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Why I Built This: Cowbrand Design’s Michael King

Cowbrand Design’s Michael King on how retro space-age aesthetics, motorcycle maintenance, and Chicago-built blues guitars inform his unique takes on the 6-string.

Randy Parsons builds guitars for Jack White, Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, and more, using out-of-the-box materials like bone, flowers, copper, and solid ebony. We talk to the luthier about his craft, and see his extraordinary creations.

Randy Parsons abandoned the guitar after years of playing in high school and college. He quit, assuming he had no future in music, and ended up working for the city of Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle. But then, one day, he received a vision of sorts that sent him on a journey toward custom-made guitars made of exotic and unusual materials—in addition to interactions with some of his childhood heroes.


Page playing the Strolling with Bones flattop Parsons made for him. It features Kasha-inspired bracing and a secret button to light up the interior, and its neck, fretboard, back, and sides are all of ebony.

That journey came after a period of serious introspection mixed with sweat and hard work, a blend of the esoteric and do-it-yourself know-how. Despite starting with zero training as a luthier, he has built a business with five different shops and celebrity clientele that includes Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Jack White, and Sammy Hagar. He works out of his main Seattle shop, which is run by five women—three of whom are luthiers—and he also has Parsons Guitars repair shops in four Washington-area Guitar Centers.

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