The braces are there not to
keep the top from collapsing,
they’re there to unify the
behavior of the top so
that it doesn’t get
out of phase with
itself and create
dead spots and
wolf notes.
The Fig flaunts its incredibly figured
Big Leaf maple veneers. Note the hex-wrench port for adjusting neck
height and action.
He says there are two things that can change
the dynamic tension of a string: the angle
over the bridge and the nut, and the after
length—the distance between the bridge
and the termination at the tailpiece, and
between the nut and the tuning peg.
“That’s why, in one man’s opinion, a
three-and-three headstock is just plain-old
physically wrong.” Parker reasons that it
doesn’t make sense for the tension of the
high-E and the B strings to be the same as
the low-E and A strings. “I think it makes
the strings feel wrong. You have to get every-
thing right in order to create an extraordi-
nary experience for the player, and I really
try to get this balancing-the-string-tension
thing right. It’s not my idea—this is a
European idea from hundreds of years ago—
but the only way to do it is to put all the
strings in one line, so the
top string is more supple
than it would be otherwise,
and there’s a nice, even
progression in tension.”
He says that arrange-
ment facilitates greater
customization, too. “For
example, if you primarily
play rhythm guitar, and
you don’t care so much about
bending strings, I’m going to
make you a left-handed headstock for your
guitar so you can put huge strings on the
bottom and they won’t feel too tight—and
they’ll drive the pickup crazy.”
Parker says his headstock angle makes
the instrument feel more playable, too.
“Gibson’s is 14 degrees. Mine’s four and
a quarter. It’s as low as you can get it and
not [have the strings] come out of the nut
slots and start behaving badly. And I know,
because I’ve explored it!”
Wooden Boxes
Arguably, one of the sexiest things about
the Parker archtop is the way he’s cut the
