Bill Frisell playing Ken Parker Archtop

[uburoibob]

Bill Frisell has been exploring Ken’s Sidekick archtop guitar for a little while during the COVID-19 lockdown, and sent ten beautiful audio clips of him playing Sidekick. Enjoy!

Ken Parker Archtops - Finest Archtop Guitars

[Flat]

What a treat to hear! Thanks for posting!

[Dogfaceboy]

Amazing tone.

[Litterick]

Bill Frisell had a Parker Fly Artist made for him in 1999.

He later sold it.

[Paulie2]

Wow, thanks so much for sharing these. That acoustic tone! Not to mention Bill's playing. Really enjoyed these clips.

[neatomic]

very cool...notice, bills usin a Neumann KM 184 mic on it!! no slouchin' hah...

hey op/ubu, like your collection of (frisell-ish) guitars...yanuziello!!

all you need is a tk smith!! hah

cheers

[uburoibob]

Bill Frisell had a Parker Fly Artist made for him in 1999.

He later sold it.

yes he did...a hard tail, and I got it from him through John Stewart! I still have it. Wonderful guitar.

[Litterick]

What a splendid coincidence!

[Rob MacKillop]

Very nice playing, as ever, ear tingling.

[AndyV]

Great sound, beautiful playing. Bill seems to play differently on hollow bodies.

[gitman]

I like the acoustic sound much more than the electric tracks - they sound kinda anemic, especially the treble strings. Amazing is the balance of the guitar and the easy response but Frisell also got that from one of his Andersen archtops :

[Cunamara]

Granting that those recordings are technically limited by the casual recording technique mentioned by Bill, but to me they serve to highlight the challenges of amplifying a fine sounding acoustic arch top guitar. It is something of a truism that better acoustic sound leads to worse amplified sound and vice versa, but these recordings kind of bear that out to my ears.

[sasquatch]

That guitar sounds amazing, thanks for posting!
I wish I'd known Bill was a Parker fan when he played my little town last year, I would've shown him my rare Parker
The first Fly prototype, hand carved by Ken in 1985 (dunno if he even called it a Fly back then)

[P.J.]

That guitar sounds amazing, thanks for posting!
I wish I'd known Bill was a Parker fan when he played my little town last year, I would've shown him my rare Parker
The first Fly prototype, hand carved by Ken in 1985 (dunno if he even called it a Fly back then)

That is awesome. I own 2 Parkers. They are great guitars.

[uburoibob]

That guitar sounds amazing, thanks for posting!
I wish I'd known Bill was a Parker fan when he played my little town last year, I would've shown him my rare Parker
The first Fly prototype, hand carved by Ken in 1985 (dunno if he even called it a Fly back then)

Very cool. I remember seeing that guitar years ago. I always loved the way the top of the back was carved. Are you in Australia?

Bill had a Parker Fly Hardtail Artist that Ken built for him in the early 2000s. I ended up trading Bill a 52 ES-175 for his Fly. I still have the Artist and love it. It’s got a special recessed master volume pot with a nearly flat knob on the front of the guitar. Ken had to build a special mounting device to recess the pot. GREAT guitar.

Ken is always wanting to get different players on his instruments, so he sent Sidekick (the guitar Bill’s playing) to him for a few months to check out. It was very cool when Bill sent back all the audio clips and gave permission to use them on the site. Ken’s archtops tend to inspire players like that - amazing things they are when you are driving one!

Anyway, thanks for posting those shots. Can you please post a shot of the headstock - just from the front. In the drawing, it looks like there may be a slight deviation from the headstock Ken settled on, just north of the nut. It’d be great to see a photo of that, if you have the time.

Here’s a photo I shot of my Artist, along with Ken’s “Lucky” that he left with me for a month or so...



Thanks,
Bob

[sasquatch]

Very cool. I remember seeing that guitar years ago. I always loved the way the top of the back was carved. Are you in Australia?

Bill had a Parker Fly Hardtail Artist that Ken built for him in the early 2000s. I ended up trading Bill a 52 ES-175 for his Fly. I still have the Artist and love it. It’s got a special recessed master volume pot with a nearly flat knob on the front of the guitar. Ken had to build a special mounting device to recess the pot. GREAT guitar.

Ken is always wanting to get different players on his instruments, so he sent Sidekick (the guitar Bill’s playing) to him for a few months to check out. It was very cool when Bill sent back all the audio clips and gave permission to use them on the site. Ken’s archtops tend to inspire players like that - amazing things they are when you are driving one!

Anyway, thanks for posting those shots. Can you please post a shot of the headstock - just from the front. In the drawing, it looks like there may be a slight deviation from the headstock Ken settled on, just north of the nut. It’d be great to see a photo of that, if you have the time.

Here’s a photo I shot of my Artist, along with Ken’s “Lucky” that he left with me for a month or so...



Thanks,
Bob

Awesome looking guitars Bob!
Here's a few pics of the headstock