Ribbecke Halfling

[Jabberwocky]

2009 one owner model on Reverb:

Ribbecke Halfling | Reverb

The seller offers Facetime or Zoom demos of his Halfling for sale. Take him up on it.

[Jabberwocky]

[charleyrich99]

The Halfling sounds great. Trying to decide on this or a Tim Bram archtop or whether to wait for an Andersen Oval Hole archtop to show up somewhere used...

[Jabberwocky]

Buy what is now available for sale. That Reverb 2009 Halfling isn't going to wait around forever. You may find neither Halfling nor Andersen Oval for sale for a very long time.

Archtopdotcom is expecting a 2017 Andersen Model 16. I feel that Oval or F-holes make no big difference in tone. It is more a visual contrivance than anything.

[wintermoon]

Buy what is now available for sale. That Reverb 2009 Halfling isn't going to wait around forever. You may find neither Halfling nor Andersen Oval for sale for a very long time.

Archtopdotcom is expecting a 2017 Andersen Model 16. I feel that Oval or F-holes make no big difference in tone. It is more a visual contrivance than anything.

Gotta disagree there my friend, as someone that's played/owned many oval hole examples of the same model there's a big diff in tone.

[charleyrich99]

Gotta disagree there my friend, as someone that's played/owned many oval hole examples of the same model there's a big diff in tone.

What do you hear as the difference?

[FourOnSix]

What do you hear as the difference?

To my ears (though no one asked me ), the oval holes are biased more toward bass. They're more "flattopy," if you will.

[wintermoon]

What do you hear as the difference?

Yep, ime oval soundhole archtops kind of sound like a cross between an archtop and a flattop.
You'll get a bit more flattop-ish bass response than with f holes but usually still retain much of that f hole archtop sound in a well made instrument. I've also played a couple orig oval hole D'Angelicos that were superb. If you don't have access to a custom build try playing an Epiphone or Gibson Howard Roberts to get an idea.