Parker PDF60 (Gloss Black) Reviews

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Customer Reviews

Casey Scott
from Central IL
June 7, 2012Music Background:
Longtime Hobbyist

Astounding Excellence and Value

This is an amazing guitar. I'm a huge Parker Guitars superfan, and this is my 5th from a company known for innovation and pushing the envelope. As I said, it is a guitar of astounding excellence, if you take into consideration a couple key factors: 1. It is not made in America, unlike many of Parker's other guitars (most notably, the Fly). 2. If you're used to Parker guitars, you'll feel "almost home" with this. This guitar is the PERFECT backup guitar for a Fly - it has a similar body geometry and feel, and similar tonality to my Fly Deluxe.

Here's what I like most:
1. Very Flexible Tone. For a basswood guitar, it has a surprisingly large number of usable tones. It can go from metal to jazz. Seriously. The Duncan Designed USM pickups are very flexible and with a coil-tap and judicial use of the volume knob, you'll be amazed how many classic sounds you can get out of one guitar.

2. Very fast neck / feel. Parker's are known for killer necks (speaking from 20+ yrs experience, nothing I've ever played has been faster and smoother than my Fly). The PDF60 clearly shows its genetic link to the Fly. I would prefer the Stainless Steel frets, but hey - it's the bottom of the line - what do you expect?

3. Surprisingly light / comfortable. Basswood is known for being light, but this guitar only weighs about half a pound more than my Fly Deluxe! Over those long jams, that really saves your back. Also, it's perfect standing or seated. Very comfortable to play.

4. Modder's Paradise. The control cavity on this guitar has lots of open space! If you want a great guitar to modify with all sorts of on-board gizmos, get this one!

Okay, enough raving. Here's why it didn't get 5 stars:

1. Action. Don't misunderstand, it's good - very good - but not quite Fly level good. The action on the guitar is lower than my Strat, but not my Fly. I can't seem to get it any lower.

2. Tuners. The guitar comes with locking tuners, but they're not Sperzels (like the Fly). That's an easy upgrade, but I think it should just come that way. All but one of the tuners on it work just fine, but I couldn't get the high E to lock, and had to wind the string around the post. No big deal, but how much more would a set of Sperzels have been?

3. Switch. It's almost kind of funny, but the pickup selector was in "backwards" - the toggle toward the neck activated the bridge pup. 2 minutes, a screwdriver and a gentle touch unscrewing the switch and turning it, and it was problem solved... but still - what's up with that?

Overall, this is an absolutely killer guitar. It looks amazing, plays great, and sounds fantastic. It's hard to go wrong with a Parker in general, but even the bottom of the line is an exceptional guitar!