Author Archive

Off to the West Dean Guitar Festival this weekend. I will have just 2 guitars with me – a Romanillos model (left), and the spruce/maple Torres model (right) 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…

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…

See below a very nice review of my French Polishing DVD by Roy Courtnall (author of Making Master Guitars). The course is no longer available as a DVD, but can be viewed online. Email me for details of how to access the course.   “Many practical skills can be learnt by reading a relevant book…