This old Vigier

[cornfarmer]

I've had this thing for a quite a while, it has a checkered past, and when I got it, it was fairly modified....like someone had put a chrome EB-0 pickup in the neck position, different wiring, etc. I had my guitar tech at the time restore it into something more close to stock - took out the Gibson PU and simplified the controls, minor paint, etc.

The bass sounds excellent, and is probably the best sounding in my collection, especially for recording purposes, so it's never going to be sold....but like I said, it's been around the block, built in the late '80s, and I am thinking about refinishing it in all black, w/ black hardware.

It has some dings and a few drill holes visible from the old bridge. The tricky part about repainting is that there is a fade effect under the clear on the back, where the black stripe transitions to the carbon fibre neck - the neck is all CF and is just finished in clear, not painted. So basically I'd be refinishing just the body in black. Part of me wants to DIY and maybe do a flat or satin finish, part of me wants to let a pro do it right in a standard gloss finish ($$$). What to do

The first time I saw/heard a Vigier was seeing Tony Sales play one with Tin Machine - he played a black/dark finish one that looked sweet.

Mine:

 

[Spleenface92]

Sweet bass! I want it.

 

[nanookanono]

Vigier passion serie 2 ... nice
I hope you can hear the Benedetti pus
the original finish is thick : several layers oven dried

 

[4-string]

Vigiers are great basses. I've had my Arpege (production #25) for 25 years, never going to sell it. Bought it brand new, can't get much for it now anyway. The neck is my all time favourite.

Mine is still stock btw.

Enjoy your Vigier.

 

[darkstorm]

Nice. Black with black hardware would be very nice refinish imo. Diff have a pro do the refinish though. To nice a bass to do a homemade job unless youve done several and theyve turned out pro or nearly so type job.

 

[4-string]

Black w/gold hardware if you ask me, done by a pro.

 

[RobJ]

I always thought they had some very cool and unique designs. I played one during a studio session a number of years ago at the producer's request (from his collection) and liked it a lot, I don't remember what model it was now but I think it was probably made in the '80s.

 

[saustindavis]

Pretty sweet looking the way it is. Maybe just black hardware and call it good. I like the black stripe, kinda makes it look like a neck-thru. Is it cheaper if you have it done with the same paint job?

 

[cornfarmer]

kinda makes it look like a neck-thru.

It sort of is neck-thru, as in it looks it, but you can see where an actual neck joint exists, i.e. the seam shows up faintly underneath the paint. The neck stops short about 6-8 inches deep into the body - looks neck-thru, but is maybe 1/3rd neck-thru in reality.

I'm gonna look into what local guys charge for the re-fin. The last time I had a body (J-bass) redone I got a lot of $$$ ridiculous quotes, for a just a single solid color.

If this ends up in DIY land, anybody recommend a material for filling in some of the old bridge holes? Something that won't expand or implode after the paint dries...when I had the PU extracted, my old tech used fiberglass to fill the hole.

 

[cornfarmer]

.

 

[cornfarmer]

done