Official Luthiers Forum!

I just happened across the following site showing the work of an Australian luthier named Jim Redgate. My D grade amateur status doesn’t allow me to have an informed view but I found it interesting anyway and thought I would pass it on.
http://www.newmillguitar.com/red.html
Enjoy

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

ill have to read the entire thing later, but it seemed at least interesting. just a couple things i caught quickly: tuning the plate to a tone in between concert pitches to attain more clarity. makes sense. anyone comment on that? secondly, under 2mm at thickest point and down to 1.3mm?! thats pretty thin! and that was on cedar! thanks for sharing. im interested in what others have to say.

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sweat the small stuff.

Balsa and graphite laminate braces are interesting. Who would dream that balsa would become a tonewood. There are articles I have read recently about building balsa fiddles.

John

Been a style of building here for many years. Have a look at Greg Smallman's instruments. He's been widely credited with developing this style of building. His tops can go down to 1 mm thick.

I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop that Greg attended in Albany, West Australia back in March. He gave us a blow by blow of how he builds his guitars. Very interesting indeed. His tops are so thin on his concert instruments that the player is encouraged not to allow their hand to touch the top.He does build with an armrest to help with this. Student models are built a little more robust.u

He also told us that all of his instruments sound terrible when first built. That it takes about a year for him to modify the lattice a little at a time, and play them in for him to get the voice out of them that he's looking for. The demonstration that he gave us of what a little piece of "Blue Tac" will do to the sound of an instrument when placed on a soudboard was nothing short of astonishing.

Also some direct sound comparisons of 2 of his instruments to a very nice Fleta.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
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Cairns, Australia

Jim is well known in Classical guitar circles, and is well regarded.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/