Ribbecke Guitar Corporation Halfling

Picture a guitar that could replace both your, D28 Flat-top and L5. An instrument where your hands and pick attack as well as your string selection, be it flatwounds, roundwounds, electric or bronze and combinations thereof, can take you to all those familiar places while delivering a level of exquisite tone and clarity superior to what you've had before. It's ability to be used as a flat-top as well as a electric jazzbox make it one of the most significant advancements in the evolution of the archtop guitar. It is equally at home when strung with bronze, electric or with bronze on the low 3 and electric on the 3 high strings. We at DestroyAllguitars believe it to be a very important instrument that should be looked at closely by all those devoted to the guitar.

The HJG-1 Jazz Guitar (the Halfling) is the result of over 25 years of Tom Ribbecke's unique understanding of carved top design. A true crossover instrument, it combines the sensitivity of a steel string guitar, with its flatter soundboard on the bass side, and the articulate sound of a true jazz guitar. This instrument has superior separation of course (ability to hear individual notes and complex chords in individual strings). And, of course, the HJG-1 has the outstanding multi-dimensional acoustic imaging common to all Halfling™ instruments. It has great feedback suppression with an enhanced bass response not found in any other archtop guitar.

This versatile guitar may be strung with either phosphor bronze or electric strings, and Tome Ribbecke suggests you try both! The HJG-1 has a floating Kent Armstrong, American made, pickup which is mounted in a unique platform on the neck, giving this instrument the ability to perform like a Gibson L5 or a Gibson 175. It features volume and tone control, mounted under the pickguard as well as unique proprietary hex adjustable thumb wheels for the bridge. The HJG-1 has a nitro cellulose finish in the great tradition of fine guitar making, designed to age like an excellent wine.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Body: 17" bout with single Venetian Cutaway, 3 3/16 deep
Back: hand selected Western Bigleaf Maple
Sides: hand selected Western Bigleaf Maple
Top: hand selected Sitka Spruce
Bracing: X bracing
Scale: 25"

Neck: Birdseye Maple
Fingerboard: Ebony
Frets: 22
Width at nut: 1 3/4"
Width at 14th fret: 2.2"
Type of strings: 12-53 gauge Dean Markley Phosphor Bronze(tm), or Nickel Electric
Heelcap: Ebony
Nut material: first quality bone

Bridge: Ebony
Pickguard: Ebony
Pickup: Kent Armstrong Floating Pickup
Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer Gloss
Case: Cedar Creek Hard Case

Price: from $6300