Parker P-38
Affordable axe combines magnetic and piezo pickups
by Emile Menasché
September 28, 2000
Summing it Up
A Parker for under a grand? Well … yes and no. The imported P-38 may not offer the cutting-edge materials and construction of Parker's domestic flagship models, but its shape, feel, and sound are pretty darn close. Sure, it lacks some features found on its higher-end brethren: Locking tuners will be missed, while the custom vibrato bridge may not. But at US $849, this versatile and highly playable axe boasts impressive bang for the buck.
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The P-38 combines magnetic and piezo pickups to deliver a wide array of tones. (Click for a close-up)
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Very few instruments introduced over the last decade have been as revolutionary as the original Parker Fly. That guitar, which was among the first to offer both conventional electric tones (delivered by magnetic pickups) and acoustic electric timbres (thanks to its bridge-mounted piezo elements), re-examined every aspect of solidbody design, from body shape to neck materials to finish to fret-mounting, and beyond.
The Parker NiteFly that followed was less revolutionary, using more traditional materials while retaining the core design elements of the original Fly. The imported P-38 carries this trend forward, putting the Parker feel and sound in the hands of players on a semi-pro budget.
Shape and Feel
In a world populated by Strat, Tele, and Les Paul knockoffs, the Parker body stands out. The difference is not merely cosmetic -- one of the first things you notice when you strap on the guitar is its balance. The P-38 isn't as light as the featherweight Fly, but it still feels nearly as light as air to wear. This design also offers exceptional upper-fret access all the way across the fingerboard.
Shape aside, the guitar's makeup is not that different from your typical good solidbody: The test guitar had a nicely grained ash body, a maple neck, and 22-fret rosewood board. The neck bolts on, joining the body just above the 17th fret; the nickel frets are mounted into the fingerboard, a design departure from high-end Parkers, where stainless steel frets are bonded to a composite fingerboard.
The P-38 is exceptionally easy to play. The neck and fingerboard's size, radius, and shape should be comfortable for players raised on either Fender or Gibson-style instruments.
The test guitar came equipped with light strings and very low action. I was impressed by the P-38's ability as a bending machine -- even with the low action, I could never get it to fret out, no matter how far I pushed, and the Wilkensen-licensed bridge (which also houses the Fishman piezo electronics) offered smooth action on both dive-bomb and vibrato maneuvers. Unfortunately, the tuning machines were non-locking: my exuberance with the stings knocked the guitar out of tune fairly regularly.
Electronics
Hybrid guitars -- those that combine the sounds of a conventional electric and an electro-acoustic -- are less of a curiosity than they were when the first Parker was introduced. The technology is relatively simple. A piezo pickup in the bridge provides the "acoustic" sound, while three conventional magnetic pickups (single-coils in the neck and middle slots, a humbucker in the bridge position) handle the electric chores. The key to making the design work is finding the right balance between both magnetic and piezo pickups.
The P-38 can operate in two ways. Using the supplied Y cable, you can feed the magnetic and piezo pickups to separate amps (the ideal setup would be a standard electric guitar amp for the magnos and a PA or acoustic guitar amp for the piezo). You can also run it in mono -- the Fishman "smart switching" jack senses which type of cable is in use -- feeding both signals to the same amp with a conventional guitar cable. The switching is reasonably quiet, and going between magnetic and piezo pickups resulted in no wacky volume drop-offs -- impressive. Individual magnetic and piezo volume controls let you fine-tune the balance between the two types of pickups. (You can pre-set the maximum piezo level with a trim pot located underneath the pickguard.)
As you'd expect, the P-38 offers a wide array of sounds. On the magnetic side, a five-way switch provides the familiar Strat positions. The neck and middle pickups sounded best when combined -- the neck single-coil sounded a little thin on its own. The bridge pickup sounded fat and cutting, with a nice volume boost over the single-coils. It was ideal for soloing, but also worked well as a rhythm pickup in clean and crunch settings.
Most electric guitar piezos sound thin and honky but the P-38's had a balanced tone. I always find that piezo-equipped electrics suffer from the lightness of their strings, and the P-38 is no exception -- you can never get that solid acoustic percussion out of a set this light -- but in other areas, the tone was a good approximation on a conventional, full bodied electro-acoustic.
Some of my favorite sounds combined both types of pickups. The volume and tone controls (magnetic pickups only) offered a smooth, even curve, allowing subtle variations in the sound.
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