This view of the Fig reveals its
Douglas fir neck core, as well as the
Waverly
gears set into Parker’s custom-
made anodized aluminum strip.
Wooden Boxes
Arguably, one of the sexiest things about
the Parker archtop is the way he’s cut the
soundhole into the shoulder
instead of putting f-holes on either
side of the bridge—although he’s certainly
not the first luthier to shift the soundhole
or change its shape. “Now, I realize
I said Lloyd Loar is my hero, and it was
his idea to [put f-holes on the top] in the
first place. Having said that, it still doesn’t
look like the right place to me, because
that’s valuable real estate—that’s part of
my ‘speaker cone.’ I put the soundhole in
what I call the least-worst
place. It’s as far away from the
bridge as I can get it, and it’s as close to
the player as I can get it. It delivers this
immediate sound that makes people feel
so confident. A lot of low end is available
to the player.
“I have been able to create a guitar that
has very, very even output, note to note
and string to string, and very, very good
separation within chords. You can play a
chord with consonant or dissonant notes,
and you can hear all the notes. It doesn’t
turn into a bunch of stirred-up warm ice
cream. Note separation, clarity, and evenness—
those are big targets for me.”
Parker’s optional pickup was designed
by Scottish archtop builder Mike Vanden,
who collaborated with Larry Fishman to
create the Fishman Rare Earth soundhole
pickup. For his archtops, Parker takes the
pickup apart and puts the coils in an ebony-veneered
box that rests unobtrusively at the
end of the fretboard. He hides the batteries,
1/8" jack, and controls under the pickguard.
The whole assembly weighs 100 grams, and
it serves these guitars beautifully through a
variety of amps. With an L.R. Baggs Core
1, it sounded stunningly clear, brilliant, and
full. Plugged into a Vox AC15, it produced
a wildly satisfying growl while retaining the
richness that defines the guitar.
As for the main “box” on a Parker archtop,
it’s gloriously empty. Look inside the
soundhole, and you see nothing but hand-bent
kerfing and an X-braced top with two
delicate pieces of spruce. “When I brace a
guitar, I put in two braces,” Parker explains.
“They’re off-center, for nefarious reasons of
my own, and they don’t touch. I glue one
brace on first and tune it, and then I glue
on another brace that hops over the first
brace. They taper out to little tiny whiskers
at the glue line. If you don’t do that, you
won’t get a big, supple low end—period.
The braces are there not to keep the top
from collapsing, they’re there to unify the
behavior of the top so that it doesn’t get out
of phase with itself and create dead spots
and wolf notes. If there’s a trick, if there’s
a secret, it’s getting those five pieces of
wood—the two sides of the top, two braces,
and one bridge—to work together to be an
efficient structure so that you can get some
real dynamic range out of the guitar.”
The soundport offers a look at
Mrs. Natural’s immaculate interior.
As for the wonderfully natural-looking
and satin-soft finish on his guitars, Parker
says it’s clean, easy to apply, and environmentally
safe. He first applies an epoxy
sealer, wipes it off, and then applies an old-fashioned
oil varnish that’s designed for gun
stocks. “If you put on a few coats, it looks
kind of satiny and dry, and if you put on
twenty coats it looks glossy and wet. And
it’s repairable in a way that other finishes
simply aren’t. If you get a dent in the top
but you haven’t busted any fibers, you can
pretty much take the dent out with an iron
and a wet cloth.”
The Goose Bump Dance
When all is said and done, it’s no exaggeration
to say that Parker doesn’t just walk the
line between artist and scientist, he dances
along it. His archtops are handmade, utterly
unique masterpieces—from the strap button
to the tuning-gear strop. He sums up his
motivation and mission statement by saying,
“I want to build instruments that give people
goose bumps—and I don’t really care that it
takes me a long time. Because when people
play my archtops they say, ‘This makes my
Martin sound like there’s a blanket over it.’
And that’s what I want to hear!”