Travelling to Belgium for the Cordefactum Guitar Festival this weekend. I will have 2 guitars with me – one spruce/Indian rosewood, and the other is an all non-tropical woods guitar (walnut/spruce), photo below. I’m also happy to say that Marcin Dylla will be playing the spruce/maple guitar he has on loan in the Saturday evening concert. James

The Classical Guitar Magazine article mentioned in a previous post is now available online. You can see it here: http://classicalguitarmagazine.com/fretwork-luthier-james-lister-blends-old-and-new-approaches/   Online version of my interview with Classical Guitar Magazine now available… https://t.co/EL5pruQTf5 — James Lister (@JListerGuitars) November 5, 2016  

An increasingly popular feature on my guitars (and others) is the armrest. Armrests serve two functions – firstly they improve playing comfort for the player, by providing a smoothly curved surface for the right arm to rest on, rather than the edge of the guitar, which is usually only very slightly rounded or beveled. The…

Way back in February I did an interview for Classical Guitar Magazine, and had almost forgotten about it, but it has finally been published in the latest (Fall) issue, featuring Laura Snowden on the cover. So far I’ve been fairly impressed with the new incarnation of CG magazine. It’s nice to have more colour, and…

Off to the West Dean Guitar Festival this weekend. I will have just 2 guitars with me – the Romanillos model shown in the Galleries here, and the spruce/maple Torres model shown below. If you’re at West Dean on Sunday, come and say hello! James

Most of my guitars now use 12-hole tie-blocks, rather than the traditional 6-holes. There are a few advantages – they look neater, the basses are very simple to tie, and they give a more consistent and slightly larger break angle for the strings over the saddle. However, although the basses are very simple to tie,…

I returned home a few days ago from another very enjoyable visit to the Isle of Cumbrae in Scotland for the 8th Classical Guitar Retreat. I’ve been fortunate enough to have exhibited my guitars at all but the first of these retreats run by Matthew McAllister. A new feature of the event this year saw a selection…

It’s always a special day when the strings go on a new guitar. Well, actually the special day is a few days after the strings go on, as I’ve found that playing a new guitar as soon as the strings are up to pitch can be a mistake. In those first few hours/days, the strings…

“Many practical skills can be learnt by reading a relevant book on the subject, but learning to play a musical instrument is not one of them; we all know how important it is to be taught properly by a good musician who is also a communicative teacher. French polishing is another skill that is almost…