Pigalle

keary18

I am thinking of trading in my Saga 250M for the Dell'Arte Pigalle. For those of you who have the Pigalle, I would be really interested in your thoughts about the Pigalle, issues such as sound, playablity, pickups/amps you use, craftsmanship, comparisons, etc. etc. Thanks in advance for your input.

David

dennis

i've tried three pigalles... one of them (of which i posted a review) was beyond amazing (sweet tone, really easy to play), the other was quite good (tone was not as amazing, the feel was good)... and the third was just good (tone was what it should be for the type of guitar, and it was slightly harder to play)....

so i guess it's true, gotta try a guitar before buying it!

don't get me wrong though, all three were still good but certainly not identical

V-dub

I was given one by George Cole, which just goes to show I am the luckiest person ever.

Pros:
- Inexpensive
- LOUD
- Great look, love the blonde color (saga's usually come in a psuedo-aged orange)
- Nice thin neck (might not be for everybody)

Cons:
- Tuners are cheap
- Action on mine was too low and buzzy on the B and E strings. I shimmed it with a couple of guitar picks (an idea I stole from gonzalo) and its a lot better now.
- Tone is sometimes a bit harsh and bright
-Some higher frets have not been dressed properly (a bit of overhang on the bottom) and are sharp to the touch.

I've played at least 5 different pigalles and they are all of varying quality. Some sounded fantastic. Even better than my Dell Arte Anouman. Some sounded not so good. Is it better than a Saga? From my experience as a whole, its hard to say. They are pretty close.

Seconding the "just play one" suggestion.

Jack

V-dub wrote:

Cons:
- Tuners are cheap

A friend of mine has one of these, and about a month into owning it one of the tuners crapped out. Whenever it got to a certain point in the rotation, the teeth would lose hold and the tension would go, so he could never get it up to pitch. When he contacted Alain about it, Alain said he had already handled a crazy number of complaints (I'd have to ask, but I think he said it was in the two thousand range) and sent him a free replacement. He also said that it seemed to be a problem with the angle at which the tuners were placed and that he wouldn't be surprised if my friend was calling him again within the year.

One note, though, is that he got one of the early Pigalles that had the Saga-esque orange color. That's about the only thing he really dislikes about it. To my ears it's not bad at all, but does have a certain overpowering sound (like V-dub wrote: LOUD) that I associate with the Sagas; it doesn't really have that wide a dynamic range to its tone. I guess I think of that as a con...

Best,
Jack.