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Ribbecke Guitars
The “Artistic Guitars Testadura”
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The Ribbecke Testadura is a semi-hollowbody instrument hand built by Tom in his Sonoma County workshop. The size is very comfortable and is a little bit smaller than a 335. Like a 335, there is a center block, but on the Testadura, this is removable thru the neck pickup allowing the additional flexibility of a totally hollow-body instrument.
This one-of-a-kind masterpiece guitar was designed and created in conjunction with Tom Ribbecke and inlay Master Larry Robinson. Tom’s guitars are all exceptional but this Testadura is truly spectacular. As the Final 25 Run Guitar #23, this Testadura utilizes extremely rare and select Quilted Mahogany (from “The Tree”) for the body back, back of headstock veneer, as well as the pickguard which is bound with purfling and curly Koa. The rims and bracing are made of Brazilian Rosewood, and the top is a specially selected Sitka Spruce top for it’s clarity and close-grained spacing. This instrument also features a solid dark Brazilian Rosewood neck and fingerboard. The headstock veneer is Macassar Ebony with nice streaking, and matches the color hues on the top. The combination of these premium top-tier exotic tonewoods will never be equaled on a guitar again by any luthier.
In addition to the Master-grade tonewoods described above, both the body and neck are stiffened with carbon graphite bracing for extra rigidity and sustain, with the neck employing a state-of-the-art two-way truss rod. As a result, neck stability is outstanding. The scale length is 24 3/4” with a 1 3/4” nut. The neck profile is a very nice “Johnny Smith” like profile, thicker than a ‘61 335, but thinner than a ‘59 LP. The fingerboard is a compound radius 12 to 15” which allows clean action, bending and great intonation.
The pickups on this guitar are Bare Knuckle “Stormy Monday” pickups, which complement the extraordinary tonewoods with the premier pick-up combination for a 335-type of instrument. The “Stormy Monday” set faithfully reproduces the tones of the ‘57 and ‘58 era PAFs with smooth natural sustain, wonderful pick dynamics and string separation. Low notes are warm and full, the highs are sweet and mellow, but not harsh. The pickup rings are solid ebony, and are fit to the Sitka top and the pickguard, important for the proper coupling of the resonance to the top.
I wanted to bring a newer, more dramatic headstock to balance the bottom. We used a slightly scaled-down “Homage” headstock that Tom has used on only a couple of instruments,including the Final 25 #25 Modern Venetian 17” “Teardrop”. It has very nice lines and shaping. I also wanted to have thicker purfling to better define the edges and expose Tom’s amazing curly Koa. Thus the guitar has triple B/W/B/W/B/W purfling around the body top and back, body rims topside and backside, f-holes, pickguard, fingerboard, and headstock top and sides.
Other trim pieces of note are the TonePros HW and Gotoh 510 tuners with Gold HW with Macassar Ebony tuner buttons, knobs and toggle tip.
Inlay work is by the master Larry Robinson (1,000,000th Martin) and brings out images of Tom and Larry’s Sonoma / Napa heritage with grape fingerboard inlays. The finish color is a warm, golden amber natural with just a subtle burst near the edges bringing out the intense grain of the Sitka Spruce, Quilted Mahogany, Brazilian Rosewood, Koa, and Macassar.
Tom’s Private Practice Guitars are now very limited and start at $30,000+, but this one will never be copied or repeated.