Ken Parker Archoppery: Bending Sides 1

[@wilsonguitars156]

woah!.....i had to stop your vid several times Ken!!!...wonderment!....those tools and all the crazy ideas!....this is what its all about!!...we are lucky to have your pouring all your stuff out !.....what can i say ...inspiring and incredible!....and thank you!!

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Thanks for digging it!

[@ASuperBambi]

Greetings from Ben Crowe at Crimson Guitars!

[@_Heinle]

Ben, I’m watching this because of your recommendation. It’s amazing!

[@guitfidle]

me too!

[@robzagar4275]

Older beginner guitar player. I find your video and knowledge so inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing this quality wonderful information! I love guitar and am interested in the Arch top .

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

My pleasure!

[@danieldenson9437]

Thank you. I have a small background in physics, and had no trouble following the explanation, but you made me actually think about what was happening. This was very interesting. You are a natural teacher and an artist.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

You're very welcome!

[@robinfawcett7973]

"The most famous lumber tree ever cut...." !! Quite a mind-boggling statement. Perhaps you can talk a bit more about that? Thanks so much for these videos Ken and thanks for not having ads.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Maybe look it up? You're welcome. I hate ads, but I'm able to do this work with the support of the Katz Foundation, so that's why you don't see ads, It's a funded educational series. Again, You're welcome!

[@metacarpo2793]

Hi Ken I´m Luis. Gutiérrez from Lanús, Argentina (aka Metacarpo). Thanks for share your art...priceless for all of us luthier apprentices. You are GREAT!

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

My pleasure! Thanks!

[@pkjmfineart1593]

KZbin should be paying Ken generously just for his name to appear within its fold, let alone his awesome content. 🥳👏😉

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

What a happy thought! Do you have access to any levers of power, perhaps? Do tell!

[@ant1sokolow]

Very nice and informative video (and series). This one particulary as it relate to other fields than guitar making. Bow making as an exemple out of many. An optional backing can be used in building the limbs. To protect the side that deforms in traction/elongation. I saw linen used as many natural textiles from silk to cotton and , industrial, fiberglass and carbon... Sinew is sometimes prefered, perhaps on cultural association with "trad" bow game hunting... or from the sheer properties of sinews.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Yeah, laminates including wood and cloth or other fibers are everywhere! I was surprised to have been able to patent this idea of strengthening musical instrument neck materials such as wood with woven and non-woven fibers in 1993. Long expired, I don't think the idea would have stood up to a good lawsuit, having so many ancient examples to cite! I am puzzled why more builders aren't using this beneficial kind of composite construction, but I do admit that it is a considerable complication. Cheap & quick is hard to beat in the marketplace these days. The truth is that only a few musicians are able to tell the good from the great, same as it ever was.

[@MilesMcNallyLuthierie]

Recommended this by Ben at Crimson Guitars and I'm not disappointed. Being that I'm making a hollowbody with bent top and back this series seems to be just what I needed right now

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Goodonya!

[@peterjames2580]

Thanks for sharing the linen method , in building mandolins I made a lot of "potato chips" in learning how to bend sides. Adding linen will be on my next set! We stand on the shoulders of giants! Your info on Orville was great!! Thanks again.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

The linen saved my behind. I love this trick.

[@RosaStringWorks]

Very nice explanation.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Glad it was helpful!

[@apistosig4173]

Absolutely Fabulous

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Thanks!

[@JuhaAirola]

Being also a structural engineer I find this idea (of reinforcing the side that cannot take significant tension) very sound one! Like in reinforced concrete beams.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Yeah, it's a great method, but nothing new, really, The ancient builders used parchment, vellum and later, paper and cloth for reinforcing before and after bending. Lute shells are normally completely covered with paper inside, a composite structure.

[@Ramplcro]

Great idea with linen.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Thank you!

[@estebangranados4949]

Hello! not sure if someone is reading suggestions from comments but just in case: I would like to know how Ken does the tapering of the body/sides. Thank you very much for sharing these videos, i'm gathering information to build an archtop and they are being really helpful

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

The slight taper (1/4" from end to end) is cut when the sides are first clamped in the mold. I'll have a bunch of segments on how the newly bent sides join with the blocks and linings sometime soon. Glad you're finding the Etudes helpful!

[@kft590]

Any chance you went through the chemistry program at UMD?

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Musta been a doppelganger

[@CranmerGuitars]

At 2:50 when you broke the stick, I suppose you could say it was done with 'in-tension'

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Mr Cranmer! Love you work, love your videos! I try hard to do everything in-tension-ally, but sometimes I fail. Normally my failure is not due to compression, but maybe not always. Nice to see you in the number! That 1930 L 5 that you had a look at was a revelation, especially since it was brought to me along with a '29 L 5 that looked like they had been built and sprayed by the same crew on the same week. My dear friend, Steve Berger, who owned them both was flummoxed, and wanted to get my take on why they were so different. Only difference was, the '29 sounded like heaven, and the '30 (at least I was told it was a '30) sounded like POO. Looking inside, the '29 was a lovely thing, nicely thinned and voiced, tidy work, pretty little braces, while the '30 was a HACK job, with 50mm of ungraduated wood around the interior top perimeter, 40 grit disk sander marks in the crude depression in the center, and KERFED braces sitting in pools of hide glue, with 1.5mm thick curly maple veneer cut into strips on a JUMP SHEAR glued across the kerfs to restore the tension side of the brace, again lots of hide glue dribbles. Clearly, the 1929 crash was a huge stress for every business, and Gibson had had a rough '20s decade when everybody else was making good bank, because the mandolins they were so good at making and marketing went out of style after WW1; and they struggled to sell enough guitars and banjos. Sounds like the accounting department got to be in charge of how many hours could go into a guitar, and the poor guys on the factory floor had their shortcuts cut out for them, or something like that. whoops! Way back when, 1985, photography was hard, and not in my quiver, so I don't have any process documentation, but it was pretty straightforward considering the top graduation and bracing work was done with the neck and sides attached. I figured that since I was re manufacturing the guitar, I could X brace it if I wanted, so There. Thing sounded great, and was quite a lot more powerful than the '29 when it was all back together. Glad you were able to get a look at it. What did you think? PS, I've done an informal survey, and I can find nobody who thinks kerfing braces and gluing shattered curly maple on the back to tighten things up is good practice.

[@CranmerGuitars]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Hi Ken! It's so cool to learn more about that L5, I was pretty curious as to what state it must have been in to require such extensive work! I only had hold of it for a couple of hours, but it was a joy to play and has aged beautifully. I'll be sure to pass this along to Ruurd at the Dutch Archtop Museum who currently has the L5 on display - I'm sure he'd love to know more about it! But wait, are you telling me that 50mm thick plates, broken bits of veneer, and pools of glue are *not* best practice? No wonder my guitars sound the way they do! ;) Hope to meet you in person someday. I have so many questions - especially about your bridges!

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

@@CranmerGuitars Ha! I wonder if that feckless old L5 had good strings on it, and, if so, how it sounded to you? I remember hearing that the guitar was for sale in NY a bunch of years ago, and was sad that it went to EU, and I missed the chance to play it 20 years after I did all that work.

[@elluisito000]

Hi! Could the same result be achieved if instead of linen a good quality paper is used?

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Sure, you would seek a high rag content paper with excellent tear resistance. I used to use Kraft paper and hide glue.

[@elluisito000]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 i asked this question because i remember reading that luth makers used to used a similar technique, but using parchment. And then, that some contemporary Spanish guitar makers use newspaper. Thanks!

[@hahnjackers4151]

Mr parker do you resaw the wood for the sides yourself? If so, how do you process it to the thicknesses that you want?

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

I do resawing here at my shop. I have a tuned up widebelt sander with a platen to remove the sawmarks. I'm planning a series of lessons on understanding and using bandsaws, the luthier's only indispensable machine.

[@hahnjackers4151]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I honestly can't wait. Thank you very much.

[@bethanygresoski3126]

Man you build some nice guitars ! 🙂

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Thanks Muchly! Big Fun!

[@Guitar6ty]

With to days modern materials bending the sides could be massed produced as pre formed sides maybe not even made from wood but maybe composite materials.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Of course, Antonio Torres, the inventor of the modern classical guitar, famously built a lovely sounding guitar, forming the back and sides from papier-mache with one of his usual spruce soundboards, I think around 1850. Since then, many have tried a whole lot of other materials, see Ovation's "Bowl-Back", formed from fiberglass and resin; while some current builders are using laminates for the sides which include paper or cloth bonded to wood. Others made from carbon fiber and epoxy so there's lots of work already done here in the direction you suggest! One decision that drives the whole thing is whether or not you want the structure to be rigid or compliant, and there is room for experts to disagree here, that's for sure!

[@martinlouden9005]

Beautifully explained ken. Where did you get the idea of linen reinforcement?

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

As I mentioned, paper and woven cloth reinforcement is nothing new in instrument making. Years ago when I was making long scale 6 string basses, I tried veneering softwood neck cores with hardwood, maple and ebony. This is the traditional way that lute necks were made, in order to reduce weight, and provide a hard "shell" that you can tie the frets around without denting the neck. The fingerboards of these instruments were also curved veneer. I glued Kraft paper to the outside of the flat veneer with hide glue, then used a heat blanket to steam and cajole the veneer to bend across the grain with heat, moisture, and, well, maybe just some mild voodoo. After the veneer was bonded to the neck, I could sand the paper and glue off. So it seemed that a bit of light cloth with the right fiber orientation could be really helpful to discipline the wildly curly woods I use in my work. It has proven to work miraculously well, and makes me very happy. The reason for using epoxy in this case is that I use the same kind of resin for the primer coat, and so it all blends perfectly, and poses no issues.

[@fernandocelere]

i wonder how many sides Ken has broken before becoming the master that he is now

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Sides are easy to break, especially when they're thick, and I've done my share, as you suppose! In 2004, I tried to bend the curliest maple I ever had, and was sent right back to the drawing board.I got myself an eager intern, and for the whole summer we played fearlessly with bending/breaking follies. I learned so much about wood and bending, I can't help but recommend it. Played with thickness, temperature, tension restraints, and on and on. We learned so much it was crazy! Nothing breaks in my shop anymore, I promise.

[@gregoryguitars6291]

Will you consider adopting me?😁

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Dowry?

[@gregoryguitars6291]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 hahahaa.