2024 Jake Fuller "Purnell" SP/CSAR

Another outstanding instrument from this excellent British builder. As with all of Jake's guitars, workmanship is clean, simple and refined. The sound itself is textured, with ample overtones yet excellent clarity and balance - a wonderful synthesis of the Spanish and Northern European styles. The body of the guitar is very light in weight making it respond like an early 20th century Spanish guitar, but it has a slightly "stiffer" neck and neck joint which gives it noticeably increased sustain, balanced across all registers. Being this lightly built gives it a flamenco-like response with a quick, snappy attack, followed by a rich, lush tone with plenty of "body" in each note.

Materials used in this instrument are gorgeous. Jake was given a log of a beautiful rosewood by a local double bass maker in England. The log was short and couldn't be used for a double basses - so why not use it for guitars? Being encouraged by his good friend, Youri Soroka, Jake decided to use three pieces of this wood for the sides and six pieces for the back. The final result is absolutely beautiful. The soundboard is made from spruce and has Jake's latest strutting pattern which he has been refining for many years with the goal of giving extra structural stability to the top and to increase the bass frequencies. The guitar also has a laminated fingerboard, a walnut bridge, and tulipwood trimmings. Jake also has installed a removable sound post, just like in his previous instruments.

In the spirit of minimizing the weight but maintaining the necessary stiffnesses in the guitar, Jake employs a few of his own methods on top of what is otherwise a traditional, Torres-style guitar. This includes the use of a laminated veneer at the foot of the guitar instead of a bulky end-block. For the back braces, he uses 4 transverse bars that are highly tapered, and support a longitudinal "floating" bar on which an optional soundpost can rest between this floating back brace and the lower harmonic bar on the top. Jake notes that the use of the soundpost increases the body resonance by a full whole step, which also enhances the mid-range. This gives players the option (depending on their repertoire) of playing brighter, contrapuntal music requiring greater separation and independence between voices (with soundpost) or more romantic, warmer music (without soundpost) or of course to the wishes of any player's individual tastes. Playability is a breeze with a very easy and comfortably shaped neck profile. Suitable for any size auditorium - also a wonderful recording instrument. Jake really knows how to build an old-world Spanish-style guitar that satisfies the demands of a modern player - this guitar really has it all and confirms just how pleased we are to be Jake's exclusive US dealer.

Photos taken during construction.

British luthier Jake Fuller has been building guitars for nearly two decades. His passion for making classical guitars resulted from a combination of his early woodworking background (inherited from his father and grandfather), as well as being a guitarist himself. His Cornish grandfather was a wheelwright and made almost anything which could be built with wood such as carts, wheelbarrows, gates and furniture. Jake's workshop contains several of his grandfathers tools and even one of his tables that is used for the workbench. Jake sadly never met his grandfather for he lost a leg in WWI and died fairly young (he even built his own wooden leg!). Jake therefore uses his name - "Purnell" (which is also Jake's middle name) for his guitars as a tribute to this inspirational figure. Grandfather Purnell passed on his interest in woodworking to Jake's father who is a toy maker. It was growing up in the toymaking workshop where Jake learned his initial woodworking skills. Jake spent what would be essentially be his apprenticeship with him making toys in Suffolk. Playing the guitar was something Jake had always done, and he is continues to play to this day. At 16 he started classical guitar studies which launched his fascination with the instrument itself. After graduating from the London Guildhall University (where he studied with David Rouse and David Whiteman), earning a BA in Musical Instrument Tech, Jake set up a workshop first in Laxfield and then in Reydon, Suffolk where he has been making guitars ever since.