musical instruments founded 1980 founder patrice vigier headquarters grigny france area served worldwide key people patrice vigier dj scully ben whatsley products electric guitars electric basses guitar strings parent self owned divisions high tech distribution website vigierguitars.com vigier guitars is a french electric guitar bass and string manufacturer based in grigny essonne . patrice vigier founded the company in 1980 . in addition to manufacturing the company is also active in the import and wholesale distribution of musical instruments amplifiers and accessories through its division high tech distribution . contents 1 history 2 models 2.1 electric guitars 2.2 electric basses 3 manufacturing 4 awards 5 notable players 6 references 7 external links history edit vigier arpege guitar 1980 patrice vigier a self taught luthier from les ulis began modifying guitars and building finished necks at the end of the 1970s . 1 he later built his first fretless guitar with a glass fingerboard . through a friend philippe lacour of distribution music vigier met his first customers in montparnasse . in 1980 he founded the company vigier and introduced his first model the arpege at a music fair . 1 2 3 that guitar featured neck through construction with a trapezoidal extension metal reinforcement board underneath the fingerboard metal fretboard on the fretless version active electronics a fixed bridge benedetti custom humbuckers the nautilus system 1982 another model came equipped with a built in equalizer and sound memory system called nautilus . 4 vigier launched two other models the passion in 1983 and the marilyn in 1985 . in 1986 vigier diversified by creating a wholesale division to import and distribute instruments amplifiers and accessories . distributed brands included ampeg dimarzio ernie ball music man orange premier and trace elliot . two years later vigier renamed the division high tech distribution to separate the manufacturing and distribution operations . in the 1990s vigier introduced new models . the excalibur came in 1991 its fretless variant the surfreter in 1998 and the excess bass in 1996 . in 2000 vigier celebrated its 20th anniversary with an excalibur surfreter adorned with gold diamonds sapphires and emeralds . the instrument was valued at eur 30 000 . in the same year the company launched the expert a model inspired by the classic fender stratocaster . vigier also developed a guitar with a midi controlled selector volume and tone knob . the company presented a prototype at the 2003 frankfurt music fair but never finalized the project as patrice vigier never approved the final version . in the second half of the 2000s vigier began introducing signature models including the excalibur shawn lane in 2005 and the excalibur bumblefoot ron thal and excess roger glover in 2006 . in 2009 vigier introduced its model singlecut g.v. in reference to georges vigier patrice s late father . 1 5 models edit electric guitars edit excalibur g.v. expert marilyn bfoot doublebfoot vigier excalibur ultra blues electric basses edit arpege excess passion manufacturing edit vigier produces all their instruments in france . vigier makes each guitar or bass in three to five months partly by hand and partly with machines . woods such as alder maple and ash come from french forests . rosewood and mahogany are imported from india and honduras respectively . pre cut raw wood logs are sorted and dried naturally for three to seven years to achieve the desired moisture content . bodies and necks are drawn on the blanks using templates then cut dried and stored in a controlled environment . in addition to wood vigier uses other materials such as copper and steel alloys delta metal and imetal and phenowood a resin based composite material . 6 vigier builds bodies from two pieces . they machine cuts and bevels with cnc tools and make fingerboards corrected to within 1 100 of a millimeter . the necks are fitted with the 90 10 design 90 % wood 10 % carbon whereby a carbon reinforcement bar replaces an adjustable truss rod . 7 they do the rest of the operations by hand . instrument weight is maintained between 3 and 3.7 kg . instruments are hand finished with about ten layers of stain and clear coat to a thickness of approximately 0.7 mm . glue and finish are dried for five weeks . guitars and basses have stainless steel frets a zero fret a teflon nut oversized locking tuners dimarzio potentiometers and switchcraft jacks . cavities are shielded . straps pegs are secured with deep inserts . for its floating bridge models vigier uses a system that rests on needle bearings . 8 the company produces an average of 500 instruments a year . 9 awards edit in 1992 patrice vigier was awarded luthier of the year in the electric guitar category . in 1993 the excalibur was awarded the title of most innovative guitar of the year by the american magazine the music and sound retailer . the american magazine premier guitar also has nominated vigier s guitars twice for the premier gear awards the g.v. wood in 2011 and the excalibur special 7 in 2013 . 10 11 notable players edit jean beauvoir nick sterling tesfa bemnet buckethead geezer butler nick douglas derek forbes roger glover christophe godin guthrie govan patrice guers stanley jordan shawn lane lapiro de mbanga gary moore muhammed sui mez ron thal walter trout oneida james tina setkic references edit a b c vigier celebrates 30 years . musical instrument professional . intent media . 2010 . fontanille jean 2006 09 05 . interview patrice vigier . guitare live . guitariste.com . vigier celebrates 30 years . musical instrument professional . intent media . 2010 . vigier arp ge retour vers le futur ... . fret time . 2010 . horvilleur j l. dossier 30 ans de vigier . guitar part n 201 d cembre 2010 . edv montreuil . p. 86 . cooper gary . vigier excalibur surfreter special fretless guitar review . guitar interactive magazine 9 . licklibrary . 10 90 neck system . vigierguitars.com . vigier instruments . vigier 2011 . vigierguitars.com . vigier instruments . holl sous la direction d emmanuel vaillant ; avec la participation de patricia 2008 . le grand livre des m tiers d. 2008 2009 . ed . . paris l tudiant . isbn 978 284624836 5 . best of 2011 premier gear awards . premier guitar . gearhead communications llc . 2011 . best gear of 2013 . premier guitar . gearhead communications llc . 2013 . external links edit official website us website uk website high tech distribution vigier guitars on twitter vigier guitars on facebook retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title vigier guitars & oldid 742550894 categories manufacturing companies established in 1978guitar manufacturing companiesmanufacturing companies of franceprivately held companies of france1978 establishments in france navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more 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