“Once I realized I could carve and manipulate
top plates to behave in certain ways, I became
so fascinated with the archtop that I kind
of never looked back after that.”
reasoned that very few things in nature are truly
symmetrical and began with the idea that “sym-
metry was the hobgoblin, the opium for the
acoustic mind. But it really isn’t, both in nature
and in the way our ears hear. It takes a lot more
energy to make a bass note audible than it does
a treble note, and if you look at the curve of
human hearing, it’s also like that.”
Another asymmetrical appointment on the
Halfling is its bass-side, upper-bout soundhole,
which allows that side to be thinned more
without weakening it by punching a hole in the
middle. “It’s a nice aesthetic design,” Ribbecke
continues, “and I’m not the first guy to think
of it. I studied with Richard Snyder, who was
phenomenal and had his on the other side of
the soundboard, but I’ve stolen those ideas from
everybody who came before me. The concept of
the Halfling as a whole, as a piece of art, is to
free the bass side of the soundboard to be more
compliant and still have a instrument that’s truly
an archtop in structure and design.”
The first Halfling was commissioned by
Paul Szmanda, a player and collector of some
extraordinary guitars. “Paul called me one day
and he said, ‘What would you do if I gave
you a chance to just build something that you
think is going to be historically significant? No
fetters on this commission. Make something
you think will be a really great contribution
to the state of the art of the guitar.’ That must
have been 2002. That’s the one you’ll see all
over the place, with the quilted mahogany. It’s
on my website. It’s a pretty amazing instru-
ment, visually. I’d been waiting for probably
15 years for somebody to say, ‘Can you make
a modern embodiment of the Sound Bubble
concept that now works because you know a
