My contacts over at US Music Corp let me know about a very cool new Parker Guitar being shown around at the NAMM musical instruments expo this week: the Parker Adrian Belew Signature Fly. Belew established himself as one of the most influential prog-rock guitarplayers with his early work in King Crimson and as a session player for Frank Zappa, David Bowie, The Talking Heads, Nine-Inch-Nails and others.
Parker Guitars, with their innovative design and components have long been favored by prog-rock and jazz players. With the addition of Line 6's Variax electronics, the Adrian Belew Signature Model enables you to chose between 25 modeled guitar sounds encompassing a wide range of classic electric guitar sounds as well as a range of acoustic sounds, including, 12 string, banjo, dobor and sitar.
The Signature model includes Sperzel locking tuners, a DiMarzio bridge pickup and a Sustainiac Stealth Pro neck pickup with infinite feedback sustain. All of that in a classic Parker Fly guitar with its lightweight one piece body, carbon-glass-epoxy composite fretboard and stainless steel frets.
Pricing and availability has not been announced. It's a totally custom guitar, but I hope it's not so expensive you have to be in King Crimson to afford it. And it would be cool to see other guitar manufacturers licensing Line 6's excellent electronics. Parker's also announced a new Fly Mojo MIDI featuring the Roland GK-GT3 pickup kit that provides on-board MIDI compatibility for use with the Roland V-Guitar system or any BOSS GK Effect pedal.
- Parker Guitars: Main, Fly, Adrian Belew
- Line 6: Main, Variax, Variax model sounds
- Adrian Belew: Main, Parker Signatute Guitar, Blog, News
This guitar has been out for almost 3 years, and yes, you do have to be a member of King Crimson to afford it, at approximately $4000 retail.
Posted by: Larry Odneal | January 18, 2009 at 06:27 PM
Thanks. Seems odd that Parker is making hay with this story now at NAMM 2009; perhaps there's something new about it. But I agree, 4 grand is a hefty price!
--Zack
Posted by: Zack Urlocker | January 19, 2009 at 07:38 PM
According to Parker, the list is $11,999 for the 2009 Belew and personally speaking worth every penny. Cheers!
Posted by: Uncle Nick | January 22, 2009 at 08:58 AM
$12k. Jeez. I have owned cars that cost less than half that. I suppose if you are at that level of champagn + caviar + private jet level of existence, it's a trifle.
--Zack
Posted by: Zack Urlocker | January 22, 2009 at 09:38 PM
Is it signed and played by Adrian before you buy it for this price? It is a sharp guitar and I'd love to see him play it.
Posted by: Guitar Hunter | February 10, 2009 at 10:55 AM