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Archtop guitar

Ken Parker American
2016
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 684
This beautiful guitar was made by Ken Parker (1952-2025), of Gloucester, Massachusetts, who attained great fame for his "Fly" model electric guitars. This archtop guitar includes many of Parker’s experimental ideas about instrument design. The guitar has a spruce top (soundboard) and blistered mahogany back and sides made from "The Tree," a famous tree felled in Belize in the 1960s. The tailpiece, tuning peg cover, and soundhole strip are made of metal formed using the Japanese metal-work technique mokume-gane. It includes copper, silver, and gold, forming natural layered designs that are cut and hand forged to create unique decorative patterns. Instead of the traditional f-holes found on most archtop guitars, this instrument has a sound opening in the top left corner and side, with the soundhole strip forming the traditional outline of the instrument. The side opening gives the musician a better sense of the sound of the guitar as experienced by the audience. Most importantly, Parker integrated a unique design to the neck/body joint. A unique feature of Parker’s design, the action is adjusted from the neck rather than the bridge. The neck is attached to the body by a carbon fiber post.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Archtop guitar
  • Maker: Ken Parker (American, 1952-2025)
  • Date: 2016
  • Geography: Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Alpine spruce, mahogany, holly, cherry, willow, ebony, mother-of-pearl, camel bone, Douglas fir, carbon fiber composite, mokume-gane
  • Dimensions: Height: 35 in. (88.9 cm)
    Width: 18 in. (45.7 cm)
  • Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
  • Credit Line: Purchase, James D. Krugman and Connie Simmons Krugman Gift, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.124a–d
  • Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments

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