NGD Update: The Parker p38 is back.

skunkwerx

Quick delivery from Richtone. 

Its a 2001 era I believe, piezo bridged import. Been keeping my eye out for what seems like around 10 years now for one to come up. Usually when they do, they sell quick. 

I was, and maybe am still in two minds.. so any input from the wise here would be much appreciated! 

I'm not sure if its a complete dog or not. 

The bad in order of fucked-ness.
1. Neck has slightly more relief on the High e side.. so maybe a slight twist the opposite way to what I have experienced before. 

2. Truss rod wheel very hard to turn. 
3. Bridge is as low as it can go, same for the saddles yet the action is over 2mm both high and low e, way too high. (Nut height can be lowered yes, but probably not by that much to make a huge difference)

4. Nut/string alignment. - easyish fix though I think. 

The good in no specific order: 
1. It all 'works', piezo bridge included, trem arm is present. 

2. Cosmetically its good, only one deep scratch, no real dents or chips. 

3. Frets are in great order, rosewood board is nice, its light weight and from a brief test, sounds good. 

Other observations that arent too concerning and likely be sorted easily. 
1. Bit fret buzzy 
2. Has had electronics work.
3. Some weird felt stuck under the treble side of the bridge.. 
4. Stock strap pins literally pulled out of the body. 

As I mentioned in the other thread about the nut.. 
Richtone kindly offered to have a look to see if it can be popped off and re glued more central, but upon inspection were reluctant as it is glued in there good and they didnt want to do damage. Fair enough. 

So I think with a new nut properly installed and filed, this should hopefully sort out the string alignment down the neck.

As ICBM mentioned, and tbh in my experience also, there is buggar all movement in the neck socket so can't aid the alignment much there. 

The nut slots are also a bit high across all strings so will need attention anyway. 

That stuff though, I'm not too worried about. 

Now, onto the rest of it.. 

Apart from needing a good clean, I tried to check the truss rod was in working order.. but the wheel was seized and there was slightly too much relief in the neck. 

Popped the neck off and tried some wd-40, and with pliers I managed to turn it. It seems to function, but even after wd40 its bloody tight to turn. 

Also noted the 'Magic, the gathering' neck shim.. 
Interesting as with a moderate action, around 1.75mm both sides, there were buzz which I felt like was coming from the last frets.. so I removed the shim. 

I noted the controls, one knob was silver, not stock. 

It is supposed to be the Piezo volume I believe, but controls magnetic pickups volume instead, with one of the other black knobs doing volume for piezo. No issue, just been switched around, which makes sense. 

The silver knob is there because it is a new pot, and the stock Parker rubber knob wouldnt fit the bigger shaft. 

I guess the original rubber knob was long lost... 

Oh no, wait, there it is stuffed in the rear cavity lol.. 


Other than that.. 

Sporky

The Ps were great guitars - I had a P34 and a PM10. 

skunkwerx

I have made a start on sorting it out.. I'm mostly worried about the neck (twist and truss wheel) and bridge/string height thing.. so I dunno.. 

Anyway, the frets are actually good, I just polished them and cleaned the board but it wasnt too bad. 

Before: 

After: 

The tuners are fine tbh just old, dirty and tarnished
, but as I had a set of locking hipshots laying about and as the neck was off, I installed them for ease of restringing. 

Cleaned it all and attempted to set it up.. but best I've achieved is still just over 2mm action both high and low E, which still buzzes a bit, moreso on the low strings, and the bridge is low as it can be.. no shim though. 

So, maybe a proper shim will be needed, and a proper set up by someone that knows tremolos, a fret level maybe, new nut.. maybe the truss rod wheel can be lubed too. 

I'm willing to spend some money if its all fixable and results in a playable guitar. 
I'd be interested to know what you guys think.. whether the potential is there or if its likely to be throwing money after bad. 

DefaultM

@Sporky  I've still got your old Nitefly but the jack is fucked. I don't suppose you know which one I would need to replace it with please? It's a special stereo one I think.

I can't put a regular one in or id have to bypass the piezo I think. I think it's the jack that's the issue, it all seems to run through the piezo first so you can't use the regular pickups without going through that board which needs the special jack? I'm not sure. It all just stopped working mid gig last year and I've not been able to work it out.

skunkwerx

DefaultM said:

@Sporky  I've still got your old Nitefly but the jack is fucked. I don't suppose you know which one I would need to replace it with please? It's a special stereo one I think.

I can't put a regular one in or id have to bypass the piezo I think. I think it's the jack that's the issue, it all seems to run through the piezo first so you can't use the regular pickups without going through that board which needs the special jack? I'm not sure. It all just stopped working mid gig last year and I've not been able to work it out.

I'm far from knowledgable, as this is my first foray with them, but I reckon its gotta be a fairly typical stereo jack just with some wiring wizardry. 

I think using stereo cables splits the signal, and using a mono one blends it (if piezo is selected). 

Schnozz

I wouldn't have touched it without a tetanus jab, but it's certainly looking better.

A shop shouldn't be sending that out IMO... My local charges about £50 for a nut change.

ICBM

I wouldn't give up on it yet.

The twist in the neck will be from the reaction to the truss rod - with the adjuster at the body end, excess friction at the adjuster results in a counterclockwise twist when seen from the body end, which is the opposite of what you get with a headstock-end adjuster (and the opposite of what you want). I would remove the neck, remove the adjuster nut, leave it untensioned somewhere warm, and see if it will settle down after a few days. If it will, lubricate the adjuster, tension the rod back up, and make the last movement of the adjuster an *undo* (ie overtighten it slightly then back off) which should avoid locking in the twist again.

From memory the replaced pot is the magnetic pickup volume, as it is now - the one closest to the bridge is the piezo volume and the lower one is the tone - but I could possibly be wrong, I haven't played one for ages. That's a real stroke of luck finding the missing knob - they're quite hard to come by otherwise. You will just need to find the right type of pot to fit it.

A "proper" shim is unnecessary - the best is just a more neatly cut piece of cardboard .

skunkwerx

ICBM said:

I wouldn't give up on it yet.

The twist in the neck will be from the reaction to the truss rod - with the adjuster at the body end, excess friction at the adjuster results in a counterclockwise twist when seen from the body end, which is the opposite of what you get with a headstock-end adjuster (and the opposite of what you want). I would remove the neck, remove the adjuster nut, leave it untensioned somewhere warm, and see if it will settle down after a few days. If it will, lubricate the adjuster, tension the rod back up, and make the last movement of the adjuster an *undo* (ie overtighten it slightly then back off) which should avoid locking in the twist again.

From memory the replaced pot is the magnetic pickup volume, as it is now - the one closest to the bridge is the piezo volume and the lower one is the tone - but I could possibly be wrong, I haven't played one for ages. That's a real stroke of luck finding the missing knob - they're quite hard to come by otherwise. You will just need to find the right type of pot to fit it.

A "proper" shim is unnecessary - the best is just a more neatly cut piece of cardboard .

Thanks mate, this is encouraging  

Haha I thought the rattling was just the 9v battery but yeah, stroke of luck finding the knob there. 

You could very well be right about the layout! I had a brief look up of the manual last night but couldnt remember which way around it was. 

Sporky

DefaultM said:

@Sporky  I've still got your old Nitefly but the jack is fucked. I don't suppose you know which one I would need to replace it with please? It's a special stereo one I think.

No idea, sorry. A photo of the socket's innards might help. 

axisus

Nice acquisition! I always fancied one of those.

skunkwerx

Cheers all! 

Eager to get it in with Feline to get it properly sorted so I can start fully exploring it. 

I'm a big cky fan, and their old frontman was always using parkers, so I've always wanted one, and its been the only guitar I've really been hunting for over the years from a collection standpoint. 

I'll put it in d standard and see how it does! 

DrBob

It’s funny the first thing I thought of when I saw it was CKY ! Nice score man 

DefaultM

To be honest I think they're taking the piss. None of the issues you found are mentioned, it just says previously loved. No mention of the nut despite them clearly knowing, thinking to fix it and then realising they can't do it quickly, so they just put it up for sale and then don't mention or photo it? It's not the end of the world but most people would have to pay someone to fix that, so your guitar arrives and suddenly there's an extra £50 straight away.
The photos are taken from a bit of a distance that makes it look a lot better condition than it seems to be in yours as well.

Musicman20

I think these would sell really well to the modern metal heads. Super cool design.

Roland

Sporky said:

DefaultM said:

@Sporky  I've still got your old Nitefly but the jack is fucked. I don't suppose you know which one I would need to replace it with please? It's a special stereo one I think.

No idea, sorry. A photo of the socket's innards might help. 

Is this the same socket which they use on the mainstream Fly? That’s an end pin socket used on some acoustics. I may have a spare.

ICBM

Have a look at the number of terminals on the end of the socket - there may be four not three (TRRS, rather than TRS), which Fishman use on some of their products.

The fourth terminal is used as the battery switch since it’s always grounded via the plug sleeve, even when using a stereo cable.

skunkwerx

DefaultM said:

To be honest I think they're taking the piss. None of the issues you found are mentioned, it just says previously loved. No mention of the nut despite them clearly knowing, thinking to fix it and then realising they can't do it quickly, so they just put it up for sale and then don't mention or photo it? It's not the end of the world but most people would have to pay someone to fix that, so your guitar arrives and suddenly there's an extra £50 straight away.
The photos are taken from a bit of a distance that makes it look a lot better condition than it seems to be in yours as well.

Aye I agree, it definitely needs work to be at a standard I'd be happy with, and needed a damn good clean. Even with the shoddy shim there was still fret buzz with a moderately high action, so I'm expecting a bit of a cost, what with the nut and probably a fret dress.. 

If it was more widely available I wouldnt have bought it or paid the money they asked. 

So long as it can come up to standard even with more spent, I'd be happy because its a heart over mind thing, but I'll see if Jon at Feline can cast his eye over it first and we'll see how the land be laying. 

But yeah, they hardly ever put anything more descriptive in the listings and the image quality is pretty low res on their website

BenSirAmos

I bought one of these about 20 years ago and I got it pretty cheap. It was interesting to start with but in the end I couldn't get on with it on-stage - it didn't fit in any of my cases, I couldn't hang it on the stand, the frets were so high and I'm so ham-fisted that I couldn't play a chord without squeezing too hard and bending the strings out of tune and the neck is so thin that it goes out of tune anyway it I hold in anywhere off dead horizontal - and I'm an energetic performer. 

But the sound of the piezo blended with the magnetic pickups was fantastic for me so I did struggle on with it for a while. I've still got the P38 but maybe I should upgrade to one with a more solid neck.

skunkwerx

Dropped off at Feline today so will update once work is complete! I wrote a long list lol. 

Forgot to mention the stock strap pins were literally falling out of their holes, so I tried installing thicker schaller locking types. The upper bout was ok but lower bought was still loose. 

But hey ho, will see what happens!

AK99

Good looking guitar that.

Would be pretty damn satisfying if you can deal with all the little issues and get it exactly how you want it.

GavRichList

@skunkwerx you've done remarkably well to put any kind of positive slant on all this. I'd have gone whoopy-shit at Richtone.