Ken Parker Archtoppery is the host channel for a series of videos in which Ken Parker shares his knowledge about guitar building - in particular, Archtop guitar building. This is an on-going project and will be added to regularly.
Ken, I’m an early-mid career materials engineer and a long time guitarist… I deeply appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge and experience with others. I love this beautiful intersection of science and art. I’m learning so much from you. Thank you!
Not too hard to find a way to do it, even a scratch-stock would work fine in many materials. Here's one you can buy and file, or just make one, www.woodcraft.com/products/hock-scratch-stock?variant=43401218228362&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1920BhA3EiwAJT3lSYTOSiLs_Ev5Ailm6WJ2WpIXsHYbmbbX1oays0DgNPFkk1zG7iQjAxoCFpMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thanks for more details about Buddy. I think I have more confidence to try moving in this direction now. I ended up going with a stropping solution a lute maker recommended, I think it's from Ashley Iles originally, but a cotton mop mounted to a bench grinder, used in reverse with their green compound. I think it works kind of ok? But I'm still not sure that it's not rounding over the edge too much because of the softer cotton wheel. Anyway, easy enough to revert back if I pull the buddy trigger! Thanks so much for the links, it makes my life so much easier. I had to reverse imagine search your pocket knife but I found it and it's truly changed my life, it goes everywhere with me now.
A buff is almost certainly too soft, as you suggest, unless you get the edge pretty shiny first, and then just use the lightest touch, I suppose; but this is the whole Idea of using a lap with a hardness that you choose. It works with any hardness lap, and you can easily switch them on the tapered arbor like the jewellers do.
oh by the way, it seems you are Ken Parker himself, can't believe it, didn't know you have a RU-vid channel, subscribing right now, thank you very much for sharing your work and wisdom.
Thanks! I always appreciate learning from you and you sharing your joy (it seems to me it is what the flamenco practioners call Allegria - a deep seated happiness nothing can kill). I use double-sided tape to hold patterns for the router table to the wood and for holding fretboard blanks on to my slotting templates. There seems to be a differential in the adhesion - one side is stronger than the other - which is handy. But sometimes I can’t remember which side is more sticky than the other.
I just watched a video from Jeff Jewitt to remind myself about which side is the lower tack on the double stick stuff. The side that has the covering that you have to remove is the lower tack side. His video on this - using the StewMac stuff is here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SCMAbWu8G1M.htmlsi=W05bG_T5__ACnUdx
One foot in front of the other, just one foot in front of the other. Did you ever hear of the act of walking described as a rhythmic series of "caught falls"? I laughed so hard when I first heard this, as it so nicely resembles our actions as we move through life, just trying to recover gracefully from each of our unique series of inevitable stumbles. Thanks, if only I could forward this to my Mom!
Hi Ken. Thank you for sharing your expertise, passion, and wonderful sense of humour. If you are still looking at comments on this video, I have a question. Forgive me if it has been answered before (I did look but may have missed it) - Can this finish work equally well on a flattop (okay, 30' radius) acoustic? I don't see why not, but I have only built two guitars, both French Polished with epoxy pore fill on back/sides, with none on the soundboard. That experience, and your comments about pore filling, make me keen to try your method. Many thanks.
Oh yes, no worries. I know that some FT builders are most definitely using this finishing method on either the whole instrument, or sometimes the top only. Some builders will want to use pore fillers on open grain woods that may complicate things, but as usual, careful testing on scrap material will reveal all.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Thank you for such a quick and helpful reply, Ken. I'll add "generosity" to my earlier list of your admirable qualities. Much appreciated!
Can confirm, we used a lot of centerline tape in the USAF on wiring harnesses and other things on the jets. Wonderful tape, I like the mil-spec stuff you can find at SkyGeek.
Thanks for the source, Alan! I don't doubt that the centerline helps things to be consistent, and look good doing it! Sky Geek! What a great name! are we then StringGeeks?
About 10 years ago I had a side job to install small heaters inside NCR ATM's - which are running on vacuum and they don't really like conditions in the Very Far North. So, I had installed those small electric heaters with that gray 3M tape stuff, and when, after a couple of years, they decided for some reason to replace those heaters for some other brand, I could barely take them off, they came off with the finish. It's incredibly strong, for sure.
Ken, if you haven’t recorded already, when you speak to scale length, I wonder if you could spend a minute speaking to any special considerations for bass scales and extended range. I play a 35” scale 4-string tuned DGCF. Was looking at a Fly bass and a little surprised to find the fly 4 and 5 are 34” scale (don’t ask me why). I wonder what you think about this tuning and if a bass built to be tuned this way would be any different. Thanks!
I will explore all the facets of design, I promise, and scale is a critical one, for certain. Strings, all other things being kind of equal, have an optimum aspect ratio, that is, proportion of length relative to girth. Longer isn't always better, and the violin would be a good example of this, but often in instruments with lower pitches it would be the right choice to err longer. Ergonomics are a limiting factor, of course, and we're all built differently, so that's one piece of it, although I, along with Jim Soloway (Hi Jim!) have noted that if you don't announce the scale length, often folks just adapt to an instrument with longer scale than they're used to, and if they relate well to the instrument, just play and enjoy it. For example, Jim's favorite scale for his guitars was 27" or about 686mm, and lots of players were shocked at the reveal, often saying they hadn't noticed the much longer scale length! Having said that, there's also a pretty good reason not to challenge players with too many changes relative to the guitars/basses they acquired their expertise on, and so you can think either way. The low E1 pitch on a normally tuned bass, acoustic or electric, is 41.02Hz. The physical length of this pitch, one cycle, has a length of roughly 28 feet, or 8.5 Meters. How on earth a 34" string suggests a pitch of this length we can only marvel at, and don't forget to thank centuries' worth of diligent geeks like me trying our best to pull it off!
This is truly invaluable. How often do we get to hear the Sorcerer's Secrets? And from someone as humble as he is utter genius. I'm so grateful for the fruits of your relentless invention and tireless labor. signed, Fly Owner.
Hello Ken! I need a stainless second fret for my original deluxe - no tremolo bar. Apart from that it is in immaculate condition. 8^) I note the Ca, accelerator, ->cannot be shipped to Australia 8-/, tooling and method from vid2 - can do! I am just missing the stainless fret itself. This is NOT a complaint! It spent its first ten years in the tropics - ANY frets would have a hard time in such a humid environment. I have my own jewellery workshop so I am not afraid to take complete responsibility for the remount. (given this excellent information, thank you).
Please email me, and I can make this easy for you. You don’t need accelerator, just thin, fresh Cyanoacrylate glue. Best bet might be your local hobby shop.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I will Ken thank you SO much you are a true genius and an absolute gentleman which the entire industry also notes you as. Kind regards.
Next time I see a discarded but serviceable high RPM motor in the trash at work it’ll be dumpster diving time! With the proper cobbling I could ratio an 1800 into service too, there’s always trash pulleys around😉
Great info, thank you so much! I have a question about the fowl shears; why are they crescent shaped; simply to get into odd places to separate bone and cartilage or is there a blade edge mechanical reason? Cheers!
Not being too familiar with dressing/cutting birds, I’m not sure I’ll be much help, except that it seems that the curved blades and serrations probably conspire to help keep the raw flesh and slippery bones in the cutting zone, and not squirting out as the blades close? I think you’ve answered your own question, but you could always try and test a regular set of shears against these, no? Happy dinner time!
Probably the most interesting video I've seen on RU-vid in years. Thank you for sharing this!!! I especially loved hearing about the development challenges. Cheers
I daresay this is an example of a happy accident for all of us guitar players that such a brilliant mind hasn't ended up in NASA or something but in guitar making. Hats off to you Mr.Parker, this is so inspiring! PS: That glass-beads-spacer thing is... Well, I can imagine the process, but in my mind it's as far from luthiery as it could possibly be. Which makes it cool AF
Ha! What an interesting comment! If you only knew how allergic I am to reporting to anyone, you’d know that I wouldn’t have lasted in any industry without a bodyguard! The glass bead / grains of sand spacer thing is quite a common way to insure that the adhesive isn’t ejected from the glue joint by clamping pressure, and that an optimal film thickness is achieved. BTW, the dreaded failure mode of this kind of “too thin” or “all squeezed out” is called a “starved joint”. Since guitars and other stringed instruments are mostly made of wooden parts joined with adhesives, the whole art of bonding this to that is a central method/skill to all builders, so any adhesive adventure is naturally right straight up the alley of Lutherie!
Been looking for in depth info on this process for about 5 years since I found some of these fretboard blanks on e bay and bought then mostly because they were just a cool/unique item…but now? It’s time to order some cotter pins…my idea is to use a thin substrate under them rout shallow channels for frets. No where near as impressive as original concept but might enhance stability and ease of clean installation w epoxy…..my high-level-hackery solution haha…,
Ive owned 8 (4 Flys, and 4 NiteFlys) that were all made in 2001 or earlier (all pre-refined), and not a single one has ever had a fret issue. I did have the nut come un-glued but thats typical for a 30 year old guitar at some point. Only issue i ever had was the Truss rod in 3 out of 4 NiteFlys, not correcting the relief. But i think it was due to someone making adjustments to it and not knowing what they were doing. My new (to me) 99' midifly is perfect! Thanks for sharing this info Ken!
I'm sorry and surprised that you've had problems with NiteFly rods. When having trouble like this, two things that may help include removing and lubricating the adjustment capstan, and then when assembled and strung up on a bench, using a neckblock or some kind of support under the middle of the neck and manually bending the neck backwards as you tighten the trussrod. As a mechanical person with years of repair experience it's still hard for me to understand the things some people have done to guitars to "see what happens", etc. You'd expect folks to seek assistance when out of their depth, but sadly, this is often not what happens.
I learned guitar in the 90s and ive struggled for inspiration over the last 20 years with very few modern guitarists, particularly in the shred world making me want to play. In fact ive been playing away by learning piano instead. And while there arent many or any contemporary pianists ive been listening to, a great deal of the wealth of music i am finding easy to dive into. Guitar i feel ive discovered all my heroes from the last 75 years of music, which is disappointing. However your playing is something im feeling very drawn to and inspiring. I dont know if i would ever have the rigor and discipline to change my style and play like this, but at the very least it lights up a fire and interest i thought wouldnt be there anymore.
I use my 98202 primarily for planer and super surfacer knives. The stones MUST be slightly conical with the outside lower than the center, or you won't be able to pass over the other side of the wheel with a 12" blade, for example (I modified mine to handle 18" blades). What's missing for viewers watching this vid, is the entire blade holding carriage on the front of the machine has been removed. While the carriage is designed to hold jointer/planer/surfacer knives, it's easy to make a jig to hold hand plane blades and chisels. It's also far less sloppy to drape a wicking fabric over the side of the reservoir onto the wheel, you only need enough water to suspend the swarf so the wheels don't glaze with metal. There's not enough speed or power to create much heat. Spent years perfecting my technique on this machine, I love it.
1) I used this damnable gadget, or tried to for many years, including making supplementary jigs to hold straight hand tools, as you cite.I always found the arrangement a little sloppy for my taste, and finally gave up altogether. I wish the machine were available without this option, which adds lots of cost, and is a blunder from my point of view. Glad you've made good use of it, and of course I agree about the stone shape, another downside in my opinion. 2) As an overgrown kid, I love splashing water, and consider this a feature. Play time!
It is strung with nylon strings! I guess that makes it a nylon string guitar? I certainly built it as a nylon string guitar. Did you watch riff #019? All is revealed.
If you had asked me a few hours ago if I’d find a 4 part series about sharpening tools interesting, I probably would have thought it would be pretty dull (pun intended). As it turns out, I was mesmerized. Ken, every video you have made in this series is a joy for me to watch. Thanks again.
3M also has an exterior rated sticky tape that was originally designed to attach letters and numbers etc. on brick and concrete and wood….works exceptionally well on anything that you put it on….care and acetone might help dislodge 😂
I believe I’m using the exterior grade 3M mount tape here. I wonder what thickness tape you’re describing? Do you have a part #? This stuff is 1mm, .040” thick, and I’m having trouble thinking how anything like this could be expected to hold things to brick, unless there was a really big and lightweight part, like maybe a sign? I hate it when a good product over-promises, it should be against the law.
wow. Amazing. Any time a discussion pops up about a nylon archtop (I’ve never seen one in person) I always question how the top can be driven by the lower tension of those strings. I use Brownie as an example of a lightly built archtop and note that it had steel strings.
To say that this guitar is lightly built is beyond most folk’s ability to conceive. I’ll get to making a video about how I think of the various parameters interacting together; arching height and model, stiffness,, recurve position, bracing, bridge weight and downforce, all these things interact to make a structure that we hope is capable of converting the energy of the strings to the energy of the air around the instrument. When I built this instrument, I was unaware that anything like this had been tried, but later I found out that John D’Angelico had thinned a guitar belonging to his friend and fantastic virtuoso Al Valente in the 40’s. I believe that this guitar may be for sale now, maybe check with Christian Mirabella? Since then the nylon strung archtop guitars I have played have all been extravagantly overbuilt, the same way that many archtops strung with wire strings are, and consequently have limited abilities.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 obviously I’m fascinated by these points and look forward to all of the videos. I play stringed instruments wherever I travel and was able to play Brownie a bit in Arvada in ’22. I’m guessing it had .12s or .13s and stands out in my mind as a high water mark of responsive instruments I’ve encountered. (and there were plenty of REALLY nice instruments there at that time!)
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Bob Benedetto built at least one, I'm sure. The one I am thinking of used violin pegs in a slotted headstock. I think he may have built a few, though.
