$1100 via PayPal, including fully insured shipping, only in the continental U.S.A. This is a sale with a firm price only — no trades or offers. This sale will be final — no return or exchange.
Contact me by email: skylimes at yahoo dot com.
Sorry, but: I will ship this bass ONLY to the verified U.S.A. PayPal address of the buyer.
What is included
Up for sale here is a Valenti 5-string fretted bass guitar, serial number 062. Made in 2008, it is in excellent condition and features
- swamp ash body
- maple neck, vintage tint, satin finish
- birdseye maple fretboard, side markers only
- small frets, 12" radius
- 19 mm string spacing
- 34" scale
- Hipshot ultralight tuners and B style bridge
- passive electronics
- passive tone pot
- no volume pot or preamp
- custom Nordstrand pickup (stacked hum-canceling version of the single coil P)
- 7.75 lb. weight
- original form-fitted TKL soft shell case
Background
I bought this Valenti bass here on TalkBass from its original owner. All dings, scratches and scuffs were administered before I bought it.
In the photos at the end of this post, I try to show the worst of them. They are only cosmetic defects, though, and do not affect playability, or affect appearance beyond close inspection.
During several months, I only played this bass in my former home studio, then loaned it to Nordstrand Guitars for pickup development (for a year, but they never used it
), and have since played it in my new home. That's all. No gigs or travel with it; no pets or smoke; no spills or falls, and no malfunctions.
The first owner reported that its low B string lacked something. When I got the bass, 1. I discovered that its strings must be crowned (their successive heights making a slight convex arc) to match the fixed positions of the pickup poles, and 2. I learned from Nordstrand Pickups that if the pickup is too high (the bass end especially), it will produce ghost notes and may actually lower the output volume.
So by changing the string and pickup heights accordingly, I was able to get a nice, natural-sounding volume balance across the strings. Yet even after that, I did find that the B string had a bit less high end than the other strings.
When Nordstrand offered to tweak the pickup, I thanked them and declined. I was too happy with the sound of the bass overall to risk upsetting the balance. They had successfully adjusted their pickups for me before, but for this Valenti I decided it wasn't worth the risk.
(Why am I selling this Valenti? I have too many basses. And I would like to take the lessons I learned from playing it, and someday order a custom Nordy with a similar configuration.)
Value proposition
This Valenti is lightweight and easy to play, with a fast neck. And it sounds good. It sounds different from most bass guitars, I think, in a desirable way. I attribute this to its custom Nordstrand stacked P pickup.
Though this bass would sound good with any quality pickup installed, the Nordstrand stacked P interprets its voice with bold, nuanced midrange and harmonics over a thick, woofy bottom, with clear, earnest highs over all.
Since there is only a passive tone pot, more emphasis is on the player's hands and the amplifier. Even as a "tactile", sound oriented player who prefers passive volume/tone basses and tube amps, with this Valenti I find myself relying more than ever on playing dynamics and right hand technique for tonal variation.
Tube amp players (like me) will be thrilled with this bass. Slightly grinding power tube saturation lets the big bottom spill out, with metallic highs when the tone pot is open. Squash the input tubes instead for singing and percussive midrange with less bottom, for an aggressive bridge pickup-type sound.
Palm muting with double thumbing makes this bass a funk, soul or blues machine. To rock out, lose the mute and play loose fingerstyle or picking with the thumb or a pick. Work the amp (see above) for more tones... this bass's spare electronics configuration belies its versatility.
Terms
This sale will be final. If you have any concerns about this 2008 Valenti 5-string bass, ask me before you buy it, because it is not returnable.
$1100 via PayPal, including fully insured shipping, only in the continental U.S.A. This is a sale with a firm price only — no trades or offers.
Contact me by email: skylimes at yahoo dot com.
Thanks for looking.
Snaxster
