Flippin' Guitars

Flippin' Guitars We’re the only Parker Fly repair shop endorsed by Ken Parker. Check out Boom Guitars for something special. Some amp repair, and tube biasing.

Carrying on for him & proudly keeping his babies alive… We also do some custom guitar builds and partner with Boom Guitars on his builds. Guitar and Bass set-up, intonation, repair, pick-up replacement, hot-rodding, custom work. Light boxes and stage gear. Whatever else you might have in mind – we’re up for it.

Jerry was doing some home repair on a borrowed Fly. In replacing the piezo pot, he tore the original flex. Unfortunately...
08/12/2026

Jerry was doing some home repair on a borrowed Fly. In replacing the piezo pot, he tore the original flex. Unfortunately that guitar had the second version of the output flex so there isn’t a replacement at the moment. V.J. (Fly Clone) is working towards making those. The remedy is the original flex and output jack. He didn’t feel comfortable soldering it all up and after much conversation, he decided to get a full output flex assembly from us. We wrote up an assembly procedure for him & to put on Fly Clone…

Months in the effort for Seth. The Agular DCB-D2 pickups are only sold in a set. I reached out to our rep for a couple o...
08/08/2026

Months in the effort for Seth. The Agular DCB-D2 pickups are only sold in a set. I reached out to our rep for a couple of months to get just the bridge without success, no reply. It turned out that our rep had left the company. Once connected again, it took 4 months to get just one - it was special order… It finally came in and we did what we promised way back when. Seth wanted the middle against the bridge and that’s what we did. There was a battery box routed on the back in that same area so some accurate measurements before moving forward. The pickup and the battery box had 1/16” of material between them. Mounting holes missed, battery mounting in the middle / pickup on the ends. I swapped out the previous blend pot for a 6-position rotary switch. It’s one we had custom made previously for a 3 pickup Dingwall, then document the wiring design to be recreated. It all worked out and fit in the cavity along with the Dark Glass tone capsule.

2 of 2 for Vince… This Fly has had frets reglued, some by us and it played at normal action but Vince wanted it super lo...
08/03/2026

2 of 2 for Vince… This Fly has had frets reglued, some by us and it played at normal action but Vince wanted it super low, .030”. It wasn’t getting there without a full fret level. A ton of work to get all straight again.

1 of 2 for Vince down from NJ. His midi Fly needed a better mag pickup switch and a remote switch to turn on the Sustain...
08/02/2026

1 of 2 for Vince down from NJ. His midi Fly needed a better mag pickup switch and a remote switch to turn on the Sustainiac while using the midi output. The Sustainiac typically turns on by a switch in the 1/4” jack. He previously had to insert a dummy plug to turn it on.

Chatting with Alberto, in Spain I think. He has a broken truss rod and wanted advice. He took his Fly to a local veterin...
08/02/2026

Chatting with Alberto, in Spain I think. He has a broken truss rod and wanted advice. He took his Fly to a local veterinarian who did the X-rays. One set with the rod tight and one loose (the screw just moved up). 50/50 chance on which end came loose. Maybe someone has some insite on the rod end retainer crimping. Very cool images and had to share. We have another Fly coming with a broken rod for us to experiment on… more to come.

See Chuck at Problem Child Guitars for your guitar needs. He’s killin’ it! Of course if it’s a Parker Fly, hit us up…
07/26/2026

See Chuck at Problem Child Guitars for your guitar needs. He’s killin’ it! Of course if it’s a Parker Fly, hit us up…

The modded step/stop I made to resolve The problem with Dennis’ Fly. Drawing one and having the machine shop make one wo...
07/26/2026

The modded step/stop I made to resolve The problem with Dennis’ Fly. Drawing one and having the machine shop make one would have been very expensive. I took some plate aluminum and used a hacksaw to rough it out. Just over an hour to do it… Then I took it to the bench for filing, fine tuning and fitting. Cool part but after all that, I realized the one I copied (in the guitar parts) was reversed from an original one. Stop & floating sides reversed. That really didn’t matter, it just works opposite.

Dennis bought this refinished Fly frame with all the parts(?). The previous owner had some trouble getting it setup and ...
07/26/2026

Dennis bought this refinished Fly frame with all the parts(?). The previous owner had some trouble getting it setup and sold it. Originally we saw a broken pin on the Mag tone pot, a rip in the output flex cable and when tested, the preamp was dead. We dug in rebuilding the flex cables and decided to do both with new switches (12 & 3 pin). The jack was one of ours so pretty new, I reused it. Pickups put in and wired next. Swapped in a repaired preamp and added a new battery clip. All up and running fine, then put in a CFP, 10 spring and put some tension on the plate spring. Time for the tuner install. The tuner holes were filled in with paint so some reaming to get them in. I’m not sure why, but the nut area was a wide unpainted strip. I used a large Graph Tech block and made a nut that mimicked the top and fit the rectangular base. It seemed to be in the home run stretch with stringing up and filing the nut slots. The relief was right, set action to .050” and set the slots to the appropriate height. That set the action nearly on the frets so adjusted up with the trem… then I heard a snap of sorts. Flipped it over and the brass nub of the trem plate was under the step/stop…? A bit of head scratching and I think the reason it was painted, was from a broken neck at the body. Whoever glued it didn’t glue it right. A straight edge on the frets points ABOVE the saddles. You can think of it like installing a shim in the neck pocket. The trem needed to come up to get the right action resulting in the mis-match at the step/stop. I decided to recreate the step/stop in aluminum with an extended stop area to get it to work. She’s all good now with a slightly raised trem, fully functional locked or floating.

Our go / no-go preamp test tool has turned out to be a valuable part of determining what’s up when there isn’t any outpu...
07/22/2026

Our go / no-go preamp test tool has turned out to be a valuable part of determining what’s up when there isn’t any output or one side (mag or piezo) drops out. Just the preamp board can be tested (pic) or substitute one side or the other IN the guitar to narrow down the fault. Just the flex cables are flimsy so I was getting some base plates made. That’s when I found out that TNT Laser Works wasn’t doing custom work anymore. I stacked 4 pieces of scrap pickguard taped on a printed 1:1 print and made these to verify my design. I’ll be building more for aspiring Parker techs.

Address

16102 Crusade Court
Haymarket, VA
20169

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 7pm
Tuesday 11am - 7pm
Wednesday 11am - 7pm
Thursday 11am - 7pm
Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday 12pm - 7pm

Telephone

+17037539896

Website

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