Ken Parker Archtoppery: Fitting the Bridge 1

This is video #1 of 5 in this series about fitting the bridge on Ken Parker's archtop guitars.
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KEN: The archtop bridge is a powerful component of the guitar. It performs the job of transferring the string’s vibrational energy to the top, where this energy is radiated as sound waves. Also, as it functions as a significant brace, it can be proportioned and shaped to have a big influence on the voice of the guitar. Here I’ll explain my thinking about how the bridge acts, and show my method to ensure a perfect fit between the bridge’s bottom surface and the complex shape of the top.
To see this on Ken's site, please visit:
kenparkerarcht...
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This video is part of Ken Parker's Archtoppery series. We recommend you check out his Archtoppery page on his website: kenparkerarcht...

[@chrispile3878]

That's one of my favorite scrapers, too! Super handy for all kinds of work.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

It sure is!

[@gpurkeljc]

Ben sent me. Love your work. 🙂

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@Jack_Plisken]

Beautiful guitar 🤘

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Thanks!

[@spikedodson3194]

As opposed to a plastic "saddle" on top the bridge why not a bone or antler option?

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

I can't hear the difference, can you? I just don't like the smell of dead animal in the shop, it's disgusting, it makes me sad, plus of course, the quality varies widely. Goin' with the petrochemicals on this one.

[@bluearchguitars]

When you are converting your “old” guitar to a taller bridge, you are not, I assume, change anything with the existing neck post. It is just going out a little more to accommodate the new bridge height. Just a few turns of the adjusting tool. Right? What about new guitars with taller bridges? Are you making the neck post longer to use its maximum length to hold the guitar neck in the post socket? Or you change the post socket angle?

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

In both cases, I'm changing the neck angle, not so much the height.

[@bluearchguitars]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Wow! Converting to a taller bridge is a major rebuild then, and installing new bridge is only a small portion of the process. As the neck post has to stay as much perpendicular to the strings as possible, the post socket angle has to change. Right? I can not envision patching the old socket hole and making a new one without removing the top. Here your violin style build plays a role, as it allows to remove the top “easily”. Or you can make another magic and do the conversion without disassembling the box? You are for sure magician, so I will not be surprised with anything :) Kudos!

[@BicycleJoeTomasello]

How I wish there was a luthier's guild that took on apprentices when I was the appropriate age. Now that artisan arch top making is almost a lost art is it too late to make it happen? Can a Guild or an individual luthier such as yourself establish an apprenticeship program so the high-level craftsmanship and innovations of arch top design are not lost to the mass production line.

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

I'm trying to do my part, as I hope you agree. I feel that methods of work that have been central to instrument making for centuries are in danger, due to the sophomoric thinking that computer controlled whatevers will do all the work.. Ultimately, there is no substitute for learning to cut and shape wood by hand. I'm trying to show how much fun this is, and how satisfying it is to get some mastery of it.

[@arthurfranca5516]

wouldnt a rosewood bridge sound better than an ebony since rosewood, being a tonewood, vibrates better than ebony? very very interesting thinking about bridge design! thanks!

[@kenparkerarchtoppery9440]

Hmmm, Tonewood. OK, what's that? For me, any wood might be a tonewood if you like how it sounds. I have a friend, Doug Martin, who has made lots of pretty great sounding violins using balsa wood and carbon fiber, so, for him, balsa is his favorite tonewood! Check him out! I love ebony, and find it has great tonal character, which is why I use it for many important parts on lots of the guitars I build. I have also made bridges from rosewood and other tropical hardwoods, and they each have a different character, but their similarities might surprise you. I love making bridges, and am right now just starting a big, fat discovery project on bridges that I'll be able to share with you sometime when I feel like I've learned something important.

[@arthurfranca5516]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 thanks, Ken! look foward to it!

[@brunoafonso8006]

@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Hello there Ken! Did new discoveries and changes in perspective came up from your research since then? If so, have you shared in video or written somewhere?