James Lister, an award winning luthier, hand making classical guitars in Sheffield, came up to Liverpool on the 29th September and delivered a fascinating presentation to the society on his art.

Using a slideshow to demonstrate the build of a guitar from start to finish; with some examples of guitar necks, backs, tops and the raw wood prior to it being worked on; members of Liverpool Guitar Society were treated to a rare insight into their instruments creation! For many of us there this was an aspect of our guitars we knew little to nothing about and safely can say we will never look at the guitar in the same way again.

James builds guitars using in general the principles of Torres, a famous Spanish luthier, though also has inspiration from German luthier Hauser. The slides demonstrated the intricate sequence of building the neck, keeping it as a block to facilitate easy clamping until later in the process, the gluing of the headstock to the neck. James went into detail regarding the various glues employed and their merits.

The selection of the variety of types of available wood for the top and back followed. James tends to prefer Spruce tops with Indian or Brazilian Rosewood backs. The price of the raw wood, sources and implications of conservation treaties was explained in fascinating detail, made all the better that we could get our hands onto the samples James had brought along, feel their relative weights, see the differing grains colours. The Bird’s-eye Maple is an exceptionally beautiful wood for the back. An example of a  Bird’s-eye Maple Guitar by James Lister.

James then detailed the joining of the two pieces of wood which make the top and the various struts including a slide featuring an incredibly small finger-width plane. The back and sides followed, informing on the importance of humidity at this crucial stage of construction especially with regards to the top’s dome structure – again, news to most of us that there is a dome!

In all James estimates it takes him around 150 hours to make a guitar with a lot of effort going into the French Polishing. James has a fascinating website which details many aspect of guitar making and a brilliant FAQ, he also has a Flickr page of photos of guitars at various stages of construction in his studio.

For those interested in commissioning a guitar, James can be contacted with details on his site here.

Guitarists Nick Fletcher and Gordon Dunn are prominent guitarists playing James Lister guitars. Nick can be seen on YouTube playing his own composition “Evensong” using a guitar made by James Lister  and Gordon Dunn unleashes his percussive guitar techniques on his James Lister guitar in “Man U Facture”.