the Fly Clone Project

Hi

First post here

In the video:" Ken Parker and Charlie Hunter- The future of guitar design," there is a one-off archtop type that Ken discussed.
At the 1 hour and 40 minute mark he discussed the experiment.
It had a concave back?

He later discussed the design for any budding luthiers out there?

Can anyone show me links to images and the design as such, if possible?

Hi @zackerty,

Welcome and thanks for joining! That’s a great question; as you may know, @Ken Parker has a new series on his website called Archtoppery where he discusses specifics of his archtop-building approach. He hasn’t made a video discussing that particular instrument (as far as I know), and, while Ken does contribute to this forum, I think you might get a quicker response by posting your question through the Archtoppery Q&A form.

Ken is a cool guy and loves speaking about his work and answering questions, so, if he has the bandwidth to respond fully to your question, I think he’d enjoy doing so!

Keep us posted!

Thanks Vj

I have been following his Archtoppery a while now, ( a serious hand injury has me stuck at home for a month ) and just Googling anything about Ken and his body of work.

I have been accumilating various wood species since the 90's for another hobby of mine, and making musical instruments will be a perfect segue for me.
Change of direction, as it were.

Thanks for the advice.

And thanks to the founders of this website!
A gold mine of info for me.

Ahh—sorry to hear about the hand injury, @zakerty you; I agree though: watching videos of Ken’s work is a nice way to pass the time! If I may, Ken did give a lecture for our lab a few years ago, which you may enjoy:

http://electricguitarinnovationlab.org/kenparker

It’s long but he discusses both the Fly and his current work; interesting to see how his Fly efforts influenced his later archtops. Would be curious to hear your thoughts if you end up watching it.

Thanks VJ

I have worked with CF and wood laminations before, for a baritone fretless 6 string for myself. ( Think Steinberger clone)

EMG H3 bridge and neck PUs...okay sound, and great sustain.

I am not a good player, just a guy who likes making stuff.

I will watch that video this afternoon, thanks.

Wow—very cool; I see the appeal to Ken’s work more clearly!

I’d love to see that baritone at some point! Ken has a small segment in that video where he describes what it’s like to get a carbon fiber splinter—a pain I’m sure you know all too well!

VJ
I have watched that video twice, a day apart!
I wish I had seen this 30 years ago, and I would have chosen a luthiers' path, and not an electrician...

Is there a second part, alluded to in the vid?

And that Spruce Fly near the end...is it yours?

My baritone is in pieces, due to stuff I want to change.

The neck is one piece Jabroc, like the Spitfire props from WWII, only 17mm thick, but no truss rod needed...scale is 28 inches.
Nut is CF and the bridge 7075 Aluminium, a simplified Steinberger homage.

The neck is heavy, part of the reason why I am going to do another neck at some stage, but with a 3mm Jabroc fingerboard.
And a CF layer on the back of the neck.

Jabroc is laminated wood and saturated with a phenolic resin under high pressure to cure it.
Same stuff as under race cars to check the wear from down pressure after each race.

The body is in-the-white western red Cedar, and the neck bolted on with three Allen screws.

Thanks again for the video link VJ.

So glad you enjoyed that, @zackerty! That was our first real event with the Electric Guitar Innovation Lab, and what a kickoff!!…for exactly the reason you noted: how inspiring is Ken?!

I think the “second part” alluded to would have been just a bunch of people hanging around and talking informally about guitars. I’ll just mention: you and anyone reading this are 100% invited to any sort of event that we have like this in the future if visiting Central Massachusetts is ever convenient. Our lab is just a bunch of people (students, engineers, musicians, others, etc.) that like talking about guitars, guitarists, effects, amps, with likeminded people who “get it” Not unlike this forum!

Yes, the spruce Fly Concert is mine. I love the part in the video when Ken picked up and said “this is what I wanted to build!”

Wow—your baritone sounds terrific; congrats! Definitely keep me/us posted on your progress!!