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The Valenti Megathread Part III

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#964
I don't remember a lot of things no-mo!
Do you have more Nice Pictures, like the one above, from outdoors?

I have about a week to wait out here.......
 
#967
Valenti611.jpg
 
#975
#976
Ivan M said:
Great playing, AWESOME sound. Yes i agree with Alan. That SADOWSKY Pre- with Nordy PUPS is a match made in heaven. My S24J4 #123 has just that. LOVE IT. It has some serious Giddy-UP.
Click to expand...

Mine had Sadowsky humcancelling pickups originally; I made the switch to Nordstrand single coils about 9 months ago. For the tone I want out of that bass, it is a much better match.
 
#977
Outta the box, pretty clear that ElMon and I like different setups.
Not a surprise, really. For whatever reason, seems like many folks who play high-end-y basses like Really Low Action.

I don't;) I set my string height with 1/16 between bottom of the string and top of the fret, whilst fretting first position. I think this equates to "solidly middlin',", but, your interpretation of that may differ. If I go lower than that, I start beating the strings into the end of the fingerboard, and making all kinds of hideous noise; probably because I'm a ham-fisted double basser some of the time.

So, setup was as easy as just raising all the saddles ~1 turn on the adjusters. Minimal, really. Check the intonation; wasn't off much, but, was off a tad. Also easy; hipshot bridges are just like that: good stuff and easy to tweak. The A-series are also adjustable for string width; I may yet tuck the G and B strings inboard just a hair, but, as everything lines up with the pickup poles, I'll leave it for now.

She was kinda dirty, so, I then pulled the strings, cleaned the fingerboard and body. It wasn't heavy duty scrunge, it all came right off.

Strung back up and played acoustically, she rings right out.
This bass-or at least the neck-is Callowhill, and the profile is a tad deeper than my #46, which is a super-fast flat C shape, and I love it. I don't mind the extra depth on this, and it certainly isn't a "P" neck, but, it's not what I was expecting. PLays great, no issue with it, just not what I thought I'd get.
Also, the finish on the neck is flat/non-gloss at the headstock, and shiny over most of 'the money positions," leaving me wonder if it's nitro...nitro does that over time. Super easy to knock the gloss off with some 400 grit.

Plugged in: first thing I noticed is the outer winding on the B string is loose, causing it to make some really weird ghost overtones. Replaced it, B string cured.

With everything set flat on the bass, MB-Fusion (flat, tube channel)>Audio-Kenesis TC112...initial impression: "too modern for me" in that it felt kinda scooped. Swapping the TC112 for a GK Neo112II cured that right up; the GK cab is a little more mid forward than the TC's brilliantly exectued studio monitor response.

With the three way coil tap, there's a lot of voices at hand. Dual parallel, single coil; dual series. Parallel is a little scooped and modern sounding. Single coil isn't quite as raw/skanky as say the Sadowsky or Nord single coil J's, but, it's fair enough. Dual series is beefy, yet still plenty clear, and in fact if you trim bass a hair, and boost treble a hair, it's a pretty decent "single coil plus back-fat" kinda thing.
In single coil mode, outer coils are selected...in other words, facing the fingerboard on the neck pup, and, facing the bridge on the bridge pup. I, personally, might have opted for the bridge pup to be inner coil (facing the neck) for single coil, to place it "more in a 60's J bass feel, than a 70's J bass feel," but, simply rolling in a hair more bass boost approximates that feel decently.

If you're a pick player-and I'm not, I'm a pick hack-having opted for passive tone would have been wise as this bass remains plenty bright with a pick even with the treble control rolled shut.

This bass thru M9>EpiUL410 is just pretty stunning. A big, meaty, clean kick in the gut.

All in all, plays great, sounds great, folks at rehearsal last night liked it...it'll be interesting to see if it finds a permanent place in my toolbox somewhere.

Oh: the matte finish on the tuners feels weird when all you've ever had in your life was chrome.

All for now!



Chef said:
Valenti611.jpg
Click to expand...
 
#979
Chef said:
Outta the box, pretty clear that ElMon and I like different setups.
Not a surprise, really. For whatever reason, seems like many folks who play high-end-y basses like Really Low Action.

I don't;) I set my string height with 1/16 between bottom of the string and top of the fret, whilst fretting first position. I think this equates to "solidly middlin',", but, your interpretation of that may differ. If I go lower than that, I start beating the strings into the end of the fingerboard, and making all kinds of hideous noise; probably because I'm a ham-fisted double basser some of the time.

So, setup was as easy as just raising all the saddles ~1 turn on the adjusters. Minimal, really. Check the intonation; wasn't off much, but, was off a tad. Also easy; hipshot bridges are just like that: good stuff and easy to tweak. The A-series are also adjustable for string width; I may yet tuck the G and B strings inboard just a hair, but, as everything lines up with the pickup poles, I'll leave it for now.

She was kinda dirty, so, I then pulled the strings, cleaned the fingerboard and body. It wasn't heavy duty scrunge, it all came right off.

Strung back up and played acoustically, she rings right out.
This bass-or at least the neck-is Callowhill, and the profile is a tad deeper than my #46, which is a super-fast flat C shape, and I love it. I don't mind the extra depth on this, and it certainly isn't a "P" neck, but, it's not what I was expecting. PLays great, no issue with it, just not what I thought I'd get.
Also, the finish on the neck is flat/non-gloss at the headstock, and shiny over most of 'the money positions," leaving me wonder if it's nitro...nitro does that over time. Super easy to knock the gloss off with some 400 grit.

Plugged in: first thing I noticed is the outer winding on the B string is loose, causing it to make some really weird ghost overtones. Replaced it, B string cured.

With everything set flat on the bass, MB-Fusion (flat, tube channel)>Audio-Kenesis TC112...initial impression: "too modern for me" in that it felt kinda scooped. Swapping the TC112 for a GK Neo112II cured that right up; the GK cab is a little more mid forward than the TC's brilliantly exectued studio monitor response.

With the three way coil tap, there's a lot of voices at hand. Dual parallel, single coil; dual series. Parallel is a little scooped and modern sounding. Single coil isn't quite as raw/skanky as say the Sadowsky or Nord single coil J's, but, it's fair enough. Dual series is beefy, yet still plenty clear, and in fact if you trim bass a hair, and boost treble a hair, it's a pretty decent "single coil plus back-fat" kinda thing.
In single coil mode, outer coils are selected...in other words, facing the fingerboard on the neck pup, and, facing the bridge on the bridge pup. I, personally, might have opted for the bridge pup to be inner coil (facing the neck) for single coil, to place it "more in a 60's J bass feel, than a 70's J bass feel," but, simply rolling in a hair more bass boost approximates that feel decently.

If you're a pick player-and I'm not, I'm a pick hack-having opted for passive tone would have been wise as this bass remains plenty bright with a pick even with the treble control rolled shut.

This bass thru M9>EpiUL410 is just pretty stunning. A big, meaty, clean kick in the gut.

All in all, plays great, sounds great, folks at rehearsal last night liked it...it'll be interesting to see if it finds a permanent place in my toolbox somewhere.

Oh: the matte finish on the tuners feels weird when all you've ever had in your life was chrome.

All for now!
Click to expand...

This bass was originally mine. I can confirm that yes, the neck IS Callowhill (Nino and Tim teamed up on this bass) refretted and retrued by Roger Sadowsky, and that the finish on the back of the neck is satin nitro. I can't speak to the dirt and grime, as this bass hasn't been mine for a long time!
 
#980
It took all of about 60 seconds to mask off the body and the headstock, and then knock the shine off the back of the neck with a scotchbrite pad.

Back to satin finish:)
 
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