CookPassBabtridge

16 minutes ago, wright/watt said:

I really wish someone would buy this, so I don't have to keep coming back for a quick swatch (look) at something I don't really need!! plus cannot afford!! This is a really fantastic price for an immaculate, as new Vigier..

 

Not even a ding on the headstock! (That's a first to me!) As stated before, someone will be very happy..

 

GLWTS😃👍

Thanks mate, yes it’s potentially getting to the stage where I’ll hang on to it as it’s too nice a bass to let go for much less than this, particularly given the condition. Truly a wonderful instrument that will give someone a lot of happy playing. 

12 minutes ago, ZilchWoolham said:

That headstock looks like it needs to seek medical advice.

On 22/09/2022 at 08:49, NancyJohnson said:

There's hundreds of them. 

 

Noted author Mark Phillips aside, I saw these on eBay a while back and they were so awful it was worth taking screengrabs.  No idea who made them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lest we forget...

 

I think I’ve seen the top two on Facebook before and had much the same reaction. The luthier clearly has some ability (finish looks like a good standard) but the design is hideous.

23 minutes ago, triplebass said:

can you please take some photos on a background without stripes, i can’t focus my eyes…

looks great, as far as i can see, but SO far away from me…

Blame my missus’ choice of carpet. Based on that you probably wouldn’t like how the rest of my house is decorated either 😂

1 minute ago, Bigwan said:

Collection only... DAMMIT!!! SO.MUCH.WANT.

Ha sorry matey, for now at least as I've been burned badly by couriers in the past. If you are ever over this way let me know  

Now £2000 with free mainland UK shipping

I may live to regret this but up for sale is my Vigier Passion IV (2020).

What is there to say about these basses. They have a very loyal and passionate (pun intended) following here on Basschat, and with very good reason. The proprietary pickups in their ‘bridge-biased’ position provide untold amounts of punch. The 3-band preamp also gives you access to a huge amount of different tones, so chances are that whatever style of music you’re playing you’ll find the right sound here. This bass cuts through the mix like no-one’s business, is super comfortable to play and has the best finish of any instrument I’ve laid my hands on.

There are a couple of slightly uncommon features on this bass that are also worth highlighting. The first is that there is no truss rod. This is because the neck is made from phenowood – that is, wood injected with a phenolic resin which means that the neck doesn’t move as a result of temperature or environment changes. So no more worrying about bowed necks or fiddly setups!

The other cool feature is the locking input jack. Once your cable is plugged in it’s not going anywhere, so you’re unlikely to suffer from loose connections or accidentally pulling your cable out mid-set.

Other specs are (taken from the Vigier website):

Neck
Wood : Maple naturally dried for 3 years
Shape : D
Finish : Glossy
Width of neck at nut : 40 mm/1.57 "
Width of neck at last fret : 56,4mm / 14.32 "
Depth of neck at first fret : 19,5mm / .76 "
Depth of neck at 12th fret : 23mm / .90 "
String spacing at nut : 31,5 mm / 1.24 "
String spacing at bridge : 53 mm / 2.125 "
Action as supplied at 12th fret, treble : 1.8 mm / .0709 "
Action as supplied at 12th fret, bass : 2.3mm / .0906 "
Type of nut : Teflon nut + hardened zero fret technology

Fingerboard
Wood : Phenowood
Radius : 300mm/11.81 "
Type of frets : Medium
Number of frets : 24
Scale length : 860mm / 33.8 "
Inlay : Dots

Body
Wood : Flamed maple / alder / flamed maple naturally aged
Finish : Varnish dries for 5 weeks minimum

Accessories
Machine heads brand name : Schaller
Type of bridge : One bridge per string
End pin : Brass casing that inserts deep into the body and locks the strap button in place
Finish : Chrome

Electronics
Pickup brand name : Vigier
Type of pickup : Single, twin coil in line
Switch : Balance
Controls : Volume
Balance
Bass
Medium
Treble
Shielding : Conductive paint

Miscellaneous
Weight : 3,8Kg / 8.3lbs

This bass is immaculate (to the extent the original stickers are still present!) – home use only and without any significant dings or scratches. The only reason I’m selling is because it’s not getting the attention it deserves and I could do with the cash for other things. I also believe that Patrice Vigier has now closed his order books as he is retiring – so short of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping one pops up for sale elsewhere, this is probably your best bet of getting a Passion IV in this condition for a good while, or maybe ever! 

No trades or offers please. Collection preferred as I would like you to try before you buy. I can also offer excellent, in-person bass chat (another pun intended) and as much tea/coffee as you desire if you make the effort to come and see me. However I am willing to ship if preferred - please contact me to discuss though as I will need to arrange. 

Also feel free to check out my feedback here and approach me with confidence 😊
 

Finally got round to listening to the album in its entirety. Pretty average, We’ll Be Back the best song by a country mile. Weird how it’s buried near the end of the album, sounds like a perfect opener to me. Junkie and Mission to Mars both decent enough but otherwise nothing blew me away. Still, average Megadeth is better than no Megadeth. 

21 minutes ago, JGTay said:

The majority of my builds have had Danish oil finishes, I find it easy to use and can usually do three or four coats in a day. You do need to put a lot of coats on to get a good finish. 

I have never tried Osmo, but looking around a few woodworking sites it seems like you don't need as many coats and it is meant to be easier to apply, but a longer wait between coats. 

Thanks that’s good to know. Yeah Osmo defo takes a while to dry, they recommend 24 hours I think but I find it can take up to 48 hours. I might try Danish Oil on my next build then to see how it goes. 

Bit late to the party but this looks great! I’m currently starting build number three so if my eighth looks anything like this I’ll be very happy! 
 

How did you find working with the Danish Oil? I ask because my teacher isn’t a fan and recommends that we use Osmo instead. I prefer the look of your Danish oil though. 

1 hour ago, la bam said:

That does look great! Is that a p body with j pickups though? It looks kinda flatter than a jazz at the bottom.

Yeah looks like it, was thinking one option for you could be to move your jazz electronics into a precision body but it would be a fair bit of work.

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

 

Do you have a link for that?

Yep it’s over in the ‘What’s your #1?’ thread. Credit to @hamfist for owning a lovely bass! 

Sounds like you are sorted now but saw this bad boy in another thread - would perhaps take a bit of work but looks great.

I’ve had similar experiences with couriers and international items and it’s put me off ordering from abroad.

Helpfully I can’t remember which courier it was, but essentially my item sat in customs for a couple of weeks until the seller contacted me to say I needed to pay the duty, VAT etc. Fair enough, but the courier never contacted me. Phoned them up (locating a number to speak to a human being was a challenge in itself) and they claimed they’d texted me (they hadn’t). Anyway, I paid the fees and got the item.
 

All was fine until a few months later when I got a letter claiming I hadn’t paid. Once again, I couldn’t find a number to speak to anyone so got threatened with debt enforcement etc. I finally found a form buried deep in their website where I could submit proof that it had been paid and the letters stopped.

My little anecdote probably doesn’t help much but I guess what I’m trying to say is that these kind of issues with international deliveries can be fairly common, sadly. Glad to hear yours sounds like it’s nearly sorted though. 

45 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

Earlier the year, over at Talkbass, someone from Fretnation mentioned it. You can check his website and it does not mention Fortes anymore:

https://www.fretnation.com/spector-usa-series-basses 

 

His Spector configurator, very interesting, so many options!

https://www.fretnation.com/spector-usa-ns-series-4-string-neck-thru-bass 

Also the Spector website appears to have changed - there’s no longer a section for the Fortes, NS Bolt Ons or NS Neck Thrus. Looks like all USA models are now from what they are calling the Custom Shop. 

22 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

BTW, my previous Forte with the Haz 18V is back on BD. It was my no-frills NS-4. I bought it in 2020 but sold it after some time via BD. Someone bought it then but is now selling it again via BD. It is a great bass, but I am not a fan of matte finishes. I have no affiliation with BD or the seller, don't even know who (s)he is. Here is the link:

https://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Spector_USA_Forte_4_2.html 

That’s very nice. Great electronics choice. I think short of a diff colour and perhaps a gloss finish that would be what I’d consider a dream spec. 

2 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

 

Looks great but the price is pretty high. For comparison, only last year I paid 1k less for a Forte with EMGs, Haz and a gloss finish (this one has a matte finish).

Yeah I wasn’t going to say but I did think it was a bit pricy too. Closest comparison I have is I enquired about a USA NS bolt-on 2-3 years ago and the quote was around 1k cheaper than this. Admittedly that’s a little while ago now and prices are going up for pretty much everything.

1 minute ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

 

Ok, I checked BD's website, and this is actually a NS-2 without crown inlays, no fancy top and with a matte finish. Some time ago, over at TB, a retailer mentioned that Spector stopped making Fortes, so that's why it is officially a NS-2 even though it looks like a Forte (and it also explains the higher price).

 

Ah ha, that makes sense. I was surprised that you’d be able to spec these kind of extras on a Forte given it would effectively make it an NS. 

Anyone else seen the purple Forte that Bass Direct have in at the moment? If I had a spare £4.6k I’d be all over it, what a lovely bass and spec. 

They can be a funny bunch, that’s for sure.

I’ve bought loads of stuff from them over the last few years. Majority of the transactions have been fine with no issues; there was the odd occasion though where I ordered something listed as in stock when it wasn’t and I had to wait a number of weeks for it to arrive (a common issue by the sounds of it).

I also think there can be a bit of snobbery from them from time to time - I’ve found if you go there knowing what you’re looking for, can ‘talk the talk’ and share Mark’s views of the world they can be very hospitable. If you’re more of a browser and don’t take kindly to their way of doing things then it gets more tricky. I tend to bite my tongue if I get the odd blunt email from them as they sell stuff I’d struggle to get anywhere else, but can understand why others wouldn’t put up with it! 

23 hours ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

Do Burners not have super tight string spacing? I had a green 5 string bought from this parish many years ago. 16mm string spacing. Didn’t keep it long for that reason, though top quality luthiery. Still have a BT5 & 6 with much better 18mm spacing. 

They do indeed, great basses but that's the main reason I haven't looked at acquiring one. Then again I'm on the other end of the scale (I like 20mm spacing).

On 15/08/2022 at 22:53, AndyTravis said:

I had one for about 4 seconds in 2009.

 

I arrived home to play it and the ex had quit her job and we had to pay back maternity leave pay…it was a deluxe walnut like this…

That is lovely. Like how it matches a lot of the walnut BSRs…it would go with mine very nicely anyway 😬

Just noticed another new track is up, Soldier On. I don’t think it’s that great, which is a bit of a shame - IMO 1 of the 3 tracks they’ve released off the new album is decent (We’ll Be Back), so I’m not sure what the full album will be like. Still looking forward to it though. 

On 09/08/2022 at 20:20, FDC484950 said:

It’s also worth mentioning that very inexpensive basses are now generally speaking way better quality than 20-30 years ago. I remember trying a Chinese squier back in the late 90s and it was firewood, as were many sub-£200 basses back then. 

I was just about to post pretty much this. Back when I first started playing (20 years ago), I had to go to your independent local music shop to buy gear. My first bass was a second hand short scale Stagg which cost about £150. It was terrible, but the simple fact was you couldn’t really get a quality instrument for cheap back then. The choice was much more limited. One way of looking at things now is at least there has been a vast improvement in what you can get at the entry level. 
 

Although there is no denying prices have gone up a crazy amount more generally. Non-bass example but I went to buy some new bedside tables yesterday evening - the tag on the item said £79 but the tag on the shelf said £105. When I bought them the person at the till said they’d honour the £79 but that the price had recently gone up to £105. That’s a 33% increase in one go! 

I’ve bought plenty of stuff from the US before but they have been particular bargains and when the exchange rate was better, with the total cost including VAT and other fees still coming out as cheap. The other angle is paying what you deem to be a reasonable price for something you can’t easily get in the UK.
 

Probably just not a great time to buy from the US right now because of the exchange rate. As others have said, just be sure to do the maths before you buy. 

Very cool indeed. Another spooky coincidence is that I also used to have a Streamer (S1 though) and decided to move it on. I think I just need to accept my fate and order an Overwater 😬

1 hour ago, bassmansam said:

 

Yes very nice. The Uni Pre is very cool and versatile with the mid sweep. Really like the reverse P + Soapbar combo. Reminds be of a PJ but with extra punch. 

 

The sets ups on the overwaters are incredible. I've never picked up a bass that's been remotely close. As soon as my first Overwater arrived I had my Warwick SSII up on marketplace the day after 😅

Now you've had it for a week and she's settled in how's it sounding? Seriously tempted to get something similar, did I mention already that I love the look of this spec? 😜

19 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I like the way you've echoed the top and bottom horns in the headstock too.

Cheers, yes I think I’d use that design again but would perhaps make it thinner or reposition the tuners to sort out that break angle issue.