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Hatsubai « One of my favorite Superstrats »
Published on 06/08/11 at 18:42Vigier is a fairly unknown company for whatever reason. I have no clue why these guys aren't more popular, to be honest. They're a small company in France that makes some of the nicest playing superstrats on the market. The Vigier Excalibur Custom is probably their flagship model. It comes with an alder body with a flamed maple top, a special carbon maple neck with NO truss rod, rosewood or maple fretboard with dot inlays, a special ball bearing Floyd Rose tremolo, a pickguard with an HSH configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
These are one of the few guitars out there that use a zero fret system. This makes it so that the open and fretted notes sound the same when played, and it also helps add some consistency to the action and tone. You don't have that issue with the open strings being way higher than the fretted strings like so many other guitars. The other unique feature with this is that there is no truss rod inside this. The maple is mixed with some carbon epoxy or...something. I'm not really sure how it works, but the necks stay DEAD straight no matter how much humidity you come across. The final unique feature is that they add ball bearings to the Floyd Rose. This makes it crazy smooth when doing dive bombs.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds really good. In a way, it's like a typical superstrat because it features standard DiMarzio pickups, but it has its own kinda thing going on. The ToneZone in the bridge gives this guitar an extremely huge sound. You can get some awesome thick rhythm tones going on, and it never thins out. However, it's a bit polarizing, so some people might not like the onslaught of midrange. The middle FS-1 is a pretty cool single coil that has a clean, powerful sound going on. It works nicely with the two humbuckers. Finally, the PAF Pro in the neck gives a clean, clear and punchy neck tone that is just powerful enough to do high gain licks but just mild enough to clean up with a lighter picking attack.
OVERALL OPINION
If you ever get a chance to play a Vigier, I highly recommend trying one. This is probably the most common model that they have, so this is the one you want to look for. They go pretty cheap on the used market, so if you find one on eBay, grab it.
UTILIZATION
These are one of the few guitars out there that use a zero fret system. This makes it so that the open and fretted notes sound the same when played, and it also helps add some consistency to the action and tone. You don't have that issue with the open strings being way higher than the fretted strings like so many other guitars. The other unique feature with this is that there is no truss rod inside this. The maple is mixed with some carbon epoxy or...something. I'm not really sure how it works, but the necks stay DEAD straight no matter how much humidity you come across. The final unique feature is that they add ball bearings to the Floyd Rose. This makes it crazy smooth when doing dive bombs.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds really good. In a way, it's like a typical superstrat because it features standard DiMarzio pickups, but it has its own kinda thing going on. The ToneZone in the bridge gives this guitar an extremely huge sound. You can get some awesome thick rhythm tones going on, and it never thins out. However, it's a bit polarizing, so some people might not like the onslaught of midrange. The middle FS-1 is a pretty cool single coil that has a clean, powerful sound going on. It works nicely with the two humbuckers. Finally, the PAF Pro in the neck gives a clean, clear and punchy neck tone that is just powerful enough to do high gain licks but just mild enough to clean up with a lighter picking attack.
OVERALL OPINION
If you ever get a chance to play a Vigier, I highly recommend trying one. This is probably the most common model that they have, so this is the one you want to look for. They go pretty cheap on the used market, so if you find one on eBay, grab it.