Deep in the forests of Belize, a wood importer from Florida discovered a rare tree that produced a sound unlike anything guitar virtuosos had ever heard before. But why does this material cast such a spell? And at what cost does that come?
Listen to the Met’s new podcast about The Tree, which Ken has been using to build archtop guitars for many years now!
In this episode of Work/Shop, we travel to Gloucester, Massachusetts to meet Ken Parker, Guitar Maker and Owner of Ken Parker Archtops. Learn how one of the world's most masterful guitar builders got his start and built his legacy.
Ken Parker was in attendance at the Gorge Amphitheater in Seattle, WA on June 10th, as Joni Mitchell headlined a wonderful show, surrounded by her great friends and performers. For the encore, Joni played the Cedar Fly that Ken built for her in the early 90s. After the show, Ken and Joni got to be reunited after many years.
Here’s a link to The Seattle Times review: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/joni-mitchell-makes-music-history-with-brandi-carlile-in-gorge-triumph/
A favorite show, Ken will be on hand with some exceptional Archtops guitars and players. October 21-23 in Woodstock, NY! Book now, as this show gets filled up very quickly.
Ken will be returning to the Rocky Mountain Archtop festival with some examples of his latest work, and be will delivering the keynote presentation, so you don’t want to miss this.
Ken’s delighted to have Bruce Forman playing a concert with Ken’s guitars, as well as Shawn McGowan and Michael Chapedelaine providing wonderful music for the keynote. Hope you get to see these amazing players!
Ken will be at the Old Town School of Folk Music with some of his latest work.
On Saturday at 3pm, he’ll be delivering a talk entitled “What’s An Archtop Guitar?”, featuring Adam Miller playing Ken’s guitars.
I’m so pleased to invite you to this wonderful performance! The one-and-only Adam Miller will be appearing here in Gloucester at a beautiful venue on the water!
‘it takes an impossibly gifted player to improvise independent melodies, harmonies, and bass lines all at the same time – while maintaining an impeccable groove. Australia’s Adam Miller is one such rare phenomenon’– Premier Guitar Magazine
‘Not only does he own the groove, he takes polyphonic playing – with independent bass lines, melody, harmony, and even improvised solos – to incredible heights’– Guitar Player Magazine
With a unique approach to the guitar, Adam Miller’s music is groovy and approachable, whilst having a melodic sophistication that only comes from years of cross genre hopping. His inclusion of complex rhythms and dissonant haunting phrases, combined with breathtaking riffs and melodies are his signature. His jazz influenced harmony with finger style mastery creates a improvisation filled live performance that is beautifully unpredictable. This has seen him share stages with Les Paul, Tommy Emmanuel, Matt Schofield, Russell Morris, Charlie Hunter, Adam Levy, Ariel Posen, Joey Landreth, Josh Smith, Tomo Fujita, Tony McManus, Ben Gillies (Silverchair), and the list continues….
Ken Parker: “She's playing a Western Red Cedar Fly guitar. I personally built this unique guitar for Joan in 1996, trying to help with a light, small instrument that was easy for her to hold and play, and also to provide a reliable vehicle for a Roland GK2 synth pickup, driving the brand new VG-8, a signal processor potent enough to change the pitch of the string electronically, and thus end her struggles with the 50+ tunings she plays in. She used this guitar exclusively from 1996 - 2002, when she stopped playing guitar in public. What a thrill to hear her play her magic wand after all her trials and triumphs! My Hero.”
From the New York Times. Click for a link to the story (note, subscription MAY be required to read.)
Below are two videos of this performance, one shot by Dale Martin from the audience, one provided by the Newport Folk Festival.
In the late winter of 2021 a rare confluence occurred-six of Ken's guitars were visiting the shop at the same time! So, Ken invited superb guitarist Lyle Brewer to come and play each of them and the videos in this playlist are the result.
All takes were live and were recorded with mics and/or amps or combinations as indicated in the videos.
Recorded March 6, 2021. Mics=2 Audio Techinica 5045's, Amps=Carr Rambler and/or Fender Blues Deluxe. Video Recording-Cameron Willard, Audio Recording and Video Editing-John Guth.
Archtoppery is a video series that shows Ken in his shop, explaining his designs and innovative problem solving approaches, and demonstrating the tools and methods he uses to create his guitars. Often, the tools required need to be devised and built, so tool design and toolmaking will be fully explored as well.
Ken has always been enthusiastic to share with other builders, and is looking forward to producing these etudes and participating in the explorations and dialog from the viewers that is sure to follow.
We got a note from Spiros Exaras with a link to a video he made recently of him playing Yanni’s Ken Parker archtop. We are happy to share this with you!
On Saturday morning, Sept 21, 2019 at 10 am, Ken talked for about an hour, covering the history and evolution of the archtop guitar. Here’s the video…
Also, we’ve got a 50 minute set of Adam Miller playing Spot at the Silver Vines Winery in Olde Town Arvada, CO, for the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival. Click here to watch.
Ken will be in Cremona, Italy at the 2019 Cremona Acoustic Guitar Village presentation. He’ll be teaching an acoustic master class in which he will delve into historically how new technologies and materials affected the field, and exploring what traditions are worth hanging on to and which may be properly superseded by evolution.
Ken will be in Arvada, Colorado September 21 & 22 for the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival. As far as we know, this is the first event dedicated to archtop guitars and will have some of the best builders in the world. Ken will be delivering a lecture on the history and evolution of the archtop guitar. Hope to see you there! For info on tickets, click on the link below.
Ken will be in Harrisburg, PA for the Artisan Guitar show. You’ll find him at Table 59.
From Ken’s Lecture on Nov 27 2108, the full video!
Master luthier Ken Parker (Ken Parker Archtops , formerly Parker Guitars ) will be giving a lecture and demonstration at WPI on November 27th, 2018 at 6pm in the Higgins House Great Hall. This event was organized by the Electric Guitar Guitar Innovation Lab and was sponsored in part by Frank Hoy (WPI, Business) and a grant from the Coleman Foundation, Kris Boudreau (WPI, HUA) and the WPI Humanities and Arts Department, the music division of WPI, and the WPI Media Arts Group Innovation Center (MAGIC).
Special Guests
Ken Parker Archtop guitar demonstrations performed by Carlos Odria .
Parker Fly electric guitar demonstrations performed by Vince Genella .
This event is free! To register, go to http://guitar.wpi.edu/event_Ken_Parker_11-27-2018.html
Michael Chapdelaine and Larry Cambpell stopped by Ken’s table to check out his archtops. Here is a video of each of them playing one for the first time….
