2017 Jake Fuller "Purnell" SP/CH

A 2017 "Purnell" classical guitar by Jake Fuller, with an old four-piece spruce top and a three-piece English cherry back and sides – in excellent condition, with no cracks or repairs.

In the video above, George Sakellariou plays Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" on this guitar.

Fossilized Spruce and English Cherry, in Jake's Words

"The old spruce is from a violin wedge I got from a cello maker. The guitar has a four piece top and a three-piece English cherry back. Sounded good from the first strum. I was offered a few pieces of this spruce by the violin maker, who was given them by a retired cello/violin maker (now deceased). You can tell it's old when you work it. The best way to describe it is fossilized. This guitar was made from one of the best wedges. You can see the darkening of the wood at the ends from years of being stored. It must be over 50 years old at least to get to this state. The old spruce wood seems to give the guitars a played-in feel from the beginning."

"The English Cherry came from a local wood dealer who specializes in indigenous hardwoods. It came from a large pile of reclaimed floor boards. It's one of my favourite woods for the back and sides. Firstly, it's satisfying to use wood from my country. It's a wood of medium density, sitting between cypress and rosewood, similar to maple. Unlike maple, which has a dullish tap tone, it has a nice clear ring to it, more like a rosewood. Subsequently it gives the guitar a wider range of qualities, from the warmth of maple, to the presence of rosewood. It also has a wonderful colour with a subtle figure."

Sound and Condition

The sound is textured and clear, with ample overtones, and the light body and stiff neck joint give quick response and long, even sustain. Although used, the guitar shows only some wear in the finish – no cracks or repairs – and is in excellent playing condition.

Photos of this guitar being built

Jake Fuller "Purnell": An English Guitar Maker from Suffolk

Jake Fuller is an English classical guitar maker who has built guitars since the late 1990s, in a workshop first in Laxfield and then in Reydon, Suffolk. Woodworking runs in his family: his Cornish grandfather, Purnell, was a wheelwright who made carts, wheelbarrows, gates and furniture, and who lost a leg in World War I (he even built his own wooden leg); some of his tools, and a table that serves as Jake's workbench, are still in the workshop. Jake never met him, and he builds under the name "Purnell" – also his own middle name – as a tribute. His father, a toy maker in Suffolk, gave him his first apprenticeship.

Training with David Rouse, and the Spanish Tradition

A guitarist himself, Jake began classical guitar studies at 16 and went on to earn a BSc in Musical Instrument Technology at London Guildhall University, where he studied with David Rouse and David Whiteman. His main influences are Antonio de Torres and Hermann Hauser, with ideas from Santos Hernández and Masaru Kohno: traditional, lightly built Spanish guitars with a few refinements of his own, often made from woods with a story – reclaimed timber, old pianos, gifts from fellow makers.