RENEWING THE FORM
RENEWING THE FORM
Ken Parker Archtops - Renewing the Form
Sam Krimmel Continues Ken’s Legacy
In 2025, before his death, Ken Parker made the difficult decision to step back from day-to-day guitar building. He worked tirelessly to pass his unique instrument making techniques to his friend and collaborator Sam Krimmel.
Over the course of their wide-ranging four-year collaboration, Ken shared his insights into tone and sound production, discovered with fifty years of repairing, designing, and manufacturing guitars. Sam trained full-time by Ken’s side, learning the intricate details of assembly while simultaneously developing his own new production techniques, tools, and methods.
It should not need saying that skills involved in this kind of work are proprietary. They can take years to learn well, and to incorporate into one’s work, and they are not common knowledge. Sam was attentive and respectful in learning these. He started working with Ken as an apprentice, but over time he has continued to learn and through the quality of his work, became Ken’s colleague. Now, he continues Ken’s legacy of archtop building.
“Since I met Ken, I was fascinated by his radical approach to guitar building. He started from a clean slate and completely revolutionized not only the electric guitar, but the archtop too. His mentorship meant the world to me, and it’s an incredible honor to continue building his archtop designs.”
-Sam Krimmel
“...the acoustic archtop is the most versatile form of acoustic guitar, and decidedly not, as sometimes viewed, the most limited. The recordings on my site show how different players each bring out a voice unique to them and their playing style. My new archtops have different voices, but all belong to the same family.”
-Ken Parker
The Guitars
The Guitars
Cool & Unique Stuff About a Ken Parker Archtop
Individual Guitar Galleries
Click below on the name of the guitar to open a gallery featuring that guitar
Brownie • Bubbles • Butterscotch • Crane • Egret • Fig • Grace • Green Beam • Inner Peace • Larry • Lucky • Merlin • Mira • Mrs Natural • Murray • Olive Branch • Penguin • Semeur • Spot • Stella • Verdi • Yo Yo
About the Guitars
Each guitar is different, given a unique name and built to take advantage of the materials being used.
Woods and materials used include:
Neck Core: Douglas Fir
Tailpiece, Soundhole Span, Tuner Covers: Mokume Gane, Bronze, Aluminum
Tuners: Gotoh Stealth gears embedded in the headstock
Specs:
16.5" across the lower bout on cutaway guitars
15.9" across the lower bout on non-cutaway guitars
2.5" thick at the end block, 2.25" thick at the neck block
25.5" scale
Ken on Mokume Gane:
"These parts are all made by me, that is, I developed the unique patterns in the multilayered material, by cutting and forging. No two pieces could ever be the same."
Tops: Alpine Spruce, Red Spruce, Sitka Spruce
Back & Sides, Neck Veneer: Highly Figured Koa, Big Leaf Maple, Figured Aspen, Scottish Sycamore, Blistered Poplar, Curly Mama Mahogany, Bosnian Curly Maple, Sugar Maple from New York State, Tulip Magnolia cut in the 1860s in Kentucky, salvaged from the first RJ Reynolds tobacco drying barn, Mahogany from "The Tree”, Butternut
Fingerboard, Pickguard, Bridge and Other Bits: Ebony, Pernambuco, Snakewood
THE PLAYERS
THE PLAYERS
Recording the Players
Audio and video clips from players across the spectrum illustrating the versatility of the Ken Parker Archtop guitar.