ridgewing guitars
About Ridgewing Guitars
A Tribute to the Vision and Craft of Tim White
Ridgewing Guitars is a non-commercial digital preservation project dedicated to documenting the design, development, and legacy of the Chrysalis and Ridgewing guitars created by inventor and luthier Tim White.
These instruments—ingenious in construction, elegant in execution, and unlike anything else in the world—represent more than three decades of Tim’s imagination, experimentation, refinements, and remarkable craftsmanship.
This site brings together surviving materials from that journey: drawings, photographs, workshop notes, prototypes, finished instruments, correspondence, stories, and contributions from owners, builders, players, and friends. While the project is privately maintained and not affiliated with any commercial guitar company, it is guided by a simple purpose: to preserve the history of these rare instruments and make their story accessible to musicians, researchers, and museum professionals.
The Ridgewing and Chrysalis guitars occupy a unique space in the history of musical-instrument design. Fully modular, airline-friendly, reconfigurable, and engineered with a sculptor’s eye, they represent a singular vision—part industrial design, part artistry, part engineering challenge.
Through this archive, we hope to illuminate the creativity behind them and provide a reliable reference for those interested in instrument innovation, alternative lutherie, and the history of modern guitar design.
This preservation project continues to grow as new materials surface and additional owners contribute information about their instruments. If you have photos, documents, stories, or materials related to the Ridgewing or Chrysalis guitars, we welcome your involvement and invite you to reach out.
Thank you for visiting, and for helping preserve the legacy of these extraordinary instruments.
About This Project
A Non-Commercial Digital Archive for Research, History, and Preservation
This archive exists solely for historical, educational, and preservation purposes. It is privately funded and maintained, and it does not operate as a business or commercial enterprise. No sales, advertising, endorsements, or revenue-generating activities are part of this site or any of its content.
The project continues to grow as new materials emerge from private collections, personal archives, and surviving instruments. Owners who wish to share photographs, documents, or historical notes are encouraged to contribute, ensuring that the broader story of these instruments remains accessible to future generations.
The archive also collaborates with accredited museums interested in exhibiting Ridgewing or Chrysalis instruments. Exhibition loans are available on a case-by-case basis under standard museum protocols for insurance, environmental conditions, handling, and display. The archive does not charge loan fees; associated costs such as shipping, insurance, and courier travel are the responsibility of the borrowing institution.
Image Permissions
Any museum images used within this archive appear only with permission, are fully credited, and are presented solely for scholarly and historical purposes. No museum images may be reproduced without permission from the rights holder. Further details can be found on the Credits & Permissions page.
About The Name
Why “Ridgewing Guitars”?
This website is named Ridgewing Guitars because the Ridgewing instruments are the most widely recognized and publicly identifiable of Tim White’s creations. However, the archive documents both major branches of his work: the earlier Chrysalis line and its evolution into the Ridgewing models.
Retaining the familiar name “Ridgewing Guitars” keeps the site approachable to musicians and enthusiasts, while the project’s introductory text and structure make its broader archival purpose clear to researchers and museum professionals. In short, the name honors the instrument that reached the widest audience, while the archive itself preserves the full creative arc of Tim White’s work.