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Since 1974 Tom has been building and repairing guitars and basses in the San Francisco bay area. He has built a reputation for creating instruments that perfectly suit his clients needs. Tom hopes to give a part of himself to every instrument he builds.Born in Brookyln, New York Tom attended NYU Syracuse University Newhouse School of communications and earned a BFA in Music and a BA in communications. He relocated to San Francisco in the early 70's and opened his first lutherie shop in the Mission district. After ten years, and thousands of repairs and custom builds for clients, he closed the storefront in order to concentrate on Commission building.Tom served 10 years with the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA) and as President of the board of directors. His instruments have been featured in the Scott Chinery Blue Guitar Collection for the Smithsonian and in the Boston Museum.

Tom Ribbecke was born in Brookyln, New York. He attended NYU Syracuse University Newhouse School of Communications and earned a BFA in Music and a BA in communications. He relocated to San Francisco in the early 70’s and opened his first lutherie shop in the Mission district. He is one of the premier archtop builders in the world, with a considerable waiting list and many different models of guitars and basses employing carved top and back technology. He has a reputation for creating instruments that perfectly suit his clients needs. In 2003, Tom invented the Halfling guitar. The patented design is a unique blend of the steel string acoustic guitar and the archtop guitar that offers versatility, enhanced bass response and feedback suppression not found in any other archtop guitar. As one would expect these are superior instruments which have no compromises in playability, quality, craftsmanship and tone. There are now two distinctly separate entities Ribbecke Guitar Corporation (RGC) which produces the Halfling guitar and Halfling bass and Ribbecke Guitars, Tom’s private practice where he continues to hand-craft truly exceptional museum quality archtops of exquisite design for which he is world famous.

Healdsburg, CA

Seal, Bobby Vega,

Halfling, Monterey