Jim Redgate lattice # 474 – Australia

Jim has close to 10 years of waiting time. and we won’t get any new guitars in 2025.

Chosen by Ana Vidovic, Jim Redgate’s lattice guitars are among the best in Australia. This is a unique opportunity to acquire a classical guitar by a guitar maker at the height of his art. With the following options: armrest, elevated fingerboard; a Hiscox hard case.

This guitar offers a great cedar top with a huge string separation, sparkling trebles and resounding depth across the lower registers. The sustain is incredibly long with very thick notes.

We have been waiting for a long time, Philippe and I played 10 years ago on Jim Redgate’s guitars, and getting in our showroom a brand new guitar from Jim was for us our Holygraal! This guitar is a true dream guitar. The guitar is loud, warm, and has great dynamics but remains traditional sounding. The body is as light as a traditional guitar which gives true pleasure to the player. A super light lattice guitar with a huge sound and a great pleasure.

Jim came to visit us and explained that all the developments of the Ana Vidovic lattice guitar have as an objective to move away from the usual lattice ‘artificial’ sound to a more natural sound but still with huge dynamics. That is why his new lattice guitar is lighter with solid back and sides instead of laminated wood. The back is flat and not arched and the top is much thicker than on the average lattice Australian guitar. As a result, the guitar is woodier, more natural-sounding but still with a big voice.  All this work took years to achieve.

The sound has still the same tone color as his previous lattice model but with a little bit more sound thickness which adds some warmness. What is really amazing is the thickness consistency of the notes and the dynamics even below the 12 fret. As a result, a lot of pleasure which was already great for the player and becomes HUGE!

Here is some information borrowed from the web on Jim Redgate:

‘Jim Redgate is an Australian classical guitar luthier, who owns Redgate Guitars. As from 2012, he has been making three models, the lattice-braced, the double-top, and the traditional fan braced. His customers include Pepe Romero, Ana Vidovic, Ralph Towner, Slava Grigoryan, Leonard Grigoryan, Jeff Young, Gareth Koch, Odair Assad, Wolfgang Muthspeil, Karen Schaupp,  Hucky Eichelman, and Phillipe Mariotti.[1] One author said of him, « Like fellow Australian Greg Smallman, Redgate builds his (lattice braced) guitars to improve their volume and projection, and he uses lightweight carbon fiber reinforcements under the soundboard. While not as thin as a Smallman’s, Redgate’s soundboards are much lighter than traditionally braced examples, and his guitars are therefore more responsive, energy-efficient, and louder than traditional classical instruments’.

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