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You could argue that the hi-tech optimism of the 1980s - complete with its numerous guitar-to-MIDI wonder devices - was killed stone dead by two guitar players: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Slash. Any forward-looking remnants were subsequently headed off by the back-to-basics grunge movement as a plethora of futuristic dreams ended up in dusty corners of music shops, bedrooms and lofts.

That was then, but where are we now? Parker Guitars would probably be at the top, or somewhere very close, should you make a list of the guitar companies most likely to embrace new technology.

"The look of the Fly may continue to polarise opinion, but it's undoubtedly a very nice guitar to play – finished with great attention to detail, lightweight and well balanced."

Since 1993 the US manufacturer has displayed an innovative streak and an apparent desire to move the electric guitar away from traditional 1950s designs. It was the original Fly that broke the mould, not just with its radical shape and construction but also that it incorporated a piezo saddle bridge as standard to add pseudo-acoustic sounds; effectively a 'two-voice' instrument.

Now, with the Fly Mojo MIDI, it's a 'three-voice' guitar, adding synth access.

Build

The Fly Mojo MIDI sports a Roland GK-KIT-GT3 Divided Pickup that allows for full integration with the Roland V-Guitar system, the GR-20 synth, or anything else that can take the 13-pin signal. It means you can access the modelled guitar and amp sounds and altered tunings found in the VG-99 plus the sounds of any synths or samplers connected via MIDI.

Based on the existing Fly Mojo, it looks pretty much the same as any other high-end Parker Fly, bar two important considerations. First off there's the Roland pickup firmly screwed-in between bridge pickup and bridge (hardly noticeable on our black model) and then there's the extra controls for the pickup, which (counting a red LED that illuminates when connected to an appropriate Roland unit) effectively doubles the control furniture.

This guitar is fitted with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers - a Jazz in the neck position and a JB at the bridge. In addition, the bridge sports a six-element Fishman piezo pickup that's connected to an active custom Fishman stereo preamp.

Standard output for the guitar is via a 'smart switching' standard jack that offers a split stereo or summed mono signal depending on the lead that you use. With a standard mono guitar lead you get a mixture of the piezo and magnetic pickup signals, but using the stereo lead that comes supplied with the guitar you can split the two signals to two separate amplifiers.

An adjacent 13-pin output connects directly to a Roland unit, sending the signal both from the divided pickup and from the magnetic pickups (if selected).