VIGIER GUITARS
G.V. WOOD
BY JORDAN WAGNER
Amber humbuckers
One of the best things about review- ing gear for Premier Guitar is experiencing how attentive and passionate luthiers can be. When it comes down to it, all of us rely on wood and wire to craft our tones, but hat doesn’t stop Vigier Guitars from trying dif- ferent approaches
to bringing those
elements together.
The French company was one of
the first guitar
builders to use
carbon-reinforced
necks and build
a fretless electric
guitar, and they have
a history of readily
embracing new technologies that will make their
instruments more playable.
The new G.V. Wood single-cutaway model is very much a
product of Vigier’s evolutionary
impulses—with a fantastic array of tones
and an innovative, super-slick fretboard.
5-way selector
with coil-tapping
Fit for a King
Upon opening the G.V. Wood’s Hiscox
Liteflite case, I was treated to a stunning
transparent amber finish with a gorgeous
flamed-maple top. The guitar was structurally flawless in every sense, with nary a
trace of finish marring or sloppy paintwork
anywhere. Perhaps the only thing that
came as a slightly unwelcome surprise was
that Vigier says the G.V. Wood is approximately 7. 3 pounds, though the shipping
scale I used registered a slightly heftier 8. 35
pounds—still, that’s not unheard of in guitars of this style. The guitar also has a quality set of Schaller M6 2000 locking tuners
Alder body and maple cap
and a zero fret that’s placed almost right up
against the Teflon nut.
The 24. 8"-scale guitar’s bolt-on neck is
fashioned from hardened maple that’s been
dried naturally for three years. The neck
also features Vigier’s carbon-infused wood
construction technique—which makes
the neck 90 percent maple and 10 percent
carbon—for added strength and durabil-
ity. The fretboard is the real treat, however.
Instead of using a standard material like
rosewood or ebony, the G.V. incorporates a
material called phenowood, which is basi-
cally birch that’s been injected with carbon
and phenolic resins. After being exposed to
intense amounts of compression and heat,
the material is virtually invincible to the
stresses that commonly plague other types
of fretboards—such as warping, cracking,
and other issues caused by moisture and
humidity changes.
