ped Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 Should be with me in a week or so. I've been after one for a long time now but they are very uncommon with the full graphite neck. It'll make a great match for my similar age Passion bass (below) It's a Vigier Arpege from 1986, number 93. Walnut body, apparently, which will sound fantastic. It's slightly different from the Passion model in that it has a larger body, pickups are further parart and it has some very interesting electronics going on. Nick (doctor of the bass) owns a beautiful blue one and gave me the rundown of the controls: Volume control with pull out "boost" feature, I think it is a 35dB boost, very handy for solos! Parametric Level control - activated by pulling out - this offers cut and boost for the selected frequency Parametric Frequency control - goes from deep bass, all your mids and treble freqs - works only when you have the Level control activated! Passive Treble control. Large 3 way toggle for pickup selection Mini toggle = pickup phase Output on the front bypasses the electronics/studio mode. Side output is post pre-amp. I'll post a full NBD topic when it arrives and it's had a good clean! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 That looks a real cracker Ped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 35dB boost? Really? Really really? [size=4] [/size] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted August 24, 2016 Author Share Posted August 24, 2016 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1472039409' post='3117898'] 35dB boost? Really? Really really? [/quote] I think it's a 10dB actually. Nick may have modded his because when he starts a solo everyone else was probably turning up 10dB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 [quote name='ped' timestamp='1472032614' post='3117785'] Should be with me in a week or so. I've been after one for a long time now but they are very uncommon with the full graphite neck. It'll make a great match for my similar age Passion bass (below) It's a Vigier Arpege from 1986, number 93. Walnut body, apparently, which will sound fantastic. It's slightly different from the Passion model in that it has a larger body, pickups are further parart and it has some very interesting electronics going on. Nick (doctor of the bass) owns a beautiful blue one and gave me the rundown of the controls: Volume control with pull out "boost" feature, I think it is a 35dB boost, very handy for solos! Parametric Level control - activated by pulling out - this offers cut and boost for the selected frequency Parametric Frequency control - goes from deep bass, all your mids and treble freqs - works only when you have the Level control activated! Passive Treble control. Large 3 way toggle for pickup selection Mini toggle = pickup phase Output on the front bypasses the electronics/studio mode. Side output is post pre-amp. I'll post a full NBD topic when it arrives and it's had a good clean! [/quote] Looks amazing! I've always wanted to try a Vigier bass, particularly these older Arpege models - Geezer Butler used to play them and got a wonderful tone out of them. We've discussed Vigiers at length on Talkbass several years ago, Ped. I was after an Excess but nothing came of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted August 25, 2016 Author Share Posted August 25, 2016 [quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1472056649' post='3118097'] Looks amazing! I've always wanted to try a Vigier bass, particularly these older Arpege models - Geezer Butler used to play them and got a wonderful tone out of them. We've discussed Vigiers at length on Talkbass several years ago, Ped. I was after an Excess but nothing came of it. [/quote] Thanks, yes I vaguely remember. I probably thought you were American, then. They are rather rare over there, but funnily enough both graphite necked Arpege models I have ever seen for sale were in the US and Canada... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_of_the_bass Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Just found this....from Eubassix when he was selling one! 20 dB boost!!!! [color=black][font=Arial][size=2] Controls as originally supplied on this bass:-[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] The potentiometer (knob) near the bridge pickup = volume + boost @+20dB (pull-up the knob)[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] Pickups toggle (3 positions: Neck - Both - Bridge)[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] The next Knob/control is the ± 15dB potentiometer that controls the parametric EQ (pull it up to put it on)[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] Next to this is the parametric pot that allows you to choose frequency between 80Hz and 4,2 kHz (*does not work if the previous one - Parametric EQ is not pulled-up)[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] Small toggle puts the pickups out of phase (only when both pickups are selected)[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] Last is the tone control potentiometer (knob).[/size][/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][size=2] There is the jack (side) and also a direct output (top).[/size][/font][/color] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted August 27, 2016 Author Share Posted August 27, 2016 [quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' timestamp='1472118142' post='3118620'] Just found this....from Eubassix when he was selling one! 20 dB boost!!!! [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]Controls as originally supplied on this bass:-[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]The potentiometer (knob) near the bridge pickup = volume + boost @+20dB (pull-up the knob)[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]Pickups toggle (3 positions: Neck - Both - Bridge)[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]The next Knob/control is the ± 15dB potentiometer that controls the parametric EQ (pull it up to put it on)[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]Next to this is the parametric pot that allows you to choose frequency between 80Hz and 4,2 kHz (*does not work if the previous one - Parametric EQ is not pulled-up)[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]Small toggle puts the pickups out of phase (only when both pickups are selected)[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]Last is the tone control potentiometer (knob).[/size][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial][size=2]There is the jack (side) and also a direct output (top).[/size][/font][/color] [/quote] Crikey - maybe I'll be able to measure it and find out once and for all. Patrice V emailed me about it but didn't specify the dB either. From what I know the basses produced around this era varied a lot electronically so there are probably different versions out there anyway. Should be here in a week or so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 20dB eh? So you pull up the knob and your bass suddenly gets ten times louder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel Yup, makes perfect sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 (edited) [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1472305896' post='3120213'] 20dB eh? So you pull up the knob and your bass suddenly gets ten times louder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel Yup, makes perfect sense to me. [/quote] I have a Joyo Roll Boost pedal that gives up to 35dB clean boost but that's designed to be be used with a 6 string to drive the front end tubes of a valve amp (which is obviously then 'compressed' back down in volume terms by the distortion it creates). As a clean boost on bass for passages where the bass needs to stand out more, I have it barely on - I'd guess maybe 1-2dB - so 20dB does seem a tad much. Either way that's a stunning bass though ped - congrats . Edited August 27, 2016 by Painy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted August 27, 2016 Author Share Posted August 27, 2016 If you don't hear from me again assume I've blown my head off with the boost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I've played Nick's, beautiful bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted September 7, 2016 Author Share Posted September 7, 2016 Well well! I came home to find it had been delivered to my neighbour. Weird because they only collected it in Friday and it was bank holiday on Monday (I think, in Canada) and I was expecting a letter from Customs. The tracking number didn't reveal any activity at all. So I'm really happy to have escaped paying customs duty(!) and the bass is fantastic. Spent the evening setting it up and cleaning it and I'm delighted to report that the neck is identical to my passion bass, dead straight and the action goes just as low. Fantastic. It has a very different tone to the passion (more jazz bass esque with a delightfully plingy too end ) so it's a great second bass. I'll post a NBD report this weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.gif.9ad672bb8b84505709f76b39c8c256ec.gif)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.