I don't remember if it was I or Jim who made the initial contact but it was made and soon afterwards I had two Australians on my humble doorstep.

Jim had brought his friend, Warren Darker, to California with him, two fine guitars and an appetite for the Sierra. So he came to the right place. Being in Fresno I'm in the best proximity to some of the best Sierra views.

I really wasn't looking for another guitar, I teach college guitar and am a radio announcer which doesn't afford me the luxury of owning too many expensive guitars. I own a very fine Greg Byers and was happy in it.

The more time I spent with the Redgate the more I made myself believe I needed a new guitar and it was a Redgate and I was going to get it cheap because Jim and Warren were drinking all of my beer and dirtying up all of my camping gear.

I lent Jim and Warren my gear, a cooler for their own beer and sent them alone into the higher elevations behind Yosemite to deal with hangovers that are severe when the air is thin. I told them not to beer it up in thin air but for people who drink beer with their eggs it matters not. A week later they were back and I was the owner of a Redgate.

I can't say enough positive things about Jim's guitars. Both of the guitars he left me with, while he and Warren partook of the reason I stay close to the Sierra, were full of great character and had me wondering which one I liked better.

The first thing you notice with a Redgate is the massive volume. These guitars are LOUD. But that loud sound has an extremely beautiful character in it's deep full bodied richness and clear upper range definition. The balance is as even as it gets and it causes me to feel that I can gain greater control over music.

I have never been too much of a cedar fan, I've always preferred the complexity of spruce. Cedar always seemed like middle range sound, not particularly bright and not too deep in the bass. Jim's cedar is the spruciest cedar I've ever played. The highs are more bell-like the basses more round that the conventional cedar. He'll explain below how he achieves it.

The fretboard is a little more curved and at first, when I was looking for excuses not to buy, seemed to bother me. I got used to it and I believe that the radius of the fretboard makes it easier to play even after I jacked up the action.

The workmanship and finish is top quality. It is a warm looking guitar, the colors of the wood are natural and muted. Nice effect for a guitar that screams.

Below is an interview, a discussion because I couldn't keep my mouth shut, with Jim on audio tape in the backyard of Brian and Felix's house in Fresno. It's shortly after beer and eggs on a sunny Fresno morning.

ME- So connect your guitar to the Torres. It seems that lattice bracing is an extreme point of departure from a traditional classical guitar.

JIM- It's basically the same as a Torres system in the way that it works with the mode of vibrations of the top but the lattice braced system is lighter and also an arched back.

ME- What do you look for in a piece of cedar for a top?

JIM- Greg Smallman looks for floppy cedar, wood that is spongy and what most guitar makers would reject. His tops are very, very thin. (Smallman invented the lattice bracing system and his guitars are played by John Williams) So he doesn't want his tops too brittle and uses the spongy wood. His carbon fiber bracing is so stiff that the top becomes inconsequential as a vibrating plate. I like stiffer wood, like most guitar makers but not too stiff. Stiffer wood tends to give you too bright and hard an instrument. I like it somewhere in between. The difference between my guitar and your typical lattice braced system, like the Smallman is that my top is thicker and therefore less bracing so I get more of the wood sound. So as far as the lattice braced guitars I get a more traditional tone.

ME- So this leads to questions about spruce. It seems that most lattice braced guitars I've seen and heard of are cedar. It this the preferred wood for the lattice braced guitar?

JIM- Almost all lattice builders build with cedar. I decided that with my earlier spruce instruments I was having trouble getting the flexibility with the top because of the strength of the lattice bracing. What I've done lately is put less bracing under there. The brace is wider but also I also play around with the angle of the struts in order to get more flexibility. Cedar is a lighter wood than spruce so the advantages of the lattice bracing which is reducing the weight of the top, is reduced when using the heavier spruce.

ME- You have a degree in guitar performance. How much of the player is injected into the luthier?

JIM- I think it's really important to be a player. I know makers who can build a reasonably good guitar but they don't play and can't evaluate the guitars properly. The evaluation of the guitar after I've made it is the most important thing. I can pick it up and determine it's strengths and weaknesses. And being a player doesn't necessarily enable you to get the "true" voice of an instrument. For example, I sent a guitar to England, to a very fine player, and he asked that I send an instrument that was a bit brighter. I sent the same instrument to an Australian and he asked that the next one I send be warmer. So this demonstrates people's different perceptions. Now if you're a luthier and you rely on these perceptions you may end up going down the wrong path. So I really have to understand the sound of the guitar myself. That's why it's important to be a player.

ME- The volume of your guitar is much better than average. Does the arched back have something to do with it?

JIM- Yes. The arched back does project the guitar more and it also evens it out the volumes of the notes. On a regular guitar you have two surfaces that are relatively parallel, the top and back. You have a frequency that the top generates and the back vibrates with it and induces cancellation. The energy gets lost in the back of the instrument. If it happens on a note you find that the note is dead. You can also have the back vibrating at a different frequency and causing another unwanted effects. By arching the back you get rid of all the standing waves. You don't get all of those wolf tones or dead spots. The other thing that it does is in the way it is arched it directs sound towards the soundhole so it gives you better projection. It also allows freer passage of air through the instrument. With some traditional luthiers they tune the back in a complimentary tone to the top. I've found with the arch back being a lot stiffer is that the stiffness give you a greater reflection of sound and the pitch of the back doesn't matter. I also see that it is heavy and dense which adds to that reflection. The back and the sides are thick and isolated from the top so it doesn't vibrate like traditional backs.

ME- Tell me more about the construction of the lattice itself.

JIM- What is really important in the lattice is the tolerances of strut height are much more important than in fan braced guitars. The reason being is that carbon fiber is as strong as steel. You can imagine that if you take a millimeter off of wood it won't make much of a difference but that same amount on carbon fiber makes a great difference in the top's flexibility. As I said, the struts are composed of balsa wood which the only function is to space the carbon fiber above the soundboard. The fiber is placed on top of the balsa and starts as a cloth and epoxy resin is impregnated. Those who make traditional wood struts will thin them to get the required flexibility before the top goes on the guitar. Because you can't shave the carbon fiber struts before the top goes on the guitar the only way to adjust for flexibility is from the other side after the top is on. This makes more sense because you can adjust a top off of the guitar and when you put it on it changes. So there is not much point in tuning a top before it goes on an instrument.

ME- Talk about the aesthetics of the instrument.

JIM- I don't like excessive ornamentation but I do like it to look handmade. I think it's important to have a handmade rosette which mine is a Moorish design. I use a gloss back and side and a satin top which uses less coats. I apply French polish by hand and then I spray nitrocellulose which is a stiff lacquer. I use only three coats.

ME- This concludes the interview I had with Jim Redgate. After Jim and Warren left Fresno they went to Los Angeles where Jim's guitars are now being sold in the United States exclusively through Classic Guitars International. This is a firm operated by Dan Zeff and Chris Kamen. Dan has been in the classical guitar sales buisness for 10 years and formerly owned and operated Zeff Guitars. Chris is new in the business but has a deep love of the guitar.

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