Ah... Here's the story:
I visited Carmel Media during July/Aug... It was on a Saturday, I remember... I rushed from Sengkang to Clementi via buses and MRT. I reached the shop barely before closing time. The owner, Mr Chan Kum Soon, was a wonderful and friendly gentleman. I told him that I wanted to see the Vigiers only (I am a poor guy, lol). He showed me the Vigiers he had in his store, and I got to hold his personal Vigier Expert in my hands... It was very nice, had a flame maple neck but I can't recall what the fretboard was (I think it was flame maple as well)...
We started chatting almost everything related to guitars... From my interest in Vigiers (due to Ron Thal & Shawn Lane) to the guitar market, Ed Roman, etc... He discovered that I was a very theoretical guitar enthusiast, and he told me that not everything on the spec list defines the quality of the guitar. For example, a Fender Strat. Vigiers use a 2-piece alder which is centre-joined, whereas Fender uses anywhere between 3 to 7 pieces of alder...
Ok, let's go back to the story about the stunt. He told me that there was once a poly student who owned a Fender USA guitar, this guy went to Carmel Media and started dissing the Vigier guitars. Mr Chan issued a challenge to this insolent chap, a guitar-tone duel.
Mr Chan said "If your Fender is better than the Vigier, you can have the Vigier". The chap agreed to the challenge and returned to Carmel Media with his Fender USA Strat. Guess which guitar won? Vigier. It could produce everything the Fender could, and more! Mr Chan told me that the Vigier could achieve a brighter and more trebly sound than the Fender (Must have been the 10/90 neck)...
Mr Chan told the guy nicely that if he had stipulated what would happen should the Vigier win, the Fender would be his. The guy was humiliated and he returned home to lick his wounds...
Some time later, that same guy returned to buy a Vigier from Mr Chan. He apologised for his arrogance and is a good customer of Carmel Media (I can't remember if that guy bought more Vigiers).
What happened to the Fender USA Strat? The guy sold if off to buy the Vigier!
I was bowled over by Mr Chan's confidence in Vigiers... You won't see such confidence anywhere else. I apologised to him for taking so much of his time, and thanked him for the enlightening chat.