RIP Ken Parker: August 25, 1952 – October 5, 2025

Ken Parker, age 73, passed away peacefully at his home in Gloucester, MA on October 5, 2025, with Susan Kolwicz by his side.

From Ken, October 3rd, 2025:

Photograph by Bob Palmieri

Hello Everybody,

Well, they say that nothing lasts forever and they’re right about that. My time here is about to close down and I won’t be part of the show anymore. What I have done with all my heart and soul is to put together a situation where my work can continue unabated and begin to bring some serious fruit to the things that I’ve been working on for the last 50 years.

My deepest and most heartfelt thanks to all of you. It’s been the experience of my lifetime being able to share my life’s work and knowledge with each of you through my instruments and via Archtoppery, and see that you get it. My hope is that you all build on what I’ve learned and shared, and take everything to the next level. 

Sam Krimmel will be doing just that, and I encourage you to support Sam as he ventures forth. Sam is a natural co-conspirator and he and I will be will be working together down the road through some sort of psychic medium. We’ve already got some amazing new things underway and soon we’re going to show you what that is all about. So stay tuned.

All right, well everyone, please take care of yourselves and peace on earth, if that should ever be possible.

Love, Ken

An Important Announcement from Ken Parker Archtops

In order to take care of his health, Ken Parker has made the difficult decision to step back from day-to-day guitar building. In the last year, he has 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 has shared with Sam his insights into tone and sound production, discovered across fifty years of repairing, designing, and manufacturing guitars. For the past year, Sam has been training full-time by Ken’s side, learning the intricate details of assembly while simultaneously developing new production techniques to improve part quality and consistency.

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 has been 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, he is now Ken’s colleague.

Ken’s mission has been to pass on physical design ideas to Sam to empower a brilliant new set of hands. Sam’s mission is to continue to share the stories of innovation, creation, and industry altering ideas that define Ken’s work. Sam’s engineering background has enabled him to combine Ken’s masterful knowledge of centuries-old instrument building practices with modern manufacturing technologies and equipment, making this all the more achievable.

Through this process, Ken’s vision has been faithfully passed on to Sam—a talented young craftsman who is committed to producing work that carries the same precision, artistry, and soul of an experienced master.

To honor Ken’s unfathomable contributions to the guitar industry, let’s keep the band together.

In the spirit of keeping the band together, Ken’s friends have been contributing videos to help make people aware of the fundraising effort. Here’s a link to those we have so far: https://kenparkerarchtops.com/friends

Please click here to donate: https://gofund.me/ff4611c47

The Met Podcast: "The Tree", the Most Musical Tree In The World

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!

How Ken Parker Changed the Guitar World Forever: Work/Shop

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.

Joni Mitchell - Gorge Amphitheater - June 10, 2023

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/

Ken at Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival in Arvada, CO, Sept 9-11

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 At Fretboard Summit - Aug 25-27 in Chicago

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.

Adam Miller, 5pm, August 20th at Heron Way Marina

Join us for the 2022 return of THE FABULOUS Adam Miller!

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….

Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival, July 24th 2022

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.

Lyle Brewer Plays Six Ken Parker Archtops through different amps and mics

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.

Ken Parker Launches Archtoppery, a Virtual Guitar Making Internship

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.

Check out Archtoppery

Ken's Master Class at Acoustic Guitar Village in Cremona, Italy - Sept 27th - Sept 29th

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.

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2019 Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival

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.