Craig Bumgarner

A new Selmer size petite bouche in my current style. Torrefied sitka spruce top, claro walnut back and sides. Butternut neck, Sanduri fingerboard, 670mm scale, stainless frets. Ebano bridge & mustaches. Miller hardware and French polish finish. For Sale.

Torrefied Sitka spruce top, curly mahogany back and sides. Mahogany, walnut and ebony neck, 670 scale, modern shape, EVO Gold frets, French polish finish.

A Selmer size gypsy guitar for Vlad Tobin. Torrefied sitka spruce top, walnut back and sides. Walnut neck, 670mm scale, Nickel Silver frets, ebony fingerboard, Miller hardware, French polish finish.

A new one for James Key. Selmer size, petite bouche. Torrefied sitka spruce top, curly makore back and sides. Mahogany neck with walnut center spline. Adjustable truss rod and carbon rod stiffeners. Indian Ebony fingerboard, nickel silver frets. Miller tuners and tail. French polish tint and finish.

A new petite bouche for Mike Horan. Mike is no stranger to my guitars, this is his fourth one! Selmer size petite bouche, Lutz spruce top with a colorful rosette, CB bracing and top tuning. Straight grain walnut back and sides (laminated). Walnut neck, Indian ebony fingerboard and head plate. 670 scale, EVO Gold frets, Miller tuners and tail. Ebano bridge and mustaches. French polish finish.

I feel like I’m zeroing in on my ideal for these guitars. Very strong highs balanced with solid but not woofy bass, crisp, clean notes with good tonal separation in chords, loud but capable of a wide dynamic range providing the player with the horsepower that can be throttled up or down as needed and a large pallet of tones. All this contributes to a “high gain” guitar that mics well.

#91 was a collaboration with Joe Barko that started at Django in June 2022. Joe wanted a Selmer size petite bouche with an ebony theme. The back and sides are Amara Ebony (laminated). Other elements include an Indian Ebony fingerboard, Ebano bindings and bridge/moustaches, ebony neck spline, ebony head plate and rosette key. Topping it off is a torrefied Sitka spruce top, EVO Gold frets, Miller tuners and tailpiece, Argentine strings and an untainted French polish finish. This is the third CB for the Barko family. Joe previously owned a Corazón and Becca owns a Selmer style octave mandolin we collaborated in 2020.

A new petite bouche to order. Selmer size body. Lutz spruce top with Joseph Dimauro style bracing. Curly walnut sides and arched back. Walnut neck, Sanduri fingerboard, 670mm scale, Jascar nickel silver frets. Ebano bridge and mustaches. Schaefer open gear tuners, Miller tailpiece. French polish finish. Great sounding guitar, pretty much my ideal these days.

A new Corazón by request. Lutz spruce top, birdseye maple back and sides. Mahogany neck shaft with walnut spline, Sanduri fingerboard, Dimauro style headstock and EVO Gold frets. Adjustable truss rod. Miller tuners and custom CB tailpiece.

The little guitar that thinks it is a big guitar! It may look small but the bark is strong with this one! Built on request for a player who wanted the comfortable fit of a smaller body, this is a new combination of my Parlor Gypsy body with a Derecho sound hole. It works well in tone, volume and aesthetics. The larger sound hole makes for a fuller sound on this smaller body while still being bright, clear and rich. Volume is outstanding and the highs are very strong. Top is 100 year old redwood. This is the last set I had. I didn’t think it would work so well on a full size guitar, but on this Parlor size, it is superb. Back and sides are straight grain walnut. While I like curly and figured woods, straight grain has a special place in my heart as being “correct” for a guitar. Neck is walnut, India ebony fingerboard, EVO Gold frets, adjustable truss rod and low action (2.2mm). Miller hardware and French polish finish. Boom!

#87, Selmer style for Michael Joseph Harris. Michael is a hard working pro in Baltimore who plays more gigs than anyone I know. He’s put Baltimore on the map for gypsy jazz by initiating a Monday night jam that has been running many years now, promoting the annual Charm City Django Reinhardt Festival featuring international stars, teaching, and so much more. This is the fourth guitar of mine for him and I’m so pleased he keeps coming back for more!

This one has a lutz spruce top, braced in the three brace pattern I now use most of the time. Arched back and sides are laminated with curly walnut for show. The neck is 670mm scale, Indian ebony fingerboard, nickel silver frets. Bridge is fully compensated out of Ebano and weighs only 8.7 grams! Tinted shellac and French polish finish (but of course!). Slightly aged Miller hardware. 10 gauge Argentine strings.