My first gigging guitar was a Peavey Reactor (tele). As a huge Prince fan, I saw he played teles so I thought that would work for me. I played in our church band. The neck was wide, flat, and the fingerboard was two pieces, the pickups were weak, but it still had the tele twang. I played out for over two years with that guitar until I broke a string one day during a show. I plugged in my Strat and the sound was so amazing and vibrant, I didn't reach for my tele. I let a friend borrow tele and it got severely damaged. The neck was broken and the frets were garbage due to what ever happened to it and my playing the guitar so much. I eventually got a new neck, with good tuners and and put some Lindy Fralin pickups in it. I still have it. (On a side note.....no one ever borrows any of my guitars.)

My p-38 in transparent red is one of my favourite workhorses (i prefer the parker fly deluxe in studio though), very versatile, solid and well built korean guitar. My first guitar was a super cheap destroyed and beaten Yamaha that I (my mom) struggled to buy used. I was very young and didn't realize how much it was important to me so I sold it for another guitar. I teach my students to NEVER sell their first guitar since them. For almost 25 years I tried to buy it back, it went in different countries across Europe but couldn't get it back. This year, the new owner wanted to sell it to me back and after almost 30 years now I have my first guitar with me. Needless to say between the custom shops from Gibson and Fender that I own, that's my favourite guitar now

Always really enjoy your stuff - insightful, genuine, humble and really talented. Wish you much success

Nice to stumble across a good new guitar channel. Parker guitars always intrigued me. Thanks 👏👏

My first guitar is a sad story. Ibanez AS-120 Artstar semi-hollow. I loved that guitar more than anything at the time. Played probably 2-3 horus every day without many days off. Sad part is in 1998, the guitar (along w/ my father's Fender Tele Plus and a killer Peavey tube amp) burned up when our house caught fire. House burned probably 60% away. Since then, I've been on the lookout for another AS120 in pearl white only to find that they've gone up ridiculously in price. The last one I found was about 4 years back and was listed for $900. I do have an Epiphone Sheraton ll Pro now so that kinda makes me feel better, maybe more whole. Anyway, Andre, I really like your channel. Your playing style is very very similar to mine. Makes me feel like I may actually be good at guitar like other ppl say lol.

My first number 1 guitar was a PRS SE Single Cut Soapbar with my own Parker P-38 I grabbed a year later as a close second. So glad to see the coverage of your history with this guitar dude! I just got mine going again this weekend and instantly remember why I love it so much after not really playing electric for the last 3 or 4 years.

1994-1995. I was 14/15 years old. I had an Epiphone Les Paul Special II. That's a great starter guitar, and I wrote an article about how it is STILL an amazing choice for anyone starting out. My grandma bought that guitar for me, because my parents...well, long story but my musician parents did not support me. My grandma also bought my Peavey amp, a Classic Chorus 2x12 (Imagine a Jazz Chorus with a killer distortion tone, in stereo!). She would give me a little bit of money for pickups and locking tuners. I did a lot of small electronics as a kid, so I had no problem wiring a guitar. Easy. I had a Duncans in it. With full sized 500k pots with an orange drop capacitor on the tone knob. I had started playing small shows locally and while the Epiphone got the job done, it was apparent that I had outgrown it. The bands we played with also all had two guitars, and when I asked them why they told me "Always have a backup, because what happens if you break a string? Or if a pickup dies? Are you going to rewire it?" Damn. He had a point. Every Friday night I was anxious on stage from that point on. Summer came around, and I was old enough for a job. I spent all summer working to buy a Gibson Les Paul. Well, September came around and I finally bought it. It was a Sunburst model, and I added locking tuners because I change strings every week (acidic sweat). That was my guitar for years. In 2002, I moved to Savannah to join that scene. Baroness/Kylesa/Black Tusk....I sold it to Annie Allman (yes, in Savannah, of legendary fame) because she said it reminded her of a guitar that Gregg played with Dickie, back in the day. This started my journey to 7 string guitars and Ibanez. But that's a story for another day. LOL.

I really enjoyed this story! I'm currently travelling, 4 months with a Parker P38. I've gone the other way, putting a new preamp in, and when I get home there is a new Fishman piezo bridge waiting to be installed. Not my #1, but I have a lot of respect for it. It is well made and I don't see parting with it. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks

Some of the most cutting-edge artists used Parkers. Good enough for me! Roine Stolt, Adrian Belew, Pat Martino, Joni Mitchell...

I had a P-38 too! Only that it was sunburst. I got it to drag to rehearsar, because I didn't want to take the NiteFly out, in case something happened to it. When the band dissolved, I sold the P-38 to a guy playing with Evangelicals. I thinking of selling my NIteFly, because of a personal history attached to it that is not so happy...but you've made me appreciate it anew with your videos. Thanks!

My first guitar was a Mexican Fender Stratocaster, my mother bought it for me for my birthday in 7th grade from a store that was close by where my siblings took their piano and violin lessons about an hour away from our house. I didn't want to tell my mom that I wanted to play bass, but we ended up on a Agave Blue Strat. Around 9th grade, I was getting really into neo-classical guitar because that was the cool thing in Japan, and when I learned about scalloped frets from my dad's best friend (and when he gave me his Yngwie Signature strat), I decided to scallop the guitar. I changed the pickups to a DiMarzio Evo in the bridge, and Air Norton S in the neck thanks to my dad helping me with all the soldering. I slapped on 11-52s in Standard E because I thought "hey this is what all the cool jazz players are doing, so it must be right!" and then said "this is the perfect guitar!". It ended up becoming infamous on the Rob Chapman forum as "The Penguin Guitar" for all the pictures of penguins on it. Anyone who played the guitar always said it played amazing and would play better if there were lighter strings LOL I always wanted the thick Les Paul humbucker sound but in the shape of a Strat, and the 5 way super switch that was in it allowed it to be such a versatile guitar until I decided that I should just turn it back to a proper Strat. I changed the bridge to a Callaham Vintage style bridge, and then put Custom Shop 69 pickups in it, and called it a day. It was my number 1 guitar until VERY VERY recently - having only been dethroned when I got a Strandberg Boden two years ago. I still have the original DiMarzios from my Strat, so I am probably going to restore it to "high school" specs some time. Even though I play exclusively Strandberg guitars now because of how great they play and how intuitive it feels to me, the Strat feels like home to me and would be my "Desert Island" or "Burning House" guitar.

Did not expect a Florida story. Did not disappoint. I had a p38, the thing that really jumped out at me was neck construction. Yeah the neck is really thin! The fretboard, which is rosewood is thicker than a standard fretboard thus giving more rigidity to the neck. I always thought that was a really cool solution to a structural issue.

My first electric guitar was a Sekova Les Paul custom copy. This was around 1970. I did mod it by adding a phase switch. That was the thing to do back then. I did other stuff to it over the years. In the 80s I added a P-90 at the neck and an aluminum pickguard holding the pickups. I made it a double cutaway and painted it red. 😁 I mod every instrument I own. Lol I own about 10 guitars and 10 basses. I got my first Parker, a used teal P-38 about 10 years ago. I have modded that too. I installed jumbo frets, and had changed the pickups. I’m a pickup maker. The two single coils were rail type. I never got a good balance with the 16k bridge humbucker I installed, so last year I made a new pickguard and it it double humbucker. Unfortunately two saddles on the piezo bridge had stopped working. While I enjoyed using the bridge (but through a distorted amp!) the rest of the bridge had frozen and stripped out screws, so I replaced it with a non piezo Wilkinson bridge. It’s my main stage guitar to this day. It is a bright guitar. Reminds me of a Tele. By the way, I started doing my own guitar repairs, and eventually building my own guitars, because of an experience with an awful repair job at a local northern NJ repair shop. I repair and build for a living now and still see lots of poor quality work come through my Brooklyn shop. It’s sad.

“You can really hear those 1m pots” literally my thought haha. But hey! It gives a unique fullness despite how hot it is.

After learning to play guitar for 4 years prior using my father's lesser liked guitars as a vehicle to learn on, I received a 1992 Gibson Les Paul Studio in Alpine White. This was back in the mid 2000s or so and now that guitar is cream colored. I put locking grovers on it, fishman piezo, a 25db mid range boost, a terminal output to split the piezo and mag pups, master volume, master tone, and piezo volume where the mods I did. This guitar has and will always be my number 1 guitar especially since it was my first guitar and one that my father gave me (who is now deceased). Those mods actually came from me being on a big Frank and Dweezil Zappa kick and I wanted to mod my Lester like Frank did with his sunburst custom....then it was too hard to do that. I then wanted to mod the guitar like a roxy sg....but the pickups weren't able to be split. The only thing that came over was the piezo since Dweezil used one and I loved the tones he was able to concoct and have used it in tandem with a half tone rolled off neck pickup on a direct clean setting with my Axe Fx 3 for my main jazz tone since

My First First Guitar , that I am playing with right now as I watch, is a harmony arch top from the 60s that is in utter disrepair; it has required some strange things to set it up, I play it in baritone almost exclusively, it has the widest, deepest neck I've ever felt (on par with classical necks), yet it finds it's way onto most recordings and I play it every day. I also have an American strat, Gibson Les Paul, newer gretsch arch top, but I only ever play/write on the harmony :) New to your channel, gotta say I like what you do a lot :) I'd be interested in hearing a LOT MORE about your studies, too. (I just completed a degree in, and hope to be active in the field of Sound Studies--a mixture of musical theory and critical theory--and your interest in Indian classical music reminds me of what Anthony Braxton wrote about in his Tri Axium writings...) Keep it up !!

My first guitar, that I bought in 1978 for the princely sum (to me) of £90 from electric ladyland in Bristol, was a “ned callan”. Affectionately known as a knobbly ned. Look it up and you will see why. I didn’t know it at the time but it was actually a pretty decent guitar. Wish I still had it, it ‘disappeared’ sometime around 1980 when I went to Uni. I would love to know where it went. I am in the process of building another one just like it from a NOS body I found on eBay.

Parker gang!! Subbed

My granddaughter has that exact guitar that I gifted her...I played it for years and loved it! Just wished the Piezo had a tone control the blend knob compensated but easiest guitar for bending strings I've ever owned. In the end I moved onto hollow and semi hollow body guitars ..they just fit me. Mine was setup well and had a good neck as well as solid electronics...I never had a whammy bar for it as I bought it 2nd hand without one...think I paid 175 bucks for it.

You like Satch and George Clinton? I'll never leave this channel. Late 80s. Dirt Cheap Music, Atlanta. Kramer Striker w/1 bridge pickup. Here's the story: It was my #2 guitar. [Now ex] wife sold my #1 guitar to support her crack habit. Wanted a 3 pickup humbucker so had a shop route neck and middle pickup. Moved the bridge pickup to the middle. Put a DiMarzio PAF and Super 2 in the neck and bridge respectively. Replaced the stock Floyd Rose with the one you don't have to cut the ball ends off the strings. Sounded GREAT!!!! until... I wanted to be able to pull up on the whammy. Had the shop route a bridge cavity to let me be able to do it. Lost a BUNCH of tone and sustain, but it did play better because I could lower the action. So I compensated with effects. It was my #1 for some years. Still have it.

Great video Andre, but it makes me feel old! When i worked at parker in the nineties all there were, were Fly's and Nightfly's lmao! Two quick points, first i just wanted to clarify, you referred to Fly's as having composite necks but this isn't, or at least wasn't then, the case. Fly's necks were made of poplar and glued to the body before application of the composite. The guitar was then covered with the epoxy empregnated carbon glass sheet, on the back of the body and neck, with and extra strip running down the neck and overlapping onto the body, then placed in A heat safe vacuum sealed bag and cooked in a special home made oven!

First "number 1" electric guitar is a used blue Carvin DC-135. No modifications made. I still play it often, even though I recently bought a used 7 string Walnut top Blackwater Guitar Company custom guitar, which is an incredible guitar--absolutely love it (one of the best feeling guitars I've ever felt in my hands). Only reason why I don't play the Blackwater more often is because it's a guitar case beauty. I'm afraid of accidentally blemishing it. 😅😅😅😅

My first guitar was from the Sears catalog, and was red with white stripes, kinda like EVH. Had that one for about a year, and ended up getting a lake placid blue Squier Strat. I just picked up a P38 this afternoon from Sweetwater. My pick guard is slightly warped, but doesn’t effect playability. I had an original NiteFly years ago, and regret getting rid of it.

Another great video. you got my subscription! Hey I’m a beginner have an old acoustic but looking to add an electric as well. What do you think of a good condition used Parker PM-20 at a good price??? TIA

I have P-38. It’s not a bad guitar, I bought mine new around 20 years ago at a Guitar Center in NJ, can’t remember what I paid for it but it was probably under $500. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Tone Zone, and I also lost the bar. I keep it at my parents house in Florida so I have something to play when I visit them. Love your channel, by the way.

My first 'proper' guitar was a Japanese Stratocaster with a Kahler locking trem. It was HSS so I changed out the neck pickup for a hot rails, and the bridge pickup for a super-distortion and I played it for a number of years until I basically grew out of whatever phase I was in (I got it in 1988) and bought a 1974 Strat. I have continued buying, modding and selling guitars, although now - at the age of fifty - I've got the stuff I want to keep and don't bother with modding things any more. It's always interesting to think back and try to understand your own thought processes from decades ago. I honestly thought I'd never want another guitar when I got the Japanese Strat...but change is the only constant, I suppose.

My first guitar was a Yamaha SG with a floating Floyd type bridge. Since I had always wanted a Les Paul, I never really appreciated how good that guitar was. A few years later, I got a used tobacco sunburst Les Paul. Great sound, responsive pots, but heavy and it hurt my ribs and back. I sold it off and got a few other guitars overt the years, but none as expensive because I'm just a hobbyist. This year I got a diy Les Paul kit from China. I don't buy into the idea of tone woods, so I'm not worried about what kind of mahogany it is. I hope I can stain it and finish it well enough, learn to set it up, etc. It seems to be very light, and that to me is a plus. Also, I'm going to put in SD P Rails and I was toying with the idea of a cheap piezo bridge. Hopefully it will turn out as good as my Epiphones.

I had been wondering what your thoughts were about the P38s. I've come close to buying a couple but - as you point out - just putting a Piezo bridge and other switching on another guitar is probably a wiser choice - which I will probably do one day. My first electric guitar was a black 1985 Aria HSS Knight Warrior with blade pickups and a Kahler vibrato. It was my only guitar for years - and only bought another guitar when I thought it had come to the end of its life as a fret job was probably going to be prohibitively expensive, the vibrato threads were stripped and it needed some electrical work doing too. But I actually decided to get the work done and it came out playing incredible, better than it did when new even (my local luthier is Hansen guitars who make really nice guitars of their own). Just had to order a custom pickguard for it as the selector switch died last week and it has non-standard screw spacing and original switches seem to be completely unavailable even among Japanese weird guitar enthusiasts. So as I write it is under my desk waiting for the new pickguard to arrive. At least I can do the electrical work myself now. Looking forward to hearing it again. It's not my nicest looking guitar and the advertising campaign for them was embarrassingly tacky (I would never have bought it if I saw the ad before the guitar). But it was the nicest guitar I could afford that June day in 1985 - I tried a Yamaha SG500 and what would have been a Squier JV (which would have been worth a fortune today). The only one I liked playing more was a Gibson SG but I can't stand how they look and I wanted a trem - and it was just out of my price range anyway. It was designed as a shredder but what it is actually best at is surf.

My first number 1 guitar was a 1994 MIJ Jazzmaster, candy apple red with a matching headstock. I got it for around 500 bucks in 2003, and loved/played/modded the absolute crap out of it. All in all I changed out the pickups twice (stock -> seymour duncans -> novaks), replaced the pickguard (white -> tort), replaced the bridge twice (vintage JM -> vintage mustang -> mastery), replaced the trem (import -> AVRI), and fully shielded all of the electronics. I actually just moved it on this year when making some moves towards buying a Serus J, but if I had kept it, it'd probably be due for a refret too.

My first electric guitar was in 1962 and it was an EKO mailorder cherry burst sort of mustang type guitar with 2 single coils...wish I had kept it.

That’s so cool you played with George Clinton!!! He certainly is a musical legend one of my favourites he was amazing when I saw him live a few years back, and my first guitar is a gretsch duo jet! Loved to hear your story behind the guitar thanks for sharing

Considering all of your experience with Parkers, might you have an opinion on the Parker "style" DIY kits that are available?

I ve got P-44 and it s great guitar

I’ve been reminiscing the 90s, watching some David Bowie live videos with Reeves Gabrels. I always wanted a Parker Fly… looking at eBay etc I think a P38 is my only option outside of selling a kidney.

My first electric guitar was a CB SKY. It was a cheap guitar. It sounded good (to me) though.

My first ever guitar was a Legend guitar, a Chinese made guitar imported to Japan. I live in a somewhat rural area in Japan, and all guitars are either Chinese made guitars like Legend or beat up epiphones if you’re lucky. It was about 40 dollars and it was a copy black strat with 3 single coils and maple finger board. I didn’t know anything about guitars, so it became my “experiment guitar”, putting and replacing pickups with several humbuckers, amateurish attempts of installing a Floyd rose, and shaping the headstock like a telecaster because I watched a video of Blake Mills and he got a strat with a tele neck. The last experiment that ruined the guitar was me cutting the horns to make it like a strat that Conan Mockasin has. Surprisingly the guitar was made of actual ash and it was super hard to cut with my hand saw. It was super ugly after the cut, so I just took all the parts out and burned it to ashes. I’m currently doing repair jobs for close friends and bands, and my first guitar definitely taught me the do’s and don’t’s of handling guitars. I play fenders and gibsons now, but I would love to have a Legend guitar and modify the hell out of it and make it “legendary” ;) I really love your channel btw, super chill and informative! Keep it up dude!!!

... I bought a P-30 (3x SC version of the P-Series, classic trem, no piezo) some years ago ... concerning the point of missing magic I couldn't agree less to your comment, it became my favourite strat, all I ever wanted from a strat is in there, tone, playability, weight, handling. I wouldn't compare it to a Fly, because it follows a totally different conceptual approach to the guitar thingy ... So magic might be rather something YOU ADD yourself to a piece of material anyway? :D

If you want to fix that pickguard warping all you have to do is put it in the oven and then put a heavy flat object on top and let it cool (outside of the oven obsly)

You got to play Alice In My Fantasies with George? YES SIR!

Esteban? You are very honest

Just curious, why did you get rid of the Kiesels? And did you only play their headless models?

What worries me is the neck on my P38. Percival, as I call him, has jello for a truss rod. Always has. Replacement necks are nil. The Nitefly has the advantage of being remarkably durable. The P-series cannot make this claim. I have it in mind to replace the neck with something from Driftwood guitars sometime, BUT that's if they would agree to do it. I've owned Percival since 2000. Bought him new. It was hell on the dealer because of a stevedore strike on the west coast. My guitar got stuck on a ship for two months. I called the shop daily until it came in. First impressions: meh. I honestly had a severe case of buyer's remorse. To this day I second guess my decision to go with a Parker P-38 instead of a Godin with a HSH setup and an RMC bridge. They cost about the same at the time. It all boils down to the neck. If I make Percival sound lacking, I would address this in years to come. Swapped out the bridge humbucker for a P-Rails (might swap it again for a Polymath.) Swapped out the middle pickup for a lipstick, and put a Dylan Strat-90 in the neck. I also had to replace the original Powerchip preamp. It's multivoiced, and worn in like well-used hand tools. I don't recall if I've replaced the pots, but I always had it in mind to put 500k pots in. I'm certain the only original part left is the 5-way switch. Percival was my #1. And recently he's sharing the spot with my Brian Moore, who I've dubbed Mordred. Mordred is a Les Paul killer. Percival is an all-rounder. I'll take Mordred to a gig, but I'll take Percival to a jam session. If I have to push past a lot of bass, drums, and another guitar, Mordred is the guy. If I want a variety of sculpted tones, Percival is the guitar of choice. Maybe I'll get a Fly or a Nitefly sometime, but both are vanishing rare at a price point I can tackle.

What's the name of the leg support?

I had all my guitars stolen once also, satriani autographed guitar, dead uncle's 76 sg....hurts. End of the day it's just stuff, glad u saved ur baby. Curious why u never replaced the faceplate?

First electric guitar I ever played was the Parker P38, feels ok but kind of cheap and I couldn't stand the look or thin trebly sound. Certainly not worth anywhere near what they currently sell for used. Still it was a useful learning experience and I love my Epiphone G400 which replaced the Parker. Next step for me will probably be an archtop.

Your bridge pickup is probably out of phase with the middle. If you reverse the polarity of the bridge pickup, it might fix it.

The shop wasMetropolis on Newark ave?😂

What about a P30?

I would kill to know what type of guitar my first one was. Dad bought it at a pawn shop. Pink lightning bolts carved throughout the body...it is as the coolest thing I ever had up till then. Wish I had a clue what brand guitar it was

LOL...that thing must have shrieked like a Banshee with 1meg pots, battery and hot pickups 😅😅😅😅 1976 Encore which was a complete and total POS. Neck angle had strings 9' over the fretboard. I mod'd it with a large roofing nail through each pickup and my friends all agreed it sounded better 😅😅😅😅

WTF you learned under Prasanna. I am from India and he is one of the best guitarists out of here!

Is it any good? Of COURSE it is! And if it isn't, it can be made to be good, like any guitar, if your pockets are deep enough

Dude don't knock yourself. I'd be willing to be that James hetfield, jimi hendrix, Santana all sounded like that at some point, and it's still leaps and bounds better than what I can do now.

When u mod the guitar so much, you can expect it to sound crappy 😂

Why don't you set up your own guitars? Saves time and money and makes you bond with the instrument.

Also, did you really get to play with George Clinton?! WOW WHAT A MEMORY THAT MUST BE. maybe its because im 50 but i feel like not knowing P Funk is like not knowing who Micky Mouse is! Lol. If anyone reading this doesn't know P Funk, theres your homework! At least find some Bootsy for heaven's sake!