Fly Pickups (Gen 1, Gen 2, and Other)

[Jayrod99]

Anyone know what size hex wrench fits the adjustment screws on the Seymour Duncan pickups on a Fly Mojo?

[rmora88]

Looks like a T5? Hex? I could be totally wrong...

[vjmanzo]

Do the Duncan’s have a hex screw?!

Mine have a flathead slot:

Are you referring to the DiMarzio pickups?

[mmmguitar]

+1 to VJ’s question. Only the two generations of Dimarzios had hex pole pieces; and they’re imperial 3/32” (same as other hex Dimarzios). The Duncans had either one or two rows of fillister flathead screws, depending on era of production. Note that it is simple to swap screw types between pickups if desired; as the bobbins aren’t threaded.

[reverend-kansas]

Will do—I have this info in a spreadsheet for each of my Flys, so I’ll get back to you soon.

Did you ever post your preferred height? I've got a Deluxe with Gen 2 Dimarzio and I'm trying to balance the bassy-ness of the neck pickup with the thinnesss of the bridge pickup. There is such a large tonal difference and volume difference that it is difficult to switch back and forth.

[vjmanzo]

Did you ever post your preferred height?

Ta da!

[chrisjscott]

I've recently discovered that my '97 Fly Deluxe's bridge pickup is kaput and, in the process of trying to figure this out (thx again to all here who provided such valuable input), got some detail from Dimarzio that I had never heard before (and subsequent Google searches haven't really turned up these details):

• Dimarzio's code for the Gen1 bridge pickup is PHWB1 - note that this can be confusing as the Gen2's bridge pickup is PHWP2

• Dimarzio tech support tells me that the meter reads for Gen1 bridge pickups should be "The red/black coil should measure approx. 8.4Kohms and the green/white coil approx. 9.2 Kohms"

• As of this writing a replacement PHWB1 can be ordered from Dimarzio for $80 (before shipping)

I have an inquiry out to Dimarzio requesting the meter reads for the neck pickup (presumably the PHWB2) and will post them here if/when I get them!

[vjmanzo]

This is great, @chrisjscott! Very helpful info! Thank you!

[mmmguitar]

I have an inquiry out to Dimarzio requesting the meter reads for the neck pickup (presumably the PHWB2) and will post them here if/when I get them!

I had a brain fart in the other thread concerning the model numbers but, FWIW, the Gen 1 neck is/was "PHWN1." Each pickup has either an "N1" or "B1" position designation on the baseplate which is often hidden by the thin piece of mounting foam. I've also mistakenly referred to the Gen 2s by "B" and "N" designations when, in reality, it's as you said; with PHWP1 and 2 being neck and bridge.

[vjmanzo]

I updated the original post with the following:

DiMarzio's internal code for the Gen 1 neck pickup is PHWN1 and PHWB1 for the Gen 1 bridge pickup. DiMarzio's internal code for the Gen 2 neck pickup is PHWP1 and PHWP2 for the Gen 2 bridge pickup.

Thanks @chrisjscott and @mmmguitar for making this thread more helpful!

[chrisjscott]

Cost $80 + shipping; took about a 8 days to arrive.

Two things to note, for those of you who may find yourselves going down this route someday:

• The face features the current Dimarzio logo design, not the block one used on the original pickups (this is detailed somewhere around here. I actually THOUGHT, after placing my order, that I should've offered to ship the broken pickup to them so they could re-purpose the face so that my pickups match but "Eh. Not the biggest issue in the world."

• The replacement pickup doesn't include any neoprene foam underneath, so be prepared to re-purpose the foam from the original (or order more on Amazon - look for 1/8" thickness)...

Next up: soldering it back in without demolishing my ribbon cabling!

[Jupiter]

Just took a look at my '98 Classic's pickups..

Bridge:

Neck:

So I guess the bridge is a Gen 2 and the neck is a Gen1?

I wonder if that's just an oddity or the owner replaced them at some point.

My '95 Deluxe has Gen1 pickups, the bridge pickup of the Classic doesn't sound hotter to me, if I am being honest.

[Piplodocus]

I was rummaging around in my Dropbox and found some general info on Fly/Nitefly pickups I had. Some is about standard pickups, some historical, some about retro-fits. Lots of it is stuff I copied/pasted off either the old Parker forum or other random ones. So a bit of a big disorganised "info dump" I'm afraid, but got some good info in (even if some more re-confirming things already stated above) and will no doubt be more use here than hidden in my DropBox! I can't necessarily vouch for the accuracy of any of this, as I didn't write most of it (so credit to whoever did, and obvs a lot of it is written from the authors perspective), but it's interesting stuff from various sources I apparently saved back about a decade ago:

(Beginning other people's words...)
Stock DiMarzios in Parkers
As some of you know, I recently got my grubby hands on a MINT Parker fly after much research and demoing and annoying local music shop owners. Anyway, my only real complaint about the guitar is its' bridge pickup, it just sounds a bit thin on the tiny strings when you mash your fingers on 'em. I decided I would look around and see what I could find and found a PArker user's group on Yahoo. The following is a synopsis of a conversation between one of the group's members and Steve Blucher of DiMarzio fame about the pickups and some of the issues surrounding them....

”First, one fact that was a big surprise to me: All recent Parker Deluxe/Classic/Select models come equipped with the second generation ("upgraded") DiMarzio Parker Custom pickups. He called these pickups P1 (neck) and P2 (bridge.) He implied that if the pickups on your guitar have the "new style" DiMarzio (larger) logo then they're the newer custom pickups. You can tell for sure by looking at the model designation in the back of the pickup. My '99 Supreme's pickups have the new style logo so I already have them on my instrument. I believe he said that Parker started equipped all Flys with this newer pickup a few years ago.

The first generation Parker humbucking pickups were derived from an neck Air Norton and a bridge Tone Zone. These pickups were not designed specifically for the Fly (as I found out a Fly's pickups have unique requirements which I will mention later..) Steve told me that he and another Parker Fly enthusiast/DiMarzio employee designed the custom P1/P2 pickups for themselves and found that they were a drastic improvement over the originals so they presented them to Parker. At the time Korg was still distributing Parker guitars and these new pickups were analyzed in a "big and fancy" Korg soundroom and compared against many traditional and vintage instruments. Here they found that the new pickups also gave the Fly a more traditional sound so they decided to go with them as standard equipment. One of the biggest complaints from early Fly owners was that they wanted more traditional sounds so this was one factor in Korg/Parker's decision to make the change. I asked him about custom pickups for the Fly and expressed my primary complaint that the Fly's pickups were not focused enough and I felt needed more output for the type of music I play. He asked what kind of sound I was looking for and I told him something in the area of a distortion class pickup, like a Super Distortion or an X2N. My favorite bridge pickup lately is an EMG-85. Unfortunately, he told me that this is impossible. Read on to
learn why.

As I mentioned previously there are two significant design limitations for any pickup in the Fly. 1) size restriction, and 2) native instrument tonality. He told me that quite simply the pickup's output is dependent on the size of the pickup's magnet. And the size of the Fly's pickup cavity will not allow a large "distortion class" magnet (like an X2N or a Super Distortion.) Secondly, the bright tonality of the Fly, which Steve felt is one of its coolest features, requires that a pickup have a lot of winding to reduce the brightness and produce a smoother tone. I guess this is why the DC resistance of the P1/P2 pickups are so high compared to other DiMarzio humbuckers.

Steve told me that the mass of most guitars reduces the string's treble response. The Fly is different because of the partial composite construction, the bridge, and (most significantly) the reduced weight. He said that the Fly is one of the brightest guitars he's worked with (he mentioned the aluminum bodied Able Axe as the brightest he's heard). He said that this brightness and even frequency response is a fantastic feature of the Fly. It gives a pickup designer a lot of leverage and gives the players a very linear and consistent tone. He told me specifically that one unique result of this is that on a Parker Deluxe/Artist/Classic you can not hear any (or as dramatic of a) difference between a 12th fret D on a wound D string and a 7th fret D on an unwound G string as you can on just about any other electric guitar. I tested this on my Supreme vs some of my other guitars and he's right about this. I never really noticed that before.

He said that the first thing that we should try is to raise the height of the Fly's pickups. Push both E strings down on the 24th fret and raise the pickups as far as they'll go, HOWEVER, he said, DO NOT let the pickups get "floppy" in the pickup cavity as this will cause the pickups to vibrate and cause mid-frequency "howling" feedback. He said we might want to try to put some foam under the pickup to make sure that it stays secure and not loose. This will help those looking for a higher output/more focused tone.

We can also (obviously) boost the signal of the guitar with an external preamp/line booster. [This led me to wonder if the guitar's onboard preamp can be wired to do the same for the magnetic output... More on this later...]

Unfortunately, he told me that the P1/P2 pickups are basically the hottest/highest output pickup that DiMarzio (or probably any other passive pickup manufacturer) can produce for the Fly. Basically, that's the end of the story.

I then asked him exactly what exactly can DiMarzio do for us? DiMarzio can't produce a -hotter pickup- because of the magnet size restriction.. BUT.. they can produce Fly pickups with tonal characteristics similar to other DiMarzio pickups.

Here are the models that he mentioned in particular:
PAF (But I don't remember him mentioning PAF Pro specifically..)
Fred (In my opinion a Fred would sound awful in a Fly...)
Norton (My favorite DiMarzio pickup.. This might sound very good!)
Breed (No experience with this pickup)
(obviously Tone Zone and Air Norton... what originals were based on)

He also said that they once put an Evolution's winding into a Parker pickup for a customer and while the pickup didn't have the same high output as the Evolution it did have the same type of sound. This might be a solution for some of looking for a more focused distortion tone.

And that was basically it. Although I will also say that I mentioned Ed Roman's black back Parker Fly replacement offer and we discussed this topic at length. I will share a few points that he expressed to me. First, I read that Parker selected DiMarzio because DiMarzio was in NY and local to Parker. Steve said that Parker in fact received pickup submissions from many manufacturers and selected DiMarzio after objective analysis. Parker thought that the DiMarzio pickups sounded best in their guitars. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone and I must say that Steve said nothing bad about anyone or any other pickup manufacturer. Also, it is my opinion that DiMarzio clearly seems to have done the most R&D for Parker Guitar pickups and I think it's very unlikely that a pickup from a different manufacturer will be any dramatic improvement over what we already have. I could be wrong, but I will personally no longer consider a Duncan or a "black back" replacement in my Fly.

That's basically it... I hope this was as informative for other Fly owners as it was for me. Steve is THE MAN in my book and the fact that he loves his Artist is a good thing for us all. Keep in mind that the reason why we have the upgraded pickups is because people at DiMarzio are passionate about their personal Parker guitars. After talking with him I have a new found respect for the thought that went into the Fly.. Good luck to all!

Magnetic Pickup recommendations for your Parker Fly.
Pickups installed in a Parker Fly will sound different than the same pickups installed in a conventional guitar, because the Fly is built differently. This is true whether your pickups are DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, EMG, or custom hand-wounds. Pickups only copy the acoustic properties of the guitar. They can shape tone but they don't create tone. It all starts with the guitar. Before choosing pickups, consider the tonal character of your guitar and the ease of pickup installation.

Nothing sounds like a Parker Fly. They vibrate so much; you can actually feel it as you play. All guitars soak up some of the "sound energy" of a vibrating string. Parkers soak up less "sound energy" so the pickups "hear" more overtone harmonics, which produces uncommon richness of tone. The frequency response extends much higher than other guitars due to the unique materials used in its construction (for example: lightweight tone woods, composite skin and stainless steel frets). Therefore a pickup, which sounds dark or muddy on another guitar, may sound more clear and bright in the Parker Fly.

Sound choices:
Building fine pickups is a real art, but it doesn’t have to be mysterious. Basically, the guitar pickup is a coil of insulated wire wrapped around a magnetic core. It is positioned so the strings are within its magnetic field. These things can be altered to shape the tonal characteristics of a pickup. The main design factors for magnetic pickups are:

• Coil configuration and locations (for ex. a pair of Humbuckers, or three Single-coils, or two Single-coils plus a Humbucker)
• Wiring of the coils in relation to one another (for ex. series vs. parallel, in-phase vs. out-of-phase, hum-canceling vs. noisy)
• Magnetic field (several materials are available including Alnico ll, Alnico lll, Alnico V. Ceramic and Neodymium)
• Coil wire; diameter, length, number of wraps, and overall coil shape.
• Other things which have an effect on tone are: coil wire insulation type, potting, pickup covers, mounting plates, pole pieces, distance from string to pickup, pot values, etc.

The key point is, you can modify any number of these factors to impact your overall sound. The Parker Fly is factory equipped with DiMarzio pickups*. If you want a different tone DiMarzio makes a dozen different models which are available in the Fly format ** (see below).

Other than DiMarzio:
There are three things to consider when retrofitting non-DiMarzio pickups onto a Fly.
• Our guitar body is so thin (just over 1⁄2” at the neck PU) that special pickup mounting is required. Fly Humbuckers are anchored with two pole piece screws going into threaded brass inserts in the guitar. If a pickup doesn't have pole piece spacing identical to the Fly, modifications will be required. (The screws are 1.400" on center, on the diagonal of a 0.720" X 1.200" grid.) A solidly mounted pickup is imperative for top performance when playing loud.
• Our base-plate corners have a 3/8" radius. Most other pickups have a smaller radius and won’t fit into the pickup hole without modification.
• String spacing at the Parker Bridge is about 2.150". The pole pieces of our DiMarzio pickups are 2" apart ( 0.400" o.c.)***. Narrower spacing may
diminish the sound of the E strings.

Keep an open mind and open ears when it comes to selecting magnetic pickups for your Parker Fly because your favorite pickup model may sound a little different in a Parker. Remember that magnetic pickups are only one link in a long chain that determines tone and output. Other important links to consider are: your guitar, strings, cables, amps and speakers.

Tech Notes:
* Flys built since April of 1999 are equipped with DiMarzio newer Parker Fly Custom Neck #PHWP1, and Parker Fly Custom Bridge #PHWP2. These are identified by a DiMarzio logo, which is 5/8" long.
From 1993 through March of 1999 Flys had the original DiMarzio pickups, which were based on the Air Norton for the neck position and the Tone Zone for the bridge position. These are identified by a DiMarzio logo, which is 3/8" long.
** DiMarzio makes the following pickup models in the Fly format:
The Humbucker From Hell, PAF, PAF Pro, Fred, Norton, Air Norton, Air Zone, Tone Zone, Breed neck and bridge models, Air Classic neck and bridge, and Virtual PAF neck and bridge models. They have also done Fly versions of the Evolution and Steve’s Special.
*** Seymour Duncan's Trembucker models also have wide pole piece spacing, but they are not exactly the same dimensions as DiMarzio.

Nitefly Pickups...
NV5-NFV8 built ’98 -> ’99
The new "version-two" DiMarzio magnetic pickups were voiced specifically for the new body woods.

The three single-coil (NFV5) and the one hum, two single-coil models (NFV6 & NFV7) have a very sweet and balanced "Texas Blues" tone.
The two humbucker NiteFly (NFV8) produces a more "gnarly" and thick, in-your-face type of tone but still has great "Parker" string-to-string balance.
Production on these models actually started in early '98 but the NiteFly 5 & 6 did not ship in the U.S. until their introduction at the January '99 Winter Namm Show, with the NiteFly 7 & 8 models following in February and March.

http://www.liquisearch.com/parker_fly/pickups
Pickups
Most versions of the Parker Fly feature a set of two magnetic Humbucker style pickups and a Fishman developed piezoelectric pickup designed to emulate acoustic guitar sounds. The piezoelectric pickup is aided by an onboard active pre-amplifier requiring the use of a 9 volt battery. The magnetic pickups are passive, but sit within the active circuit path. Fly guitars feature a stereo output jack, allowing the piezo and magnetic pickups to be sent to different amplifiers, or blended into a mono signal. Some Fly models have only magnetic pickups, for traditional electric guitar sounds, while some models have only piezo pickups, for use as solid-body acoustic-electric guitars.

The Parker Fly's magnetic pickups are based on the traditional humbucker design, but feature a proprietary mounting system which eliminates the need for pickup rings and mounting brackets. The pickups are instead mounted via two extended pole pieces that screw into bushings sunk into the pickup cavities of the guitar. This mounting system produces a cleaner looking interface between the pickups and the instrument. The first Humbuckers used for the fly were produced by Dimarzio based on their Air Norton (neck position), and ToneZone (bridge position) designs. These pickups are commonly referred to as "Gen1 Dimarzios". Responding to complaints about their non traditional hi-fi sound, Dimarzio introduced a new set of humbuckers in the spring of 1999. Commonly referred to as "Gen 2 Dimarzios", these new pickups were custom designed for the Fly's unique voicing. Featuring ceramic magnets, the Gen 2 design had more mid range focus, and higher output than their predecessors, and are still used on many current fly models

Email between me and DiMarzio:
Monday, February 15, 2016 3:36 PM
To: DiMarzio Tech
Subject: Parker Pickups

Hello!

I have 2 Parker Niteflies from 2000 and 2001, with DiMarzio "custom wound" humbucker pickups. From what I have found out there were 2 versions of the Nitefly pickups which changed to the new ones in about '98 I think, so I should have the newer type. I also know there were 2 versions of the Fly (not Nitefly) pickups there's a lot more info on the web about. These changed version in about '99 from what I can tell. Are these the same pickups in both the Fly and Nitefly (although they have a different construction and the original Flies have to have shallow pickups to fit in the body that the Nitefly shouldn't)? Or are there 2 different Nitefly types that are totally different to the Fly?

I'm guessing both my HH Nitefly-M and HSS Nitefly-SA have the same bridge humbucker even though I guess the HH has 500k pots and the HSS 250k probably? They don't sound the same, but they're also different wood. Any other useful info on them? There's little info on them on the web anywhere and these days US Music Corp who now own Parker don't seem to know much.

Reply from DiMarzio:
The Fly and Nitefly pickups bear no relation to each other, other than all of them having been custom designs for Parker. All of the Nitefly models have medium-output humbuckers and/or vintage-output single coils. The HH models are somewhat similar to the PAF Pro (neck) and Norton (bridge). The HB in the HSS model is more similar to a Fred.

DiMarzio Inc.

Nitefly Pickups (based on my Niteflies):
HH (Nitefly M):
Bridge (Norton-like): P/N-397 PHWB3BKL (Slugs + Screw heads)
Neck (PAF Pro-like): P/N-396 PHWN2BKLR
1 = Bridge Red to out, Br Black & white joined with switch (HB):
Bridge, Green always gnd.
2 = Br Red to out, Br black connected to neck B & W of neck:
(Black + red) bridge single coil in series with (white+green) neck
single coil
3 = Neck Red to out, Black & white joined always joined, Green
always gnd. (HB):
Neck
HSS (Nitefly SA):
Bridge (FRED-like): ? (Hex screw heads both coils)
Mid: P/N-392 PSCM1BKL
Neck: P/N-391 PSCN1BKL

9fingers on gear page:
I have a dozen nice Strats. What I virtually always play are my 2 SSS Niteflys. I have replaced the pups in them. In one I have Lace Sensors: Hot Gold neck, Hot Silver & Burgundy bridge - very sweet. In the other I have Barden S-Deluxes & they KILL in that guitar. I have tried them in Strats & they are good but thin & harsh compared to how they sound in the Nitefly. The Bardens in the Nitefly are the sound I have been seeking for 40 years, a HUGE Strat tone with all the woodiness & quack & no noise. The Laces also sound far richer in the Nitefly that the same pups in a passive Strat. The carbon fiber skin neck carbon fiber fretboard, Sperzrels & stainless steel frets on the Nitefly feel incredible & are so stable. The trem is the best ever! I have also put an add-bridge pup mini switch in each Nitefly. I love the balance of the Niteflys. My beloved Strats feel "primitive" to me in comparison. I have had a P-38. It is a nice guitar but pretty "normal" compared to the Niteflys- no carbon fiber on the neck or fingerboard, no Sperzels, no SS frets, no unique Parker trem. The P 38 was a nice light, fast, pretty guitar

Me, the OP back again, writing this now!...
Well, that's the end of my random Word doc I copied info and ideas into. Hope that's useful to some of you. I've probably got more Parker geeky info if I rummage about I can post.

For the record, most of my Niteflies have Bare knuckle pickups in of various models. Those are easy to fit and no mods required. Try them. If you don't like them just swap them out again.

My best fly Mojo also has BKPs (a Holy Diver bridge and a Mule neck). That was a lot more "fun". I had to cut the base-plates and install 2 longer polepiece screws to mount them. I also routed a small bit more out the cavity too to get them slightly lower. But from what I heard Mojos (which come stock with Seymours) have slightly deeper pickup cavities than Classics/Deluxes and maybe slightly thicker bodies as a result. Dunno if that's true or not, but it's what I heard. Would be interesting to know if it is if someone has both a mojo and non-mojo fly and a pair of calipers.

[mmmguitar]

FWIW, the first part was originally posted on Jemsite Jan 22nd, 2003.

[Patzag]

When I got my first Fly in 1994, I wanted the neck pickup to sound more PAF-like so I called Parker. Ken answered! He suggested I speak to Steve B at DiMarzip and gave me his number.
I spoke to Steve and he was the kindest person. He listened attentively and then sent me a pickup which is still in that guitar - though I sold it a few years later.
Truth be told, it didn’t sound really PAF like, but the issue really was that I didn’t know how to dial in a good tone.
I have no such problem today and I’m perfectly happy with my production models.
The AxeFX handles anything I might need at the input level and there are so many amp models that it’s not hard to get any desired sound.
I love the Gen 1 pickups and the preamp too. Too bright? Give an 8th of a turn down on the tone knob. So much easier to cut something than trying to add what’s not there.

[timshephard]

HI all!
I have 1 bone stock '98, and thus the small marked pickups.

I have learned:
(though the official text is a strange way to describe this...)
the 4 hold down positions each and all do 2 jobs with a single screw:
the very first thread catches and sets the height as it starts AND continues to adjust (without changing the position) the pole piece function as all the others do.

Hope that helps.

Now, what I need!

I have dual rows (in each pickup system of pairs of coils).
Seems to me I have 12 points IN EACH to possibly adjust.
Is it expected:
that, say for the neck, I do adjust all 12, or would one or the other set only be adjusted?
(and is this typically true for all 12 adjustable pole pickups?)

(If it helps, let's say - from the nut to the bridge - NECK/neck bank, then NECK/bridge bank, then BRIDGE/neck bank, and BRIDGE/bridge bank - whew!)

If all get adjusted (or not), is there an engineering/electrical reason why/why not?
(Is one 'bank' a drone or parasite only to compensate for the main bank?)

In general, what does a higher pickup/higher pole do here?
(And is that the general case?)

For reference, I would ALWAYS lean towards a clean D28 type sound, without feedback, rather than distorted/colored R&R sound.

THX!

[mmmguitar]

@timshephard, the pole piece height adjustment is a matter of personal preference. You can adjust them to balance relative volume between strings, coils, and pickups; as well as to emphasize or de-emphasize bass and treble frequencies.

If you’re trying to get a D28 sound out of humbuckers, you may want swap in some lower output pickups to achieve a sound cleaner than what you’re likely to achieve from adjusting the height of the rock/metal-aimed Air Norton and Tone Zone pickups in your Fly. I can say that neither of the stock pickups have dummy/parasite coils - Each of them is contributing to the overall character of the pickup.

[timshephard]

OK - I didn't quite where I wanted to be, so I (what's the word?) researched a bit more on my own.
I know a bit about inverted signals (hence the parasite, clone, dummy reference) but did not know that while the coil are inverted electrically, the magnets are also (ours?).
So, EM signals get cancelled by the coil inversion, but the magnets are also inverted, so the true signal is doubled. Great!

So, again, since ours are EM cancelled and (magnetically poled) signal doubled, would one typically:
raise a low volume pole and it's mate each say half or to match each other so both contribute equally, OR,
leave a bank flat, and raise the other bank only, so it contributed fully solo balanced when in (paired) single coil mode? (Again, WHEW!)
I know, complicated, but revisiting my gear with world's of time here, and wanting to understand and get it right.

My D28 comment - was not a (an unrealistic) goal, but a direction - I will always go towards a true box guitar sound over other choices. I was using/carrying a Cal Blonde for this guitar, and it got ridiculous to move around. I had gone through stick-on pickups, internal mics, and settled here (the Parker) for weight, the least feedback and retaining my mobility (again, to prevent feedback).

[Flybass5]

I'm pretty sure that the Gen2 pickups were after I joined Parker in 2002.
I have the prototypes that Blucher sent in my Fly Artist. They're the only Black/Creams out there.

[hectorpena]

I just wanted to share my experience with Gen1 vs. Gen2 pickups

After owning a Parker Fly Classic for more than 25 years (mine is a 97 which I bought new) and doing a lot of research and trying to find videos, reading posts, etc. last weekend I took the plunge and went ahead and swapped the bridge pick up from Gen1 to Gen2.

The videos I found were not really much help, but I figured out that if the company decided to take such a big decision there might have been some good research behind it.

After doing the swap at 1st I thought there was not that much of a change. I used to roll the tone on the bridge pickup 1/8 of a turn to mitigate the HiFi high end on the Gen 1 and that used to work for me. So, after I just did the swap to the Gen 2 and tested it, I though "great" now I don't have to roll the tone back.

However, once I had a chance to crank the amp up to good "valve" levels, the difference was very noticeable and for good to my ears.

The Parker Fly was my main guitar for good number of years, but eventually I moved on to Les Pauls and PRS custom 24's, my favorite tone is a Mahagony / Maple capped set neck guitar.

Now with the new bridge Gen 2 pickup, my Fly Classic sounds fairly similar, especially on the low registers to my Alex Lifeson Les Paul, I did back to back comparisons and I'm most pleased with the results.

I still believe that the Les Paul has a slight edge on tone, but if you take into account the playability, comfort and spot on intonation of the Fly, it's probably going to be my main guitar again.

For Metal players I think the decision of going from Gen 1's to Gen 2's is a no brainer.

Anyways, hope this helps anyone that like me was on the fence about changing the bridge pickups.

BTW I have never had a problem with the Gen 1 Neck pickup, I think it sounds great. But after this positive change with the bridge pickup, I'm getting curious about the sound of the Gen 2 Neck pickup