opening up the box and marveling at the technology and construction quality of this guitar.  It was a work of art, with all those sculpted curves.  The neck felt really nice, and the compound 10"-13" radius was perfect.  The neck was thin, but not like the Ibanez Wizard neck.  The stainless steel frets, the first I've ever felt on a guitar, were so slippery.  The neck joint was just brilliant, and spoiled me for upper fret access.

This ended up being my main gigging guitar and it had seen a bunch of Honolulu clubs, private parties.......  just anywhere I was playing, this guitar was always with me.  My band in the mid 90s was Giant Wheel Throw, and we played a lot of alternative and classic rock.  The Parker was perfect because it had a piezo, which I could use for acoustic sounds.  Here we are playing at the Pier Bar at Aloha Tower, which later became Kapono's.

One day, I was practicing with my band in the garage, and my guitar slipped and fell onto the concrete floor, and put a big paint gouge in the headstock.

At a gig, we were playing a song in drop D.  I forgot to tune back up for the next song, so I had to stop and retune quickly.  This prompted me to get a drop D tuner for this guitar.  Fortunately Sperzel was selling drop D tuners, but it was a little difficult to obtain as the profile for Parker tuners is different from regular Sperzels.

I also sent this guitar to John Carruthers in California to have the Buzz Feiten tuning system installed.  Unfortunately, Carruthers' tech ground the nut down too low and I had to send it back to them to fix.  They weren't very pleasant about it and didn't acknowledge their mistake (I had to pay the shipping), so that's the last time I'll ever use Carruthers for my tech work.

I also used this guitar to write and record a song called "Oasis", which won Runner's Up in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Electronica category, which was judged by Bjork and members of the band Orgy.

I loved the feel of this guitar, but the tone was lacking and it's hard to change the pickups.  So after gigging with this guitar for about 6 years, I finally sold it to a guy in Texas on eBay.