100% handmade bass in France at Patrice Vigier's shop.
Ever since Vigier started building instruments in the 80's his goal to produce the most comfortable, easy to play and best sounding instruments in the world.
This is the Arpege 5 model and it belongs in the Series III of these instruments. For may players this is the absolutely best era as Series III took advantage from Series I and Series II developments and refinements while still using some proprietary parts such as Benedetti pickups, Kahler bridges, etc., which were lost later on. Today's Viger basses are still great but some players feel they've lost a lot of what made them unique.
This bass has been modified and no it sports two Delano pickups and a wonderful John East U Rettro 01Deluxe preamp plus two Mini switchs to choose Single-Series-Parallel from each pickup. This produces an exceptionally clear and clean tone where every note seems to ring in the best possible manner.
The narrow nut (just 42mm wide) and slightly short scale (33.8") make this one of the easiest 5 string basses to play. And the Low B is just perfect in terms of volume and definition.
All Vigier basses have very comfortable necks and this is no exception. a 43mm wide nut is used and we just love that. It is almost like holding a 4 string but with 5 string. You may think this could produce a somewhat crumped feeling but that's not the case at all. It simply feels amazingly comfortable.
Vigier doesn't use a truss rod. Instead, he makes the necks with a combination of wood and graphite called 90/10 (90% wood, 10& graphite) and this makes for exceptionally stable necks that have a natural relief that is just perfect. Sure, you can't adjust this but neither can you on a double bass and when the fingerboard curve is perfectly made you just don't miss a truss rod. Same case here. Also Patrice Vigier believes that installing a truss rod on a bass is not a good idea as all the wood you remove to make the truss rod channel really makes the neck weak.
This is a used bass with some minor wear but everything works beautifully