Bumstead Super (SG3 style)

No idea where it is made or when. Got it off a guy who bought it new.
checked out the reviews so I figured it was a steal. no so sure now.
3 pickups, no selection switch, 3 volume and 3 tone controls.
Tone controls wired so if you turn it down on one pu it turns it down on all of them. So they might as well just have one tone control??!!!
22 Frets. Really Nice rosewood board. Inlays put in nicely without too much or noticable filler. Nice vintage style tuners work very well.
The nut is a really bad piece of chunky plastic that is way too high, unless your doing slide.
Weirdo back of neck to headstock thing going on. Juts out like on a violin. Not sure I like the feel of that when I am playing on the open position

The guitar's electronics are nice and quiet which would be great if the p/u's had any decent tone but they are completely flat sounding to my taste and ears. Okay if you play with some digital processor (Line 6??) but if your into getting your tone the old fashioned way you have to remove them and put in something much much better. 3 pickups will decent mean $$$$.
I think I will be doing a total re haul on this thing to see if I can get it to sound as decent as it looks. 3 good pickups are a pretty big cash outlay though! I guess I will just get two decent in the neck and bridge. I don't need a middle pickup with a humbucker set up.
Got this off of someone who decided to go with a standard sg.
I can now see why.

Very good looking guitar. no dispute there. very clean and very professional looking. 3 dressed up as a 9.

Action barely just passable but high and no room for adjustment lower, changing the cheap o nut would be a very good idea

The guitar seems pretty solid. It could stand up to live playing. Hardware is very decent It just won't sound too great unless you make some serious changes.

I think the warranty will be over the moment I take out the pickups and rewire everything to something more logical. second hand anyway so who cares.

Been playing for 14 years.
I wish I had played this guitar though a real amp, I took a gamble.
Would not buy again if stolen just because changing the electronics is gonna cost me big time.
The guy who sold it to me told me he was going to change the pickups anyway so I was warned.
I chose this one because someone was selling it cheap and it looked really nice.
Until I take it apart and rebuild it will just collect dust.
Fingers crossed I can make an instrument of this thing.
nice looking hanging wall decoration though!
Really well built by the looks of it
Good looking Kooky guitar.

I think this is a fair assessment of this particular purchase of mine.
I am not totally happy with it to say the least nor am I saying it is completely bad. So it gets a passing grade.

This guitar was manufactured in Germany in 2007. It has 22 frets and a split maple laminated top with a transparentish whiskey cola finish. This guitar has a volume and tone for each of the 3 passive '57 classic gold plated humbuckers, which gives a range of tone that I haven't seen in any other guitar. The body is made from solid African Mahogany. It has a tune-o-matic style bridge, and the tuners work great, although I don't know the brand.

This guitar can play any musical style you throw at it. I use a Digitech rp350 with headphones and this guitar sounds great with any effect, and never sounds muddy. The pickups are very hot, and they range anywhere from a full bluesy sound to a bright, crunchy sound. I love the crisp biting of the bridge pickup with the tone all the way up. Another great feature of this guitar is that, even when the other two pickups are turned off, their tone knobs still effect the pickup that is on.

This guitar came from the factory set up pretty well, and only needed some slight adjusting. One of the pickups actually had to be lowered about 1/16 of an inch, and the nut needed a little filing. The bridge was lowered for slightly better action. I actually could not find a single flaw in this guitar. One of the magnetic posts actually fell into the pickup, but I have the old pickup style, and the new ones won't have that problem, and I had it fixed for free

This guitar rarely goes out of tune, and the hardware is very solid. The finish is great. It is nitrocellulose based and there are 6 base coats and 10 clear coats. I have very acidic hands, so the gold has started to wear, but that would happen on any guitar that I play. I replaced the strap buttons with schaller strap locks, but the originals seemed durable enough. I don't play any live shows, so I can't provide feedback there. I can tell you that there is a local band in the area that is endorsed by bumstead, and this is the only guitar I have seen them use on stage.

I have personally met Mr. Bumstead and he was a very nice guy. There isn't much of a warranty, but this guitar is built so great that I don't really even need one. You can email the owner of the company directly and he will personally reply. There aren't many guitar companies that you can talk to the owner, or meet him for that matter! I gave this a 9 even though the warranty isn't that great simply because you don't need it.

I have playing for a little over a year, and this is a huge step up from my old bc rich warlock bronze series. I kinda wish I would have waited for the newer Super to come out, but I got the old style with the open book headstock and no serial number, so it might be worth something some day. If this guitar was stolen, I would have to buy another immediately. One thing I didn't like is that it didn't come with a pickguard, but I will be getting one soon enough, and any SG style pickguard will fit. My favorite feature is definitely the three seperate volume and tone knobs. This guitar is easily just as good quality as a $2000 Gibson, just less than half the price. This is the best quality guitar for under $1000 dollars I have ever seen

sg body style, black finish,
Made in Germany I believe, but I may be mistaken. But not a cheap chinese made guitar like the rest. This thing is crafted!
3 gold classic anilco pickups, (passive) 3 volume controls and 3 tone controls.
Gold Tune-O-Matic style bridge (hardware all gold)
flawless Trapezoid inlays on the nicest smoothest rosewood fretboard I have ever used . Binding - Antique cream
Just like listed in other review so you can read there
Now those are features. Top notch! like a 2000 + dollar guitar from...ahem... without the price tag

Great tonal flexibility right out of the box.
So far I can make this guitar go from Jazz to blues to Black Sabbath. (seriously!) So you can put all rock and roll somewhere in there. The volume controls over the pickups give you endless combinations. So far I have used it with an old Traynor mkIII amp with and without a tubescreamer (a rare and amazing cross between a fender twin and a marshall plexi) A Mesa boogie DC20 and a sans amp GT2 plus also direct into a soundcard.
Acoustically the light mahogany body with set mahogany neck offers the rich deep sound you would expect with nice volume unpluged.
Quiet running. I would call the classic sound rich full but still crisp. The pu are not super hot so you have a nice control when you wind volumes up or down. Not muddy at all even when combining middle and neck pu you always have a full sound. Very interesting to play with. I have gotten some almost Rickenbacker Beatle sounds happening which really got me excited. Not for shredders but great for rockers.
I am going to be putting in some GFS Dream 90's. But that is more of a reflection on my personal tastes and not with any dissatisfaction.
insane value for the price! This is guitar is a solid base to start with.
At first I was annoyed that there was no pu switch. But after a few hours you just naturally spin the volume knobs to get your sound dialed in. The learning curve on this is fast and ends up giving you total control. But may be a minus to some.

Finish was perfect, don't worry because I will mess it up guitars never stay mint long with me. the action I was good but will be adjusted slightly to my taste. no loose pegs, or loose controls
I like the width of the neck. not too chunky but not at all thin which would case me fatigue. Much like the necks on Fernandes USA models which I have stuck with for about 9 years mainly because of the general neck confort.

Yet to really test drive this guitar hard. But it seems pretty durable to me. I always gig with a backup. Just makes sense if your rockin.

Emailed Mr Bumstead and he got back to me next day. What more do you want for now? At this price point it's pretty great to be able to contact the company owner. I have been a loyal fernandes user for over 9 years and although I love my vertigos they never once returned my mail or answered my questions.

You always wanted an SG? well here it is get it while you can. If it is not exactly where you want it is probably less than 100 bucks from being modified into something you will never be able to do without.
You would be foolish not to risk a few bones before blowing your house money on a sg. If your already in the big leagues price wise maybe this would be a inexpensive back up for the rough road playing dives.

I found Bumstead Guitars (www.bumsteadguitars.com) while searching the internet to do research on getting a new guitar. Other than the website, there is close to no information about the company (right now at least). It is a brand new venture and if anyone has purchased anything from them before no one has gotten around to reviewing one yet as far as I could find. The company goal is to make high quality guitars ???offered at a fantastic price.??? (all under $550)

But everyone says that???

After looking at everything I could find (mostly other guitar designs and concepts posted by the owner, Sean Bumstead) I decided it seemed like he knew what he was doing and could possibly be trusted to make a nice guitar.

Still, if you are a traveling photographer and live in a truck for a good portion of the year or are just responsible with your money, buying a new guitar from a company no one has heard of and you have never played is a pretty big risk. However, after a slew of emails with plenty of questions, I decided a needed to try one out. In all honesty, I think the Bumstead logo was the scale tipper. It???s somehow both respectable and hilarious at the same time. Goes well with the overall company theme perfectly (read the Typical Scene blurb in the ???Contact BG??? section on the website)

Ok, enough premise. I chose to go with the Whiskey & Cola Super.
Here are the features:

1 piece solid mahogany body with maple top.

Neck - Mahogany (only joint I can find within the neck is actually just before the tuners. It???s a different approach than I???ve seen and looks like an inherently sturdier place to put the joint instead of right under the nut) Also, THIN! Not fat and clumsy as are many SG necks. 22 Frets.

Binding - Antique cream colored all around neck and headstock with a nice, thin double pinstripe outlining the headstock. Very nice. Gives the ???open book??? shape headstock a subtle layered pages look. Genius.

Tuners ??? not sure what they are but the fit the guitar???s look very well and so far stay tuned.

Logo ??? You can???t beat it. Done in silver on the black headstock.

Inlays - Pearl, trapezoids with arced in sides.

Fingerboard ??? very smooth, not-cheap-dried-out rosewood.

Pickups ??? 3 Humbuckers (I think I read somewhere they were Alnico, but I can???t find it again so that may be wrong) No switch. Its not really necessary but I enjoy being about to preset my knobs and then switch. Problem is adding a switch would make it cluttered. Bumstead is probably right in not adding one, but I'm still thinking over other ideas.

Knobs ??? Six total. 1 tone and 1 volume for each of the three humbuckers. Delicious versatility.

And of course with the SG3 theme is has tune-o-matic with stop bar, front jack, etc.

I play mostly through an original run Line 6 Flextone III XL 2x12???

But even with an electric I always start playing unplugged. You can get a feel for the guitar's natural sound that way. For that, you can already guess from its construction and it does not disappoint. Unplugged, the Bumstead Super is warm, smooth, and as full as an unplugged electric can get. Everything is solid and well joined and so you can feel every not resonate through the entire neck and body.

I???ll admit, the amped sound surprised me. With unknown (and especially moderately priced) guitars the two things I always worry about are 1) the neck and frets and 2) the pickups. The pickups are noiseless and much louder than I was expecting. Also, the tonal range of each is admirable.

I got excited and started spilling out everything: Chuck Berry, Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes, Brand New, Something DeLorean, and even a little Senses Fail. Fooling around with the tones and volume balance of and between each pickup you can make the guitar sound just about however you want. The sound is nothing short of fantastic.

Overall it has a warmer, fuller sound as with any quality SG.

Action is fine. I will probably lower it a bit, but that is just a personal preference. It is already decently low and has plenty of range.

Pickups look appropriately gapped from the strings. If you really wanted you could fool around with that but it sounds great already so I???m not going to.

Finish is gorgeous and, I will add, much nicer than I was expecting. The wood grain showing through is very pretty and the color is all even. No dark spots, light spots, bumps, runs, whatever. The maple top is perfectly matched and just has a very nice overall effect that is not apparent in the website pictures. The finish scratches a bit easy though, so be careful.

The neck is amazing. I have never seen as good a neck on a similarly priced guitar. The frets, fret board and inlays, and binding are put together as flawlessly as is humanly possible. When I emailed asking about the fret quality and got the reply ???as good as Gibson??? I wasn???t sure how true that was. But is all honesty they are better than the average under $2000 Gibson of today, no contest.

Nut is ok. I may switch it out later along the lines but its not bad by any means.

The neck joint is possibly my favorite specific feature on this guitar. I know its shocking after all the talk about the logo. Here???s the deal. I hate the thick necks on many SGs, so Bumstead won on that front by giving it a slimmer neck. As I just mentioned the neck/frets are put together superbly so playability in that area need not even be further explained than just saying its plain wonderful. However, despite all that, there still is the issue of ???What is the point in having a spectacular neck with 22 frets if you can???t easily reach all of them????

Bumstead put the cherry on top by not forgetting that. Now, I know that if you have only played SG???s with the joint at the 22nd fret or only heard people talk about the SG design being all accessible you might not see this as a big deal unless you realize that many SG copies and even many Gibson USA made SG???s set the neck deeper in the body to make a stronger neck joint. (i.e. Look are the SG Supreme, you can see the fretboard butts right up against the neck pickup instead of having the black spacer.) Sure, stronger is good but not if it makes playing more difficult. It???s a musical instrument, not a battle axe and if you remember than there won???t be a problem anyhow. Back to my point, I can take my hand and reach the 22nd fret on the 6E string with my 1st finger without having to change anything about hand configuration from any other part of the neck. Now THAT is topless!

Don't no for sure but I can't find anything not solid about it.

Given the option I wouldn't play any show without a back up (mostly in case of a string break), but if forced I don't think I would be concerned about this guitar failing in anyway.

Buttons seems solid, and I can't pick out any of the hardware I could see wearing out.

The finish seems thick enough but as with anything shiny and of this nature is easy to scratch.

I'm definitely going to use it live. It sounds too good to just use at home and on occasion the studio. I'll let anyone know if it spontaneously combusts.

I want someone to find a more scratch resistant finish for guitars. Get to work everyone!

Well, its a nice thing because you can email the owner of the company directly. How many companies can you do that with?

I've emailed Mr Bumstead a number of times and he's always been nice. Once of twice I had to email him the same question twice, but hey it happens. Running/starting a business is rough.

Haven't had any trouble so I don't know where that would lead.

No warranty I know of... not really expected from a small company

I've been playing in bands for probably 8 years.

If something happened to this guitar I would have to get another one. Its too good a value to pass up. I'm excited to see where the company goes. Bumstead Guitars is a good example of why I like supporting the underdog.

Good looking guitar in pictures, much better looking in person.

I love the neck, neck joint, sound versatility, and over all look. Favorite features - neck and neck joint. Haven't found anything to hate so far...

Well, its a pretty formidable guitar on all fronts. You can't get a better guitar of this type without spending at least $1200 but probably more realistically it would cost nearly $2000 to get anything with potential to be significantly better.