James Collins

James Collins is one of the most talented and creative guitar builders in the UK. Not only does he build his own high end, beautiful guitars under the James Collins brand, he is also one of a handful of registered Gibson repairmen in the UK and even runs 'build your own' guitar courses for students. Plus, he's an all round lovely bloke!

• Tuning Your Guitar
  Tuning your guitar is something that every guitar player needs to know how to do! In this masterclass from James we look at the things to avoid and correct tuning technique to help your guitar stay in tune.

• How To Change Guitar Strings
  In this comprehensive string changing course, James takes us through how the pros change strings! We begin our course with an introduction, talking about how often to change strings and which strings to use.

• Fretboard Maintenance
  In this course James Collins walks us through every aspect you need to know to keep your fretboard well maintained and playing smoothly. We look at cleaning and polishing both rosewood and maple necks, including polishing the frets.

• Cleaning Guitar Electrics
  In this mini series James Collins walks us through how to maintain the electrics in your guitars. There are some basic principles to learn which you can then apply to a range of guitar styles, as James walks us through.

• General Guitar Cleaning
  Keeping your guitar looking and sounding great by keeping it clean! It seems like an obvious thing, but there are some important tips to remember when cleaning different types of wood and paints.

• Neck Relief
  In this mini course James Collins walks us through the art behind neck relief. We take an in depth in how to adjust the neck relief on Gibsons and Fender style guitars, and find out just how important this can be to the overall playability of your guitar.

• Action Height
  The term 'action height' refers to the distance between the strings and the fretboard. Depending on what you are playing, you may want a different action height. James Collins walks us through how to properly measure and adjust action height.

• Intonation
  Intonation is essentially scale length compensation, which in simple terms is how well it is tuned across the neck. Typically as you move higher up the neck, the guitar starts to loose it's tuning, and intonation is a process that can help your guitar stay in tune across the neck.

• Full Set Up
  We set James a serious challenge... "Can you do a full set up using all the techniques we have covered so far, in just 15 minutes?". James said yes, and here it is that set up!