Our Burrell Visit

     On the way to Pastor Paugh's meeting Joyce and I had the opportunity to visit with Leo Burrell in Huntington, West Virginia. Leo is a retired Pastor and his love is making instruments that are easy to play so that more people can sing and play songs of praise.

     His patented design makes the Burrell guitar the most unique and radical departure in guitar construction in nearly two centuries and as a guitar player for over 35 years, I can safely say that this is the most comfortable and playable instrument I have ever held in my hands! I will say that traditional guitars (Martin, Gibson, Guild, etc.) have a little more volume (accoustically) than a Burrell, BUT... many guitars are now electrified with transducer pick-ups. That's where the Burrell leaves the rest behind! The design of the neck gives the player access to the upper register where most other accoustics don't. In fact, the "Venture" accoustic gives access to the 24th fret! That's twenty-fourth fret!!! Leo has told me that all his accoustic guitars will be electrified with Fishman components and that will make the Burrell the ONLY accoustic/electric guitar in the world that will give the player access to the upper register! The Burrell is the first and ONLY guitar that plays like an electric and sounds like an accoustic!

     When I first heard of his guitars, I called him to ask how I might be able to try one out. Because each one is hand made, he told me that he had no distributors and that he would send me one to try! He sent me a beautiful "Challange" model, (#091) with the understanding that I would return it to him as I passed through WV on the way to Pastor Paugh's seminar. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interview him on the show share his story with the listeners. The week after we had him on the show Joyce and I went to West Virginia and had the pleasure of meeting Leo and touring his shop.

     His first guitars featured a much more radical "twist" in the neck (40 degrees!), but now most of his guitars utilize an 8 degree twist. The curved top and back make it very comfortable and when coupled with the neck it's easy to understand why the Burrell is so playable! After all, a Guitar that is SO comfortable and SO playable is simply going to make you play better!

     If you are an accoustic guitar purist than the Burrell is probably not for you, but then you probably also prefer 33RPM's over compact discs too. The Burrell represents a new direction in an area that has seen little movement in a long, long time. It is my personal belief that these guitars that are being made by Leo Burrell will soon be collecter's items at a par with Leo Fenders prototype Stratocasters and Telecasters (now worth hundreds of thousands).

Guitar history is being made and I'm proud to have had the opportunity to have met the man who is making it!

Dave vonKleist