Vigier Guitars

What happened the first time you saw it? The first time you got it in your hand?The first time you plugged it into your amplifier?

I ended up spending to much money Patrice
but thanks anyway

isn't that a nice shot of my bag? edit: well i should say it was the most responsive bolt on guitar that i ever playedit was loud and fast sounding and the neck felt very comfortable, it could be a bit thicker but the edges were extremly smooth. for me the whole construction makes 100% sense i always thought the trussrod-system in all other guitars are a stupid idea and are a pain in the a** to deal with, i liked the tremolo, this vigier 2010 system is a perfect construction, after the musikmesse i read the infomaterial on this website, the tremolo didn't feel like a modern ballbearing two post tremolo system it felt very natural for me, i like the 6-screw bent-saddles bridges. the 2010 wasn't too easy to move but it felt smooth, that's a good tremolo.the pickup high was to high for me and the strings were to thinbut the expert 63 was awesome i love maple-necks

1Patrice Vigier wrote: What happened the first time you saw it? The first time you got it in your hand?The first time you plugged it into your amplifier?

i heard it (surfreter... btw Ed DeGenaro's fretless clip) first without knowing about the instrument... then i saw the pics and had to have one... ordered it unseen/unplayed... and have been excitedabout the surfreter from day one ! thank you, Patrice !!!

       The first time I ever saw a Vigier guitar I remember being in awe of the superb finish. I had already heard about Vigier guitars ? I had various tuning and truss rod issues with the guitars I was using at the time ? while on tour a few musicians had talked about Vigier guitars and the 10/90 necks? I was interested to see what all the fuss was about.        So there I am staring at one of these gorgeous instruments hanging on a shop wall, I spent some time marvelling at the finish and workmanship before I sat down to play the guitar. I first tried the guitar unplugged. I was immediately ?blown away? by the feel and comfort of the neck: oh so easy to play with a smooth, non-sticky (satin) finish. Unplugged the guitar was very resonant indeed and seemed to sustain for ages (I remember joking at the time with the store assistant that I could go away make a cup of tea and when I returned the guitar would still be ringing). You can really feel the tones resonating through the instrument and into your own body; it was the first time in my life I truly felt ?connected? to a guitar.       I plugged the guitar in and was equally impressed, the guitar seemed to ?play itself? and had a very distinct sound; the sustain normally found on a set-neck type guitar with the snappy response of a bolt on guitar? it was defiantly love at first sight.        Not long after I started work in the same store and from here had the chance to try many different Vigier guitars and basses. I have always been pleasantly surprised by the high level of consistency produced by the luthiers at Vigier. It is easy to feel and hear for yourself the love and effort that goes into crafting every single guitar, from the initial design ideas to the finishing touches and final set-up before a guitar is shipped.        Every time I hold a Vigier guitar I feel both confident and inspired; Vigier guitars are, and always will be a joy to play.       

My first time with a gi.....I mean Vigier, was quite similar to Ben's to honest. The first time i saw one was my first guitar lesson when I was at college. I walk in and see my guitar tutor there playing his guitar. I'd never heard/seen a Vigier before, but my first thought was, ''this is the coolest looking guitar i've ever seen!'' Then the way my teacher was ripping on it, I thought these must play really well. Ever since, getting a Vigier was always on my mind. 
I guess there is a bit of an unwritten teacher/student rule where the student doesn't deserve to play the teachers guitar (out of respect more than anything) so it was bout 4 years until I even had a go on his Vigier! But in the mean time I was doing my research, seeing people like Shawn Lane play them really sold the idea to me too!
So after 5 years of dreaming I was finally in a position to save up some money, placed my order, waited for 6 awful months and finally got my own Vigier!
And as Ben said, when I got it out of the case and played unplugged, i was shocked at how loud and resonant the guitar is, even now Im still discovering new things, now that I'm really getting to know the guitar.
 
Cheers
 
Brad

Very impressed. I was lucky enough to win a 2006 Excaliber original on e-bay and I'm very happy with it. The neck feels very smooth and easy to play on. I usually dont care for Floyd Rose bridges but the Vigier's appealed to me because of the ball-bearning contact- it's been extremely stable. The only thing I would change on it is to move the volume knob down a little but thats it. I'm looking for another!

I first played one in my local guitar shop, who started stocking them, I'd never heard of them, but it was the most amazing guitar I had ever played! Two weeks later i went back and bought it! It's amazing, the neck is perfect, it holds its tuning amazingly well! the best floyd rose bridge I have ever come across (I've had guitars with OFR, schaller's, the ibanez low pro and edge pro and this rocks!) i will post pics soon of my Excalibur Custom in black diamond with maple fingerboard! Gorgeous guitar! very happy with it

Everybody,
IT HAPPENED! Since now on, I?m the owner of THE Vigier Excalibur Custom, Emerald green!!!!!
Let me share several thoughts on the instrument with you.
I saw a Vigier at the dealer?s shop three years ago ? It was an Excalubur Original HSH Urban green with golden furniture and maple finish. I just sat down and gave it a test drive? I was IMPRESSED.  Since then I started saving money for a Vigier. It?s not that easy to prove it to yourself you need to spend that large amount of money for ?just another guitar? but all the same I decided to start saving piece by piece and make up my mind later on.
Believe me, all these three years I was dreaming? I couldn?t get the instrument out of my mind? And in three years I noticed myself going towards the shop to give myself a present? a VIGIER!
Nothing was there?I was upset?the choice was pretty poor? but then I drew my attention to an Excalibur Custom, Emerald green, HSH, rosewood fingerboard. I just took it I my hands a started playing. The more I tried it, the more I liked it. You all know that feeling ? when you hold the instrument and you feel it?s already a part of you, as it is. And you just can?t let it out of your hands? and it became mine since then!
It was made in 2006, according to the serial, supplied with a gig bag, not with a case. It?s strange it wasn?t sold for such a long time ? it?s amazingly great!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, sorry for the long preface ? let?s turn to the instrument itself.
It?s a 24-fret guitar which I found to be very useful for playing ? it?s easier to play twisties, tapping etc. when you?re up to the 19th fret and still pretty long way to go. What I had to do constantly on my another guitar (I still keep it, I love it ) is to make little vibratos to add volume to the sound. When I touched the string for the first time - it was singing, there was so much volume, tone and WARMTH. It really took me some time to understand I?m not about making sound from now on?it?s all about JUST PLAYING and the guitar will do the remaining.
Pickups (Seymour Duncan) are just great. SDs give the instrument a solid, powerful and warm sound, and it?s very balanced ? this is critical to me. I like the guitar sound like a guitar (surely with a tube preamp), not like a big transistor ? And I?m playing mostly metal (with a little bit of jazz and rock).
The fingerboard doesn?t have ?dead frets? ? these are frets that can hardly sound on a particular string and you have to add a particular effort to make the sound out of the string here (sorry for a complex explanation but I?m not natively English-speaking and I don?t know the exact phrase to explain this effect). VIGIER is awesome! It plays on every single fret and does it beautiful!
Mechanics and finish are extremely comfortable and at once build up the impression of the highest possible quality! Now the FLOYD?It?s very solid and comfortable, especially for palm-muted playing. Tremolos are perfect and I can now do a ?back-and- forth? tremolo easily as the tremolo arm locking is very firm. Pitch adjusting screws are also very firm and are not loose, I can be really precise in tuning.
The pickup switch, and volume control are positioned very comfortable ? easy access to the volume control and the pickup switch is not on your way while playing.
The tune of the instrument is very stable ? I simply have to touch the microtuning twice a week maybe to make just small adjustments ? and I use a lot of bends?
In overall, it?s not even me playing, it?s the Vigier playing itself!
This may not be the best description of the instrument ? human language is too limited, this is just an attempt to express what I feel about it.
Finally.
PATRICE, thank you very much for building this great instrument! It?s worth playing endlessly, listening to endlessly and talking about endlessly! It?s really the Excalibur!
Good luck to you and please never stop making guitars, they ROCK!!! J
Best regards,
Ilya.

1Patrice Vigier wrote: What happened the first time you saw it? The first time you got it in your hand?The first time you plugged it into your amplifier?

Hi guys,

Maybe this thread is out-of-date but I really wanted to answer to that question!

It happened 2 weeks ago, I was looking for a new guitar, so I went to test some Fenders, Gibsons, Ibanez, etc... but I was disappointed either by the sound or by the neck. I really wanted to test a Vigier, because I'm interested in the technologies involved. I couldn't find any Vigier, but I heard that there was one Excalibur in a shop in a city nearby. So I took my car and drove to this shop. I was glad to see that they had a Supra.
The body was smaller than I expected, but it was surprisingly light. Once plugged, I was amazed by the warm and clean sound! The neck was very comfortable and easy to play. Since this moment I made up my mind: I want an Excalibur!
Now my problem is that I want to test the different Excalibur models to listen to the different pickups, but I can't find other Vigier in my country. So this summer I'm going to take some time to travel to Paris, and hope to come back with the guitar of my dreams!

Hi!
I saw a guitar shop in Geneva a year ago - they do have Vigiers (I found them on the dealers list here) but not many. It's worth checking if you are nearby, I guess.
Hope this helps!

Yeah that's where I went to find the excalibur supra. They're supposed to be the official Vigier's dealer in Switzerland, but they only have one... how sad! Anyway thanks for the reply

I first tried a Vigier at the NAMM in '08 and it was a Shawn Lane.
I was amazed at how the string action was low sitting on the frets wihout buzzing.
A year later at Namm 09, I tried a Ruby Ultra Blues with a maple board and was equally amazed. Thierry
Invited me and my Bassist Crystal Fawn to play a few tunes at the Vigier Booth.
So the next day we cam over to the booth plugged into a Diezel combo amp and wailed away.
The You Tube of this can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQJqNktIBfI.

This was the moment I knew I had to have a Vigier so I ordered the exact type and color seen in the video.
(Ultra Blues)
Thanks to Patrice, Thierry, Tyler, Lisa, and Ben for making this all happen!
Brev Sullivan

First saw a Vigier in Percy Priors (Salisbury) about 5/6 years ago (maybe more) when i was buying my first guitar, it just looked amazing, an emerald green ultra with maple neck. I'd heard about Ben using them as well.First Vigier i owned was a 2nd hand Indus, then I stumped up 2800GBP for the Custom 1 p/up Excalibur Ultra in Black Diamond, it just played beautifully and sounded great...unfortunately I returned it due to problems with the nut.Now i am the extremely proud owner of an Emerald Green Ultra with maple neck, * with bareknuckle nailbombs, this is my no#1 guitar. I play so much better on this guitar because it just feels right and sounds great, sustain and definition aplenty.

I was about 18 when I first started thinking about the idea of a fretless guitar. It was around that time I decided that since I couldn't buy one, I would make one myself so armed with a book on making an electric guitar from the City library I started to make it. The only problem was that I decided to make the neck and fretboard and I didn't have the skills needed to make the neck radius consistent and this really messed up the ability to play in tune. Later attempt I bought a strat neck and just removed the frets but found there was virtually no sustain and sliding across the fret markings was audible.

Purely by accident about 15 years later i found a virtually brand new Surfretter in a second hand shop and haggled a deal with the manager since the guitar had not been getting any interest.

The first time I picked it up, it was still in tune and I felt comfortable with it straight away. I found the single notes easily although chords were not very easy to get in tune. I was surprised at how alive the sound was and much more rounded and with more sustain than a wooden fretboard. Unfortunately I don't use it very much as the music I play at the moment requires a very clean sound.

I did a session with a reggae band with it a few years back and it was fine for the percussive rhythmic chops. I also use it for a couple of chick corea numbers with my band at the time which didn't need much in terms of chord work and it was great with a little overdrive to liven the notes up.