Replacing the output jack on a Parker Fly

By the time I was 17, I was getting bored with the same approach to guitar design. My jaded teenage eyes were tired of seeing Strats and Teles over and over and over again. I thought these were grandpa guitars and I was craving something new. Then I discovered the Parker Fly and immediately knew I had to have one. So I scraped and saved every penny I made from my fast-food job, eventually making enough to tumble down $1,700 on an emerald Parker Fly Deluxe. This was my first (and pretty much last) high end electric guitar I’ve ever bought and I loved it. My Parker is long gone but every now and then one comes into the shop for repairs and reignites my fascination with them and reminds me what a brilliant and difficult guitar a Parker Fly can be.

Ken Parker is a genius luthier but sometimes I think he’s rather too smart and therefore his guitars are not easy to work on. Replacing the output jack on a Parker Fly is not an easy task, although it is an easy task on most other guitars. While Ken Parker doesn’t seem to build his guitars with serviceability in mind, we’re in the repair business and rarely shy from a challenge.

The difficulty with replacing the output bushing on a Parker Fly is… well, this:

The Parker Fly is an electric/acoustic guitar that passes both piezo and electric sounds through an active preamp system and then out a single stereo output jack. Each component is connected with ribbon cables, and the output socket itself has five solder joints. The stereo output jack has been modified to allow both electric and piezo sounds to be routed separately, also activating the battery with a switch added to the output jack body. It’s a brilliant idea, but it makes a routine repair a bit complicated.

The first difficulty to overcome is to remove the ribbon cable without destroying it. Luckily, I’m pretty good at Operation, and with a soldering iron, solder sucker, and some patience, I was able to remove all five solder joints without melting the ribbon cable.

The next step was to remove the battery switch. This is glued to the socket which I carefully melted off with a soldering iron while slowly working the switch free. Since the switch is plastic, it would be very easy to melt and ruin it, so delicacy was key. Here you can see the switch removed, revealing the modified socket:

We often say “nothing is easy” on the shop floor, and the Parker Fly output jack proves our phrasing fits. Even the way the jack is attached to the body is complicated. The end has been filed to accommodate the jack screw cap. There is a tiny hole on the outer edge that allows a small tool to free it (a task easier in theory than in practice).

The bush is out! Here is the original modified jack and battery switch:

Now it was time to make my own Parker Fly output socket. I used a Switchcraft stereo female endpin, cut off the end and filed through the case to install the battery switch. Cutting into the side of the jack requires critical measurements – too deep will prevent the guitar cable from being inserted, and if not placed properly along its length, the cable will not engage the battery switch. I’m sure Parker guitars had a standard jig for this, but since we do this about every 10 years or so I just have to measure carefully and do it slowly and steadily.