2020 Jake Fuller "Purnell" SP/MP

A 2020 "Purnell" classical guitar by Jake Fuller, with a spruce top and a three-piece maple back – his 111th guitar, built with Antonio de Torres much on his mind.

Maple from a Retiring Violin Maker

The maple has a nice back story: it was given to Jake by a violin and cello maker who was retiring, and who had bought it at the very beginning of his career decades earlier – incredibly well seasoned, of a quality that is hard to find today. Honduran rosewood bindings, a walnut head veneer and bridge, a lightweight laminated fingerboard and strutting for extra stability and bass complete the guitar.

Sound and Playability

Jake cites Torres as a particularly strong influence here, having spent a good deal of time contemplating Torres' life while building it. The sound is textured, with ample overtones and excellent clarity; the light body responds quickly and the stiff neck joint adds sustain. Very easy to play.

Photos of this guitar being built during lockdown

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.