I found a cool bit of information about Parker Guitars while I was trying to identify the one I have.

I got my Parker in the late 90s at Sodja Music in Cleveland (purchased from the inimitable Jeff Nagel). It wasn’t like most Parker guitars I had seen at the time. The one I got didn’t have the aerodynamically sculpted body that seemed to be standard. Instead, mine was more of a “standard” body with uniform thickness, albeit with the distinctive Parker shape.

It’s a Nitefly as revealed by a little text on the headstock below the Parker logo. Cool – but I wanted to try to figure out when it was manufactured and exactly what model it is.

I found a cool page that explains how the serial number actually contains the date. So I can pinpoint mine to July 1997. And based on the pickup configuration as described here, it is a Nitefly NFV2.

It’s groovy to finally figure that out. Now I’m trying to decide how I’d like to change it up a little – maybe do some custom art on it.  Since I’ve been playing more guitar lately I’m kind of re-evaluating the handful of guitars I have and trying to think of ways to improve them for regular playing as well as improving the aesthetics. More to come!