Parker P8E 70 Parker P8E Parker P8E Ken Parker’s guitars have, over the years, gained great renown for their radical design ethics and intransigent materials. Will their fascinating and debuting acoustic guitar stand up in practical terms? Huw Price finds out. G iven the Parker Guitar Company’s propensity for radical and sculptural electric guitar designs, it’s no surprise that their acoustic models follow a familiar theme. However, the body shape isn’t quite as radical as you might think. Keen students of vintage American guitars might be aware that Kay were producing something very similar, albeit without a cutaway, back in the early 1930s and the cutaway horn is pure BC Rich. Even the longitudinal oval soundhole is a steal from Selmer. However, the juxtaposition of swooping curves with acute angles is an unmistakable Parker-style statement. Looking beyond the P8E’s appearance the basic construction follows tried-and-tested acoustic guitar methods. Under the solid Canadian cedar top there’s a traditional ‘X’ brace and, perhaps most surprisingly, the 19-fret neck is attached by a glued dovetail joint rather than the more contemporary bolt-on arrangement. The back and sides are solid American maple with some particularly beautiful flame, and a strip of Mexican abalone bisects the book-matched rear plates. The front and back edges of the body are bound with solid rosewood, and the same rosewood is used to join the two edges on the upper horn and the point of the cutaway. It has to be said that the binding is one area that lets the P8E down. The thickness varies considerably and it’s just a bit wobbly around the neck heel. The sides of the nut are also a little uneven, so the factory needs to apply a little more attention with the sandpaper. There’s nothing shocking, but some manufacturers of guitars in this price range do achieve flawless results. Nevertheless there is some impressive woodworking in other areas. The Indonesian mahogany neck is a five-piece sandwich with two strips of maple running from head to heel. This construction method can produce very strong and stable necks and was commonplace on high-end archtop jazz guitars back in the day. The slim headstock harmonises with the overall style but there’s a practical purpose behind those dimensions. Parker has designed the headstock to create a straight path from the nut to the tuners. The same principle has always been used on Fender electric guitars too, and it’s generally believed that eliminating any angle from the nut slots promotes stable tuning. For such a cutting-edge guitar you might consider the gold-plated open-geared butterbean Grover tuners a touch incongruous, but they actually work smoothly enough and look just fine. Despite going to the trouble and expense of fitting a bone nut, Parker has also opted for a zero fret. Although relatively uncommon these days, zero frets were once very popular. In fact, Chet Atkins specified zero frets for his signature model Gretsches. The idea is that a zero fret ensures that open strings ring out with the same tonality as fretted notes. Since most acoustic players, particularly those of us who explore open tunings, habitually combine open and fretted strings, a zero fret seems like a sensible move. More innovation is applied to the ebony bridge. You’ll notice that it’s asymmetrical, but the purpose of the extra surface on the bass side is to produce a fuller and deeper tone. Since the body size is fairly small, and maple is an inherently bright-sounding timber, every little helps. Other nice touches are the compensated bone saddle and the inlayed abalone ‘P’. But despite its acoustic credentials the P8E is very much designed for plugging in. The ebony fingerboard extends no further than you can comfortably reach, and the gap between the end of the tongue and the soundhole is wide enough to accommodate an unnamed humcancelling magnetic pickup. It pokes through a cut-out in the cedar, and the pickup cover appears to be made from ebony. All in all, this is a much tidier arrangement than having a pickup strapped across the hole. A Fishman Active Matrix undersaddle piezo pickup augments the magnetic pickup, and a control on the on-board preamp allows you to blend the two. Next to the mix control on the upper bout are the bass and treble controls, and a master volume sits unobtrusively on the soundboard just above the neck. All the control knobs are lowprofile items that should prove hard to knock out of place. The output socket plate is located on the lower 71 Parker P8E Adam Black J-5 (NS) Model: P8E Price: £1249 inc VAT Manufacturer: Parker Guitars Built in: China Body Size: Concert-Style Cutaway Woods used: Top: Solid Cedar top with rosewood binding Back & sides: Solid Flame Maple back and laminated Flame Maple sides Neck: Mahogany with Rosewood headstock Fingerboard: Ebony Frets (No. & size): 19 Tuners: Grover® Sta-Tite (97 Series) gold 14:1 Nut Width & Scale Length: 1.69”, 25.5” Strings Fitted (Gauge & Brand) Mojo PHL.012 – 0.53 Onboard Electronics: Fishman® Hum cancelling neck pickup complimented with Fishman® Active Matrix Undersaddle pickup Left handers? No Gig Bag/Case Included: Yes, Parker hardshell Tapered controls help prevent accidental adjustments “So the P8E is a very accomplished fingerpicker and the zero fret obviously does its job” bout. Here you have the option of a mono output on ¼ inch jack or stereo out on XLR, plus it provides battery access. Both outputs can be used simultaneously so you could send the XLR to the mixing desk and the jack to your on-stage amp. Alternatively, one side can be used dry and the other can be sent to various effects. 37mm at the zero fret) slightly cramped, and the high E string had a tendency to fall off the fretboard when I pulled off at the second and third frets. The neck has a medium depth with a subtle taper towards the body and a comfortably rounded profile. As a strummer it should cut through a treat, producing impressive volume levels for its size. There’s also plenty of tonal variation depending on whether you are playing near the neck or the bridge, but things do get a bit crashy if you strum hard with a thin plectrum. Nevertheless I believe this would be a very usable studio recording instrument. So what about the electric side? To my ears the piezo bridge pickup sounds fairly generic. It’s bright, slightly squawky and plasticky. But then again, aren’t they all? Piezos have a sound of their own, but it’s never the same sound as the guitar itself. So if your ears are attuned to them, or you even like the pickup sound, the Parker’s is a good as any. The saving grace is the magnetic pickup. It’s warm, sweet and surprisingly woody. In fact, it sounds more natural than the piezo, although it doesn’t quite capture the high-frequency shimmer of the acoustic tone in its entirety. I started with the bass and treble controls in their centre detents and adjusted the mix control to achieve the balance between the two pickups that I preferred. I leaned towards the magnetic pickup with a touch of the piezo blended in for definition. From there Contact Details Sound Technology plc Tel: 01462 480000 Web: www.soundtech.co.uk What we think Pros: Fine materials and individual styling with impressive acoustic and electric capabilities, all at a competitive price point. Cons: Slightly cramped string spacing for pickers and one or two cosmetic defects that are technical rather than structural. Overall: Visually arresting with a tone to match its alluring personality. ACOUSTIC RATING OUT OF FIVE you can fine-tune using the tone controls. For instance, the piezo can add even more detail and cut, and you can tame the harshness by backing off the treble. The bass control was particularly effective for maintaining a full-bodied thrum and thumbpickers might like to add a little extra thump when they’re palm muting. Verdict Most acoustic guitar enthusiasts are fairly conservative in their tastes, so the P8E will only be of interest to the minority. In fact, it might have the most appeal for well-heeled electric guitarists who have no particular interest in conventional acoustic guitars at all but feel they need one anyway. The irony is that despite everything, the P8E is a bona fide acoustic guitar of no mean ability. Acoustically it becomes quite addictive and hard to put down. The combination of the maple shimmer with the soft cedar produces such an interesting and original tone that it’s bound to encourage you to explore new chord voicings and tunings. Maybe it will even inspire some new compositions. The P8E is also a very versatile and practical stage instrument. The electronics are well thought out and the range of tones should be enough to satisfy most players. In a world full of clones it’s exciting to see that some companies are still prepared to push the envelope of acoustic design without abandoning the best aspects of traditional guitar design and construction. Huw Price Sound This really is a very impressive acoustic guitar. It’s extremely bright and chimey, as you might expect from a maple back and sides, which is probably why builders traditionally balance things out by reserving their maple stocks for larger-bodied guitars. Parker has taken a different approach with this medium-bodied guitar by using cedar instead of spruce. The cedar tempers what could have been quite an edgy top end into something very sweet and refined. But the acoustic characteristic that impresses me the most is the bass. Considering its size, this guitar has a very deep tone but there’s no boom whatsoever. Even in dropped tunings the lowest notes seem to track all the way down, but they’re nicely in proportion with the treble and mid range. However, there is a very slight hint of mid-range boxiness that reminds me of a Parlour guitar tone. Personally I like it a lot, but it could divide opinions. So the P8E is a very accomplished fingerpicker and the zero fret obviously does its job. However, I did find the string spacing (53mm at the bridge and Acoustic Ratings Exceptional Excellent Good Average Poor 72