Gary’s Story
Nik knew I wanted him to build a guitar that would be particularly well suited to jazz, and I acquired Prototype #1 directly from him. The Rietbergen name comes from Nik’s wife’s family name.
The concept is semi-hollow in the spirit of the ES-335, with a center block connecting the top and back. But the construction is fundamentally different: the Rietbergen uses a solid carved curly-maple top and a solid carved curly-maple back — not the laminated maple plates used on the Gibson ES-335 line.
That distinction matters to me. The carved solid plates give the guitar its own acoustic character and resonance rather than making it simply Nik’s version of a 335.
Prototype #1 has exceptional flamed curly maple front and back in Nik’s Old Natural stain beneath a polyurethane finish. The ebony fingerboard carries dolphin inlays, and the 25-inch scale gives me a comfortable balance of string tension and spacing.
It has a slightly darker voice than some of my other 335-style guitars, which works beautifully for jazz standards, while still having enough acoustic resonance, clarity and sparkle for blues.
It has become one of my favorites because it does exactly what I hoped it would do while retaining a personality entirely its own.
