Vigier Arpege
My Main Guitar is a Vigier Arpege, which I have had since 1988.
Patrice Vigier is one of the world?s top guitar makers.
This axe has a wonderful tone-- It is so rich and full, yet clear. Sometimes,
it sounds almost like an acoustic. It seems that we are hearing not only the
string itself, but also the air around the string. I can plug this guitar
into almost anything and get a good tone. When I?m doing recording sessions,
it?s so easy to get a good sound on this guitar.
I think that the pickups are an inportant part of the sound. Also, the guitar
has a pretty heavy mass, Which I think helps warm up the tone.
The whammy bar is based on a fulcrum with extremely low friction, so it returns
to original pitch. It also has a very heavy mass, which I think helps the
tone. Adding a whammy bar can really screw up your low end, since there is
less vibrational coupling between the strings and the body, but the heavy
whammy bar on the Vigier seems to avoid that problem.
It has a neck-through body construction, and the neck material is carbon
fiber.
I really like the carbon fiber necks for tapping, because the neck is stable,
regardless of temperature, pressure, humidity, etc. With that kind of stability
you can get your action way down, and it will stay exactly where you put it.
The nut has string locks with fine tuners. The string locks help keep the
axe in tune when you start working the whammy bar, plus the fine tuners are
more accurate and less prone to slippage than tuning with machine heads only.
I generally use the neck position pickup, but sometimes I?ll switch
to bridge position or both when I?m doing distorted leads, for that extra
bite.
My strings are usually Ernie Ball .009-.046, but sometimes I?ll put
heavier strings on for a warmer sound.
