This Is a gold top Testadura with a 2" body depth. It is one of Seals original Testaduras and the only existing gold top. Tom Holmes pickups, ebony fingerboard, serial #316 and redone frets. It is available now and carries the original warranty. Price is $12,000.00. Email me to buy this guitar today!

This mid 80's rare, quilted mahogany guitar is available for sale. The guitar is being upgraded with a new concealed control pickguard and modern electronics. Email me to buy this guitar today!

The Newport Guitar festival will have young luthiers dedicated to the craft, master guitar builders dedicated to the art, vintage dealers dedicated to the history, and a host of virtuoso musicians dedicated to the music of the guitar. For perhaps the first time in a festival, we will try to organize the guitar in way that is understandable in all its forms-as an instrument of music, as an instrument of art, as an instrument of history and as instrument of investment. We invite everyone who is interested in the guitar to join us in this grand experiment. We guarantee you won't be bored.

Tom will be at the show, exhibiting instruments and soaking up the sun. Come by and check out our guitars, including this amazing inlay by Larry Robinson:

Tom is a graduate of Syracuse University and has been featured in the school's Alumni spotlight.

Here's an excerpt:

During the course of four decades, Tom Ribbecke ’74 has acquired an international reputation for building guitars and basses of incomparable beauty. “Each musical instrument tells a story,” says Ribbecke, speaking by phone from his Bay Area office in California. “This is my gift, my mission in life: to create instruments that people will be playing 400 or 500 years from now.”

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Bobby Vega is going to the Euro Bass Day in Verona, Italy from October 31 thru November 1.

He's bringing his Bobby Vega Halfling Bass with him and will be conducting several seminars with it. Click here to view the schedule for the event.

We'll be attending the Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcase held in New York in October.

The Woodstock Invitational is an alternative guitar show, featuring contemporary, handmade acoustic guitars and stringed instruments, exhibited by their makers.

Tom will be exhibiting at the Montreal Guitar Show July 3-5 2009. He will be bringing several instruments for display and sale including:

Due to all of the interest generated for Tom's Stradavari inspired cello Tom will also be building one mandolin! He is including these two rare instruments in his final 25. If you are interested in commissioning either the Ribbecke cello or the mandolin please email me for more information.

Tom will be at the Guitar Institute of Technology on Monday, June 8th to do a presentation on his guitars. Artists Kevin O'Neal, Bruce Forman and Pete Snell will be performing. Please email me for more information.

Tom is now accepting students for his guitar making class in the fall email me for more information.

This beautiful, one of a kind, Monterey is available for sale. It was placed with one of my dealers and fast became a favorite. It has been barely used and is a very rare instrument. Built from outstanding woods, it's the only Monterey built with a 2 7/8" depth. It also features white binding, instead of ivaroid, rarely seen in this model. Please email me to purchase this rare guitar.

Back by popular demand Tom will be conducting one more guitar making class in October. The class guitar is available for sale! Please email me for more information.

Sorry, this instrument has SOLD!

Tom is taking orders for the last slots of his private practice career. These instruments will be the "Masterpiece Series". Each instrument will be each unique and differentiated by label, material and thematic detail. The guitars will be the crowning work of his illustrious career. Each will be individual and uncompromised. Pricing will begin at $25,000.00 and will require a $10,000.00 deposit at the time of reservation. Tom has one remaining Testadura slot available in his lists. Please email me for more information.

Guitar Planet is a reality TV show based on the running of his personal practice guitar shop and the new production company, Ribbecke Guitar Corporation. The show is currently in production. Any new news will be posted here, so stay tuned. To see a promo clip of the show, visit www.guitarplanet.org.

A luthier collaboration between Tom Ribbecke & Linda Manzer. Normally reserved for a musical performance by two players, the word 'duet' is not usually associated with the craft of guitar making. It is, however, fitting in this collaboration between Tom & Linda. Built in the late fall of 2000 during an intensive seven day workshop in Healdsburg, California, the Duet is the musical dance of two distinct sensibilities.

A brilliant example of co-operation, their occasional compromises always tempered with a unified objective, like two musicians (which, of course, they are) Linda and Tom 'jammed' before an audience of fellow luthiers and a small film crew, who were there to witness the process of two great builders coming together and willing to put their craft on the line in this once-in-a-lifetime venture. The result of their labors is 'Duet'.

Featured in Acoustic Guitar Magazine; 'DUET' is currently in Linda Manzer's shop in Toronto and is available for sale at $45,000.00.