“Ken pulled this instrument out of this blanket and I was astonished. My jaw hit the floor. I’d never seen anything like it”: Remembering Ken Parker, the genius luthier who brought us the Parker Fly

Ken Parker poses in his workshop.

Ken Parker’s archtop quest can be traced back to a 21 year old taking guitar lessons with a jazz player named Dick Longdale in Rochester, New York.

He became fascinated by his teacher’s Gibson L-12, an early ’40s non-cutaway archtop that “sounded fantastic”, Ken remembered in a video interview last year for D’Addario’s Work/Shop feature. “I couldn’t believe how great it sounded.”