Parker Guitars
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Parker Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses, started by luthier Ken Parker in the early 90s.
Beginning in a workshop in Rochester, New York Parker designed and crafted electric guitars without depending on the examples of traditional acoustic and electric guitar design.[citation needed]
Contrasts between his guitars and others include :
-
- Thin, lightweight guitars, generally made from lighter woods like poplar, Basswood, spruce, and Maple (although there is a mahogany Fly which is still fairly light).
- Use of composite materials (resin and carbon glass skin reinforce a thin carved body and neck.
- Composite fingerboards with stainless steel frets vs. wood fingerboards with nickel-brass frets.
- Integrated use of coil tapped humbuckers and piezoelectric pickups with active electronics.
- Ergonomic body design.
- Adjustable, lockable floating bridge.
In 2004 the company was sold to U.S. Music Corporation based in Illinois. Manufacturing also moved to Mundelein, IL in 2004. The Parker custom shop opened, at the Washburn factory, in 2005. Import production moved from the Cort factory in China, to the Nova factory, also in China, after the completion of the buyout. (Due to an agreement with Korg, who was infusing money into Parker, prior to U.S. Music Corp.) Since 2002, Parker has also produced the Fly bass guitar, in both 4-string and 5-string versions. The 5-strings are noted for their ease of use for 4-string players, both with respect to weight and string spacing. As with other Parker guitars, they offer both magnetic and piezoelectric pickups, with the ability to blend the two.
In late 2006, Ken Parker, who had been in seeming absentia since selling Parker guitars, surfaced with a new take on archtop guitars. An example is an action adjustment system that raises and lowers the neck without causing the guitar to change in pitch. Other changes are the location of the soundhole, the materials, bracing, binding and basic theory of the physics of the guitar. The weight of this archtop, 'the Olive Branch' is a mere 3.5 lbs. It is essentially, as dramatic a change in the design of the archtop guitar as he offered in the Fly model electric solid body guitar, summarized above. Ken Parker currently builds only custom guitars per the CONTACT section on his website.[citation needed]
[edit] Current Model Line-Up
Parker Select Series:
- Fly Bronze
- Fly Nylon (Spanish Fly)
- Fly Artist
- Fly Supreme
Other USA models:
- Parker Fly Mojo - their flagship model
- Parker Fly Deluxe
- Parker Fly Classic
Bolt on USA models:
- Parker Nitefly Classic
- Parker Nitefly Swamp Ash
- Parker Nitefly Mojo
New and Other Models:
- Adrian Belew signature model
- Parker SC and SC Mojo- the single-cut version of the fly
- Parker PM-Series - Parker's import models
- Parker P-Series acoustics and electric acoustics
- Parker P-Basses
