Thorell Frank Vignola Guitar

[Carl]

Has anyone had any experience with this model (ie. the Studio version will
do) or with Thorell guitars in general?

Frank Vignola could make any guitar sound wonderful, imho, but he has me
wondering about the guitar, I'll grant him that.

What are your opinions, particularly about the model as a guitar for use in
a "big" jazz band with several horns, clarinet, drummer, and piano? In other
respects as well?

[edisoned]

One of my students has one and it's a beautiful instrument. Plays and sounds great as well. Never used it in a gigging situation though. I've played Franks also. I presented he and Vinnie last year and during the break Frank left his guitar lying on the floor while he was talking to fans and selling cds. I saw it there and asked him if he minded if I moved to to a safer location where no one would step on it. I ended up playing it for about 10 minutes. I was surprised at the heavy strings and high action he uses and how fast he can play on it. They'll be back here on the west coast in June. Looking forward to it.
Ed

[Klatu Verata Necktie]

Do you happen to know the scale of the guitar?

What gauge would you estimate his strings to be and how high would you guess his action is?

[Carl]

Klatu Verata Necktie wrote:
> Do you happen to know the scale of the guitar?
>
> What gauge would you estimate his strings to be and how high would
> you guess his action is?
>

The scale length is 25.4", which would seem to belie the use of very heavy
gauge strings! But there all kinds of players out there!

I wouldn't know about Frank's string gauge or action height though I know
you were asking edisoned.

[Carl]

edisoned wrote:
> One of my students has one and it's a beautiful instrument. Plays and
> sounds great as well. Never used it in a gigging situation though.
> I've played Franks also. I presented he and Vinnie last year and
> during the break Frank left his guitar lying on the floor while he
> was talking to fans and selling cds. I saw it there and asked him if
> he minded if I moved to to a safer location where no one would step
> on it. I ended up playing it for about 10 minutes. I was surprised at
> the heavy strings and high action he uses and how fast he can play on
> it. They'll be back here on the west coast in June. Looking forward
> to it.
> Ed
>> Has anyone had any experience with this model
>
>

Thanks for this report. It has encouraged me. I have decided to take the
unusually good opportunity I got offered to me to get one of these so it is
basically on the way. I hope to get it on Friday. I asked for .12's and a
typical action height. I'm no Frank Vignola! :-)

[mcle...@comcast.net]

Here is an FYI on action height as a general rule.

For an acoustic archtop 6/64 base and 5/64 on the treble is considered
normal. This would be with a standard .12 E and .54 E on the bass.

From this you can pretty much make the adjustments. The important aspect is
the if the guitar is an acoustic or at least function as if it was an
acoustic. For instance an acoustic archtop that was only played with the amp
and the touch was medium then 4/64 and 5/64 are clearly fine but will not
bite acoustically like raising the action. For a guitar that the player
wants or uses the acoustic response then at times 6/64 to 5/64 is the answer
and even higher for completely acoustic playing. This might call for 7/64
and 6/64 and be perfectly acceptable. For action to be this high most modern
players would fine this too high.

String gauge comes into play in that for most of us we are using a .11 .12
.13 .14 for the top E string. You can get bigger sound and have lower action
with bigger strings. This would mean a .14 with high action like 6/64 is
going to really project sound. The issue is if you have the strength to play
it and make it work. The scale length is important too it effects the whole
feeling of the guitar. To illustrate for example., If I take my 18 inch
Hollenbeck and put .14 to .56 on the guitar and raise action to 5/64 and
6/64 I have a sound that will blow out like a cannon and I would out it up
against anything but it comes at a price of needing a bit more strength.


"Carl" wrote in message news:50f5cfbf$0$24749$607e...@cv.net...

[edisoned]

Don't know the scale length but I'm guessing his high e string was a 13 or 14.
ed

[Carl]

mcle...@comcast.net wrote:
> Here is an FYI on action height as a general rule.
>
> For an acoustic archtop 6/64 base and 5/64 on the treble is considered
> normal. This would be with a standard .12 E and .54 E on the bass.
>
> From this you can pretty much make the adjustments. The important
> aspect is the if the guitar is an acoustic or at least function as if
> it was an acoustic. For instance an acoustic archtop that was only
> played with the amp and the touch was medium then 4/64 and 5/64 are
> clearly fine but will not bite acoustically like raising the action.
> For a guitar that the player wants or uses the acoustic response then
> at times 6/64 to 5/64 is the answer and even higher for completely
> acoustic playing. This might call for 7/64 and 6/64 and be perfectly
> acceptable. For action to be this high most modern players would fine
> this too high.
> String gauge comes into play in that for most of us we are using a
> .11 .12 .13 .14 for the top E string. You can get bigger sound and
> have lower action with bigger strings. This would mean a .14 with
> high action like 6/64 is going to really project sound. The issue is
> if you have the strength to play it and make it work. The scale
> length is important too it effects the whole feeling of the guitar.
> To illustrate for example., If I take my 18 inch Hollenbeck and put
> .14 to .56 on the guitar and raise action to 5/64 and 6/64 I have a
> sound that will blow out like a cannon and I would out it up against
> anything but it comes at a price of needing a bit more strength.
>

Thanks for this. It is very useful information.