ped

Thank you but the one in the link is the newer model with a different shape body.

I'm looking for a black and maple Excess (original shape) like this - let me know if you see one!!

Ah great - you owe him a drink!! Enjoy the bass!!

I mean where did you hear about it, did you see it on a website or did someone respond to your 'looking for' advert? I always have have my eyes open for Vigiers so maybe there's a French site I don't know about. Normally I check these: https://www.zikinf.com/annonces/search/?q=vigier&rub=17 https://www.milanuncios.com/instrumentos-musicales/vigier.htm http://fr.audiofanzine.com/petites-annonces/?q=vigier&min=&max=&zc=&sort=date&order=desc&lt=&lg=&distance=0

Wow- how did you find it?

Lovely looking bass. I will let you know if I see a series 1 fretless. You have seen this one? https://www.zikinf.com/annonces/dispannonce.php?annonce=1426277

It's here!!!

This bass is coming to me from Spain, will be here next week! It's a very early bass, I have never seen a fretless 5 Arpege before...

yes you could say that!

From Canada - I saw it in the Vigier Facebook group and said to the owner if he'd ever sell it I'd like to buy it. I got lucky. It's the only graphite necked Arpege I've seen for sale in about 10 years! Vigier Arpege #93 (1986) 'Sofa Shot' by Christopher Hiscocks, on Flickr

My new Vigier!

No longer on hold - still up for sale. Thanks

Merci! Bass is now 'ON HOLD' until further notice.

Please excuse my lack of French!!! £1100 (UK) - posted to France, we will discuss. I recently bought this bass as a partner for my main bass. Just like busses, another has come along so I'm letting this one go for the simple reason that the other matches the colour my main bass (!) If you don't know much about Vigier basses, they are entirely hand made and pioneered the use of graphite in the 80s. The 'Series II' basses have a full carbon neck thru as you see here. Soon after they moved to a graphite/wood mix. I think the full graphite ones are special. It plays wonderfully, low action and crystal clear sound from the two massive single coil Benedetti pickups. It's unusual to find one of these in original un-modified condition. Controls are a pickup switch (front, both, rear, rather than a sweepable pot), behind that is the volume knob. Underneath, a sweepable mid control (from 80hz to 5200hz) and a 15dB +/- switch. Behind that, a treble control that sweeps from super bright to thud, I've been unable to get the exact frequencies of this but it feels like +/- 15dB at around 8khz. Derek Forbes fans - this is identical to his Vigier. I wrote about the bass in some detail here so have a read and ask any questions. I'm in York if you'd like to come and have a play; I also travel to Oxford a bit so may be able to come to you. I will post it too but much prefer a F2F deal! It comes with a Gator case, one of those rectangular rigid foam ones. Basic features: - Graphite neck-thru - Benedetti single coil pickups - Hipshot D-Tuner - Beutiful aged-white colour - Schaller hardware, 3D bridge - Quirky French 18V pre-amp - New Elixir strings - Gator case - One tuning machine puppet supplied on request Pics:

It would appear so - but they sound normal. I may turn them round next time I change strings!

Hi guys So you all know how much I love my Vigier basses. Especially the 'Passion' series from 85-89' which are known as the 'series II' models, that is to say they have a carbon neck thru construction with no truss rod, very little relief and super low action. I've had the natural wood colour one for about 10 years now and it's been my #1 since I first got it, and having used it live and in the studio I know exactly what it sounds like and can rely on it for anything. Since owning Basschat (and Basstalk, Bassworld) I've seen all sorts, bought and sold a few... and to keep one instrument for that time - as seasoned basschatters will attest - is quite a feat! I've had other Vigiers, too - namely a pair of series III basses from the 90s which have a different neck construction but critically for me a little too much relief. I really can't emphasise how low I like my action. I've now got a second series II bass to join my old faithful. Originally I was going to modify this one to match my bass (install a modern pre-amp, Roland GK system, new pickups etc) but upon trying it at Bill's house (Basschatter and lovely bloke) I decided it would be much better to keep it standard as it left the factory in 1985/1986 (difficult to tell when because Patrice only started recording the serial numbers with #196 on 15th April 1986, and this bass is #173. My other bass is #711 from 1988) I wasn't expecting it to be in such good condition, to be honest, hence my plan to modify it. My other bass was modded out of necessity - the pickups had been changed to something weird which we stripped out and essentially started with a 'chassis' of neck and body, which I think is the fundamental strength of these instruments. The electronics are typical French quirkiness and were still being developed by Patrice throughout the 80s, hence you can find many variations in designs from modular pre-amps to circuit board mounted units with ROM presets (Check out the 'Nautilus' bass). This one has a pickup switch (front, both, rear, rather than a sweepable pot), behind that is the volume knob. Underneath, a sweepable mid control (from 80hz to 5200hz) and a 15dB +/- switch. Behind that, a tone control that goes from super super bright to muddy thump. Pickups are two single coil Benedetti units with very powerful magnets - I need to find out more about them but when changing strings they were really tugging on the strings. They sound very open and clear. Interestingly there's very little noise for single coils when operated solo. They're an odd shape as you can see from the pics as the coil is exposed between the upper 'shelf' and the lower body which is mounted and adjusted using four allen bolts (one is missing) The pots I really like, so much so I've spent ages trying to find out their origin to use on other basses. Turns out they are made by OKW, which I only realised when I was looking to order some new caps with white indicator as you can see two of them have worn away. Up until this point I thought they were Sifam but the caps are slightly different. They are collet fixed and nice units. Call me weird but I really appreciate a good... nah I'll lave that sentence there. Hardware is all Schaller, I love the 3D roller bridge and there's a Hipshot D-Tuner Bill fitted as well as the original tuner in the bag. Whilst I really like the D-Tuner, I always play in D anyway so may find some other use for it. As all the gadgets are on my other bass, perhaps I'll swap it over. Interestingly the neck is shiny (see headstock too) as opposed to the satin finish on my other bass. It's not 'sticky' to play, either - even though I don't sweat at all which is handy but could either mean I'm terribly unhealthy or maybe super healthy, who knows. The previous owner bought it from a session payer in London who lived in a great big Chelsea townhouse and apparently there are some videos of him playing this somewhere so if he can remember he's going to send them over. Well If you're still with me, terrific, but I assume many of you have scrolled down by now. TL;DR: - 1985 graphite neck, really like it, it's mine now.

Looking great moucoingre. I like the 'clean' look without logos.

Hi yes it's great to control the VB99 with the bass. Normally the buttons allow me to move up and down through patches but you can also make them turn on and off effects etc. The sky is the limit. I like the Marleaux pre-amp in my bass, it's very subtle but musical. I tend to bypass it mostly unless i'm going for a particular sound. You can't normally buy the Marleaux pre-amp but I'd go for the Delano 3 band otherwise. But yes there are so many options it's hard to choose! As long as it sounds the same when it's set flat as the bass does in passive mode then I'm happy! Cheers ped

It works very well! Some of the English people on my English forum are harder to comprehend! The GK buttons are for controlling the Roland VB99 unit. The system has a 13 pin output on the side of the bass and you can see the pickup just in front of the bridge. I can then play synths or models of other basses. Here's a rough and bad demo showing my bass clean sound then using the VB99 to do a sort of Jazz Bass impression then finally a Musicman

I should apologise for my bad French, rather than you apologise for your English! Here's a picture with labels to explain the controls.

Recently I asked about turning a stacked bass and treble control into two singles which I prefer. I found a guitar tech in York (UK) who was willing to do the job. www.facebook.com/yorkguitardoctor Normally I'm OK with doing the mods myself, but the electronics cavity needed some tidying up anyway and I didn't want to break anything. It's a Marleaux 3 band pre-amp and normally not found in anything other than their own instruments - with no wiring diagram to go on I was in over my head! Stephen did a great job and I'm really chuffed. I'll get some better pics in the daytime but this is the best I can do for now. Well that's the latest update in the story of this constantly evolving bass! I don't think there's anything else to do now but play it! Cheers ped

Thanks but I sent the emails last week. I have a friend in France who may be able to see it and take some pictures for me. Bit of a pain though!!

Thank you. What a strange attitude, especially for a shop!! Well I suppose he doesn't deserve the custom!

Thanks yeah it looks like a nice series II so I've asked for more pictures and shipping to UK... no reply