Joe Parker has delivered one of our favorite S-Style guitars to date. If you're into Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretsch guitars (and who isn't?), read on.

The bound quartersawn Maple neck with an Indian Rosewood fingerboard adds a beautiful contrast to the Lavender Flake finish, and its 60s Oval C feeling carve, 12” radius, and stainless steel frets deliver a refined/vintage/familiar feel. It’s worth mentioning here that Joe worked at Collings Guitars for 5 years, the last 3 were in the set-up department, so if you’ve played and loved a Collings electric guitar, you’ll have a really good idea of what the Skylighter feels and plays like in-hand.

Loaded with Gemini Twin Mag Single Coil pickups, a ridiculously cool Freeway 6-Position switch (more on this in a minute), a 2 post Gotoh bridge and locking tuners, the Skylighter is a dream come true for players who love Strats, Gibsons, and Gretsch guitars and wished their best elements could be combined into a single guitar. It has the ergonomics of a Strat but the feel of a Gibson / Gretsch hybrid. TONS of sustain and muscle behind single note runs and chords alike - like Joe's DMO model, the Skylighter can sound very Tele-like in the bridge position (a great think in our book).

So, the Freeway 6-Position switch. What the heck is that?! Exactly. Easy answer? It's awesome. Think of it like a traditional 3-way switch that has a North and South hemisphere, so-to-speak. When in the Southern position, you have a normal Gibson-style 3-way (bridge, bridge/neck, neck) and when you flick the switch up into the Northern hemisphere, you can access the classic Strat positions (neck/middle, middle, bridge/middle). While the Skylighter never goes deeply into those "clucky" Strat tones, it's cool to bring in a touch of that vibe when desired.

We could go on and on here, but suffice it to say, we - along with former Fender Masterbuilder Jay Black - are huge fans of Joe’s work. Like some of our favorite builders - Joe Yanuziello, Scott Heatley, Saul Koll, Damian Probett, etc… - Joe manages to create instruments that are functional works of art. Not to be missed!