page_title: Parker Fly
section_title: Fly models
hierarchical_section_title: Parker Fly / Fly models
caption_attribution_description: English: 5 string Parker Fly bass guitar
context_page_description: The Parker Fly was a model of electric guitar built by Parker Guitars. It was designed by Ken Parker and Larry Fishman, and first produced in 1993. The Fly is unique among electric guitars in the way it uses composite materials. It is notable for its light weight and resonance. It was also one of the first electric guitars to combine traditional magnetic pickups with piezoelectric pickups, allowing the guitarist to access both acoustic and electric tones. Production ended in 2016 and the company has not released a new model of any kind since.
  Inspired by earlier musical instruments like the lute, Ken Parker began experimenting with hardwood exoskeletons to provide rigidity to the instrument but hardwood was too difficult to work with and did not achieve satisfactory results. Inspired by a friend who used carbon fiber to build speed boats, Ken Parker started experimenting with the material. Flys were built with an exoskeleton along the back and around the neck of the guitar. It was made from a carbon fibre/glass/epoxy composite material that is thinner than the paint finish. The same composite also comprised the fretboard material.
context_section_description: Fly Deluxe
  The Fly Deluxe has a solid poplar body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
  Fly Classic
  The Fly Classic has a mahogany body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
  Fly Mojo
  The Fly Mojo has a body and neck of solid mahogany, and Seymour Duncan pickups.
  Fly Artist
  The Fly Artist has a solid Sitka spruce body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
  Fly Supreme
  The Fly Supreme has a solid big leaf maple body, basswood neck, and Dimarzio pickups.
  Spanish/Nylon Fly
  Designed to appeal to classical guitar players, this is strung with nylon strings, and has no magnetic pickups.
  Nite Fly
  Constructed of a variety of different tone woods and featuring various pickup combinations, the Nite Fly uses a bolt-on neck, and lacks the intricate sculpting found on the Fly body.
  Fly Deluxe, Adrian Belew Edition
  This is a Fly Deluxe with a Sustainiac pickup, Variax components, and a specialized piezo pickup that allows for guitar synthesizer applications.
  MIDI Fly
  Based on a Nite Fly body and made between 1999–2002, the MIDIFly has a mahogany body and Parker's TurboTone neck (also constructed of mahogany) with Virtual DSP Corp.'s MidiAxe guitar-to-MIDI converter system. It has custom DiMarzio pickups plus an active Fishman piezo system.  The MIDIFly's Fishman piezo circuit triggers the internal MidiAxe DSP, resulting in a MIDI guitar controller.  A MidiAxe editor program for Windows PC was provided on CD-ROM.
  Fly Bass
  The Fly Bass was made as a 4 or 5 string model. It has a sitka spruce body made from 21 pieces of spruce sandwiched between quilted maple veneer top and back, with the headstock made of curly maple. The mahogany neck was originally made of 15 layers of laminated mahogany but was later changed to a solid mahogany neck to lower production costs. The neck is wrapped in a skin of carbon fiber with a 10" to 15" conical section fretboard radius. It has two custom DiMarzio Ultra Jazz humbucking pickups with an active Fishman EQ and a Fishman piezo system.  Sperzel locking machine heads and a GraphTech nut are standard.  It was available in three colour tobacco sunburst, natural, transparent red and transparent blue.
caption: 5-string Fly bass
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX Optio 330GS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:01:09 19:46:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 0, 12, 0, 1, 0, 20, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "380", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "934", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3087", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:01:09 19:52:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:01:09 19:52:22", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "22/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "330", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "808", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "2"}