thodrik

There are far more specialist bass amp manufacturers now compared to any point in the past so I really don't understand an argument that there is a more limited choice amplifiers now compared to the past. Back in the late 1980s Trace Elliot, SWR, Eden etc were one of a few companies specialising in bass amplification. The number of specialist bass amplifier manufacturers has increased exponentially since then.

Back in the day, the option was either all valve, solid state MOSFET amps or 'hybrid' amps which were essentially MOSFET amps which a preamp tube or two. These days the solid state amps that dominated the prior era have been replaced by class D amps. Even with class D amps you get the 'hybrid' version with pre-amp tubes. The class D amps are also generally cheaper than a lot of the old MOSFET amps were. For example, the top line Mesa bass head would easily cost you upwards of £2,000 circa 2010-2015. In 2022, the top of the line Subway amps are about £1300. Even the new flagship Trace Elliot head is going to be less expensive than the 12 band amps that Peavey launched back in 2006. The options are only limited now if you have a pre-determined dislike of class D amps or really miss the market presence formerly taken by names like SWR, Eden or Marshall who have now disappeared from the market. However, you can still buy new MOSFET or valve amps from a number of makers so I just don't see any basis for there not being any choice on the market today.

To be honest, I have had way more experiences of poorly/rarely maintained Ampeg SVT or other valve amps cutting out in the middle of a gig (or even going on fire!) compared to pretty much any other type of amp. Valve guitar amps 'going wrong' in the middle of a gig was and is an expected part of gigging. In fact, 'anything and everything going wrong' is an expected part of gigging. Accordingly, I really can't agree with a 'back in the day, everyone had one amp and nobody had technical problems but all these new class D amps are causing reliability problems we never used to have before' viewpoint. While I do love old school amps, I do think that the premium class D amps are at least as reliable, if not more reliable than most of the solid state MOSFET amps from the 80s and 90s. The technology involved with the class D amps does make them essentially impossible to self repair and so complicated to repair that paying a tech to repair it is uneconomic. However, a full re-tube and cost of repair of an SVT or another valve amp generally costs about the same as a pretty good class D amp, so whether an amp is 'repairable' is all bit relative. It is also getting more difficult to source parts for the old MOSFET amps so they are becoming less repairable as well. Compared to when I was starting to learn in the late 1990s there is in my opinion an amazing collection of amps to choose from in the current market.

The Series IVs have the same 10/90 system as the Excess series which all have maple/rosewood boards. My Excess has a maple board and think I prefer the look and 'feel' of the maple if nothing else over the phenowood. Was it the Series II or III basses where Vigier ditched the all graphite necks and went to the 10/90 route?

I think that some of the artificial sound with the Pascal Mulot demos is down to the composite fingerboard on the Series IV basses. I don't think that the Series II and III had the Phenowood board but I might be wrong. I personally would have preferred a rosewood or ebony board on my Arpege. The attack and immediacy of response is amazing don't get me wrong, it just takes a bit of work to get any kind of 'warm and earthy' type tones.

The Series IV Arpege I have has 'a little bit, but not much' relief, which is pretty much the same as my Excess bass. I do understand that the Series 2 models had even less relief and were more of the 'dead straight' variety. The Series IV basses are/were great. They do lose a little bit of 'specialness' by not being neck through. Whether the new Delano pick ups are as gutsy as the old Benedetti pick ups is up for debate, but to my ear they are certainly less noisy and more easy to work with. Going forward I think that the Series II and III Arpege and Passions will be known as the 'classic models' over Series IV models.

That is unreal levels of tidy. That essentially looks like 'New Old Stock'. Great find!

True, I have dealt with Ben in the past. Always a good guy to deal with.

I still haven't seen any announcement from Vigier through its social media channels or website providing any details that last orders are be given by 11 March. I also haven't seen any announcement on the HTD Facebook page or their website. In fact I have not actually seen the press release in any of the normal guitar press that usually cover Vigier announcements. Any web search looking for further information just leads me back to this thread. I don't doubt that the press release that Ped received is legit but is all a bit strange to be honest.

Thanks, I did a careful edit to make clear that the incoming baby is only a disappointment for the purposes of my current ability to purchase bass gear!

Those might have been Benedetti pickups. I have them on my Excess. Lovely sound but very noisy single coil pickups. I generally run the treble on the preamp almost all the way off which helps with the noise and some of the piercing high frequency response. My later Arpege (when production changed to bolt on construction) I think has Delano pick ups which are dead quiet compared to the Benedettis.

Good call!

The Ashdown RM gear is also pretty cheap and lightweight and supposedly pretty damn good.

If anyone was selling a Bergantino NV4x12 then I would consider that. I have wanted one for ages to pair with my Trace Eliiot V6 but I always have no cash to hand when one becomes available If you have cash to burn then a Mesa Subway 4x10 would a great match. Or keep the pro neo 2x10 and buy another one.

Old 2008 Volvo V50 for me. I’ve had it eight and a half years. I’ve put a lot of miles on it but it is still going. At this point I will just run it until it stops working as the trade in value is virtually nil.

Well, this would be in the 2000s. The fact that Modulus had transitioned to using trussrods was used as proof of the need for instruments to require trussrods!

Generally: Bass Amp and cab/combo Pedals and leads If I use a combo (a Mesa Walkabout 1x15), I can pretty much load in everything and out in one trip with the combo in my right hand, my bass in a gig bag over my left shoulder and my pedal bag over my right shoulder. This was my 'non-touring' set up in Glasgow for 10 plus years and was designed to enable me to get in and out of a black cab in one movement. I can walk about 100 yards with this gear which usually gets me from the cab to the venue. Not comfortable but do-able. If on tour, I generally use separate head and cab and a back up cab because we usually had a van. My touring days are probably over now but I now have a car which is nice. I drive a 2008 Volvo V50 with 160k+ miles on it. In practice a malfunctioning car is far more likely than malfunctioning bass gear.

Definitely not a flaw in my opinion. However, definitely a design choice that is worth considering if it is for you if you like to have a bit of neck relief. If you pick up a Vigier and think 'that is nice, but I would like to add a bit more relief to the neck to accommodate my personal taste' then you are out of luck. That relief is not changing. The set relief is very minimal and is essentially 'almost but not quite' flat. If you do like it, then set ups are a doddle, set string height and you are pretty much ready to go. You only have to adjust the height when you change string gauges. In owning one Vigier for 17 years and another for 11 and living all over Scotland and touring etc, the necks have never warped or moved. You can also move from light low tension strings to heavy gauge high tension strings and the neck will not move (I done used both basses with completely different gauges and tensions and in different tunings). Instances of Vigier necks warping are so incredibly rare outside of anecdotal 'I heard about a player/I had a friend' forum posts with no corresponding evidence. I am sure that there have been Vigiers with warped necks but I think that they are very much anomalies rather than signs that the design is inherently problematic. There are enough Vigiers from the 80s about dead straight necks to demonstrate that.

I'm not sure. They never fully broke through to the US market beyond to a select group of players, so I am not sure that we will see Wal level price spikes. For example, I have a 2009 Sadowsky NYC and I am pretty sure that is going to appreciate more than my Vigiers once Roger Sadowsky retires. The lack of truss rod means that not everybody will appreciate the design aesthetics or enjoy the fact the relief on the necks is pre-determined and cannot ever be changed from the factory setting. I recall Vigiers getting a number of 2/5 'design' or 'bench' ratings on things like Bass Gear Magazine, where US reviewers decided that because Modulus graphite instruments included a truss road then it was scientific fact that all graphite necked basses 'needed' a truss rod. The lack of truss rod was seen as an inherent flaw rather than a consciously made design choice. I do think that this opinion will persist to a group of players which will stop Vigiers from massively appreciating in value. I would say 'I hope I am wrong' but actually if I can buy a GV Rock or Passion five string in the future at a bargain price then I won't be complaining!

Worst amp I have ever used was one of those 1980s Peavey Mark amps and a 4x10 that had been left in a studio for 20 years unserviced and in a damp room. Just rubbish but might have been more the circumstances the amp was kept rather than the design of the amp. Moving the EQ controls seemingly made no difference to the tone whatsoever. 'Worst' amp I have ever owned would probably be a Trace Elliot GP7 SM 300 combo. It was actually a great amp and I owned it for nearly fifteen years. However I replaced it with some great amps (Mesa Big Block, EBS Fafner, Trace GP12 300SMX, Mesa Walkabout, Trace V6) so the Trace Elliot GP7 is worst by default. In terms of shortest timescale from purchasing to selling an amp, I only owned a Mesa M6 for about 18 months before selling it. It was very loud, clinical, aggressively voiced and very easy to dial in. However, the gain and master volume taper were very temperamental (and to my ears did not have enough of a useable taper), so I found it difficult to dial in enough preamp gain to give a bit of pre-amp drive at non-ear splitting volumes. I moved it on and bought a Big Block 750 which is much more to my tastes even though I would think that most other folk would consider the M6 to be a superior, more versatile amp.

Wow, I didn't expect that. I am very happy to own two Vigiers, in fact I have owned an Excess for nearly 17 years and an Arpege for about 11 years. They will never be sold. However, I would guess that closing down is better than going the licensing route and probable dilution in quality.

You are talking about an amp that is now about 13-14 years old. Valve amps generally require servicing periodically. If you have bought the amp second hand then you don't really have any idea how often it has been used, how hard it has been driven, whether it has been running mismatched loads which are not good for the transistor or whether the amp has been serviced regularly or not serviced at all. It would not surprise me if the amp required a bit of work considering its age. You could buy an Ampeg, Mesa or Orange valve amp from the same period and you might have to get the amp serviced and incur similar costs, particularly if the amp has been shipped a long distance. You also have to factor in that servicing valve amps can get very expensive when it comes to replacing valves, irrespective of the brand of amplifier on account that valves are generally expensive. My Trace Elliot V6 has been very reliable and has only needed serviced once in nine years. However that service cost me about £450 because the power tubes died and needed replaced, all six of them! It means that the repair costs of the V6 have been more expensive than the repair costs of all my non-valve amps combined! It doesn't make the V6 unreliable, just expensive to fix if something goes wrong. In terms of Sleep and High on Fire, they were generally driving the amps at full volume and boosted with multiple boosts and fuzz pedals. They were also operating them while under the influence of a variety of substances and touring heavily. Even the best amps in the world would have struggled in that type of environment. If you require reliability and low repair costs, then I would look at non-valve amp options. If you need authentic valve tone though then you just have to put up with the potential repair costs.

So it will probably be £1500 for a made in China 4x10 cab that weighs 76lbs. A bit disappointing. That is a boutique Mesa/Barefaced/Vanderkley/Bergantino type price but with old school weight and probably lacking the same levels of QC. A pass for me I am afraid. Amp still looks nice though.

I thought that the original Peavey era cabs were significantly lighter than the older TE cabs, so if the new cabs are lighter than that then they should be fine. A well built 4x10 is generally going to weigh something. Anything around 55lb-65lbs or so would be reasonable considering the castors, metal grill and removable front cover will all add weight, so I wouldn't expect GR Bass/Barefaced etc weight expectations. Anything north of 70 lbs though is pushing it for being paired with a 'lightweight' amp though.