Geoff Stelling founded Stelling Banjo Works was in 1974 while he was stationed at a Naval Base in San Diego. Stelling had been playing banjo and bass in bluegrass bands since the mid-1960’s. He experimented with the mechanics of banjo construction which led to a patented design that Stelling banjos still use for today: the wedge-fitted pot assembly. The wedge-fit helps give a good fit between tone ring and flange. Stelling has also designed and patented a “pivot-pin” tailpiece for the banjo. Stelling also make mandolins.

Source: Stelling Banjo Works website (29 November 2019)

Daniel Roberts worked for the Flatiron Banjo and Mandolin Company in 1989 (which had been aquired two years earlier by Gibson). Roberts became rear plant production manager before the new Gibson factory was opened in Bozeman, Montana. At this point Roberts decided the large factory was not for him and in 1991 he went to work for the Santa Cruz Guitar Company in California. While working for SCGC, he lived in Santa Cruz, CA for 6 years, but then returned to Montana, and continued to be employed by them for the next 11 years while working out of his own shop. Roberts built their archtop guitars, did design of new models, and accomplished most of the warranty repair for the company. He spent 17 years with SCGC and acquired an international reputation as a luthier.

Rigel mandolins are made by Pete Langdell in Jeffersonville, Vermont. Landell started making mandolins in the 1960s. He refined his designs over 20 years before starting the Rigel concept in the late 1980s. His idea was to carve the back and sides of the mandolin out of a solid block of wood using a milling machine, instead of the conventional method bending thin pieces of wood for the sides. The first prototypes were made in 1990 and Landell was soon promoting his new instruments at music festivals. Working with a team of craftsman and repair technicians, Rigel Instruments expanded through the rest of the 90s, eventually outgrowing their Cambridge, Vermont facilities to a large building in 2004.

Source: Rigel Mandolins website (3 September 2019)

Claudio Ricca has been a luthier since 1985, having studied in Cremona. He then specialized in classical guitar making, learning with Maestro Walter Leoni. He also does repair and restoration on historical instruments. He has a scientific background, and designed a mute for cellos with variable weight, a violin case and a hypo-allergenic chin-rest.

Source: Claudio Ricca website (20 August 2019)

Jaime Ribot was a luthier who worked in Barcelona at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Ribot shared a workshop with Bautista Alcañiz on the calle Ancha (number 40) until 1920. He made classical and flamenco guitars as well as bandurrias. Ribot guitars were played by Miguel Llobet, Emilio Pujol and Domingo Prat.

Source: Guitar Salon - Ribot guitar (19 August 2019)

Jay "Rhyne" Riness (born in 1937) was a luthier who made and restored high-end acoustic guitars (and some electrics) in Decatur, Georgia. Jay also built mandolins, dulcimers, and banjos, but his passion was acoustic guitars. He normally worked alone but during the 1970s lead a team of 8 workers for a while. He stopped making guitars following a stroke in 2000 and he died in 2010.

Source: Jay Riness forum thread (14 August 2019)

Source: Jay Dickerson Riness Obituary. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. July 25, 2010

Tony Revell is a UK maker specialising in small bodied acoustic guitars who also makes other instruments including mandolins, electrics and basses. Revell has been building since 1976.