Vigier Passion 1

CONTACT High Tech Distribution PHONE 01722 410002 WEB www.vigier.co.uk

Turn the clock back to the early 80s and a young French guitar maker, Patrice Vigier, was making waves with his unusual bass and guitar designs. One of his earliest solidbody designs, the Passion, appeared in 1983 and used a laminate (maple/ walnut/maple) through-neck construction and numerous Vigier-isms, such as active electronics, a synthetic Phenowood fingerboard, his own-brand pickups, plus a hugely original body shape. Also, intended to maximise sustain, a layer of metal (close in composition to the Delta Metal Vigier would later use on his first Surfretter fretless guitar) is sandwiched between the neck and fingerboard. However, the model was superseded a couple of years later by the second version, which employed a graphite neck, very much of its time.

Visiting the contemporary Vigier factory a couple of years back, Ben Whatsly of High Tech Distribution, Vigier’s UK distributor, spotted a small number of those original Passions in a dusty corner of the wood storage area. “All the woodworking was done, and the fretting, but they had no hardware, electronics or indeed a finish,” remembers Ben. “I told Patrice, ‘You have to finish these.’ I believed they’d sell in seconds, but Patrice wasn’t sure, ‘No-one wants a guitar from 1983.’ Obviously, he couldn’t make them like the ’83 spec, but he did concede that if he did finish them they’d probably be better than the originals.”

To cut a long story short, Patrice found the old-style Schaller bridges with their fine tuners, and sorted new Amber pickups and more simple electrics – “a sort of hybrid of historic and modern Vigier”, adds Ben. Two dealers chose the colours: two in Urban Blue, two in Urban Metal and our pictured Pearl White Passion, now owned by Ben.

“It has its own sound,” he beams after using the revitalised Passion for gigs and recording. “Unplugged, you notice just how lively it is. The actual body resonance really shocked me to begin with, it has a beautiful bright and lively acoustic sustain. That must be down to the through-neck construction and that additional metal plate. It’s a unique sound and that’s what Patrice was always looking for: a guitar with its own voice. You’ve got six switch positions, but not the ones you’d expect.”

Now, as then, Patrice Vigier remains quite the visionary.

3. Schaller’s original bridge design with its interlocking tailpiece with fine tuners isn’t made any more, but luckily Patrice found just enough original parts for the five-guitar run, albeit with different platings. The twin humbuckers, custom wound by Amber, were voiced specifically for these guitars by Patrice. Note the almost middle-position placement of the neck humbucker 2

1. Vigier always believed in the zero fret and true to its 1983 specification we have just a slightly higher nickel-silver zero fret and graphite string guide. Today, Vigier uses stainless steel frets and the zero fret has six individual elements that are replaceable should any wear occur. The Passion also has an adjustable truss rod; the modern Vigier guitar uses its unique trussrod-less 10/90 graphite/ maple construction 1

2. The classy headstock design dates back to Vigier’s original late-70s bass designs. It was used as the inspiration for the three-side headstock of the current GV models. Hidden by the opaque Pearl White finish is the laminate maple/walnut/maple neck construction, while the body wings are either ash or walnut 3

4 4. Although the original Passion guitar used an active circuit, here it’s much more straightforward with a passive setup: master volume and tone, a three-way pickup selector and a humbucker/single coil mini-switch