1992 Roger Thompson "Petite Bouche" Gypsy-Jazz Guitar

Clearly, this is a Selmer-Maccaferri-style, gypsy-jazz clone. It's a direct rip from the Django-famous, "petite bouche" models with their small, vertical-oriented, oval soundhole. These are full "small jumbo" instruments with a 16" lower bout and wide waist -- but with a foreshortened body length and dramatic, straight-cut cutaway that gives them their very deco outline.

I have no idea who Roger Thompson is, but the man built a fine guitar. This thing handles and responds much like "the real deal." If you play something like this with a timid approach, it sounds a little thin and ho-hum. If you dig-in with vigor, it rewards you with a biting, saucy, burred, snap that punches right into the audience and seems to leap off the guitar as if it were a very large mandolin. It's a fiery sound and it has a little bit of an innate "reverb" to its voice when driven hard.

In the video, I flub some playing styles now and then (especially fingerpicking) because this guitar is not a versatile machine. It's built to play Euro-styled swing jazz or genres to either side of it. It'll do folksy but the neck profile and string spacing is all wrong for that, really. What it does best is choppy, snappy chord-play or ripping lead work -- all with a nice heavy flatpick.

Also, just looking at this instrument, you can tell it's lived. This was not a coddled instrument and it was played. There's pickwear all over it and a trio of longer, dryness-induced hairline cracks on the top that certainly arose while this traveled gig-to-gig. There are minor scratches, nicks, and dings throughout the finish but most of the wear and tear is to the top.

At a glance, you can also tell that it's a high-spec instrument. It's solid spruce over solid Indian rosewood, it has a proper, D-shaped walnut neck, ebony fittings, and a custom-made brass tailpiece. The tuners are heavy-duty, fancier Grovers, too, it seems. Everything on the instrument was considered and well-thought-out and built by a good hand. Because of that it seems even more surprising that there are no more "Roger Thompson" guitars to be found online. Oh well!

Repairs included: crack re-cleating and sealing to the top, a fret level/dress, cleaning, and setup.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid Indian rosewood

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: ebony

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: walnut

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 47w-10 extra lights (monel wrap)

Neck shape: slim-medium D

Board radius: ~12-14"

Truss rod: non-adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Scale length: 25 1/2"

Nut width: 1 5/8"

Body width: 16"

Body depth: 4 5/8"

Weight: 4 lbs 12 oz

Condition notes: it's in overall good order, now, but shows a ton of pickwear on the top and then random, average usewear/light scratching throughout. The pickguard does not appear to be original but it does look neat on the box. I added a little bit of extra compensation to the bridge so it plays in better tune up the neck, too. There are three repaired hairline cracks on the top. There's also a contact (circle-style) pickup installed internally but while it looks like a K&K, it's not a K&K. It has a more nasal, thinner tone and less rejection to feedback. It's passive and sounds "good enough for government work" if you need to plug this somewhere in a pinch.

It comes with: a beat-up but perfectly functional hard case.