Valenti No. 5 P-bass ***Makeover and New Pics Added 23/08/14***

[Sean]

Here's the Valenti #5 P Bass that has changed hands quite a bit over the years. I tried to buy this years ago from someone but was too late and someone else beat me to it but it's mine at the moment. The bass has changed too, it started life as a passive 2-knob instrument and then it had a pre-amp fitted and the socket moved to the side and now most recently it has had its neck re-sculpted and refinished. As-built the neck profile was enormous; Jon Shuker did the work on it and he commented that it was the chunkiest neck he'd ever seen. It's now 2.5 mm skinnier and it's still a good meaty Precision neck. Also, the bridge has been recessed into the body to get the action down; I got the idea from Billy Sheehan's new Attitude 3 bass and some other old Yamahas I've had. It's also had a full fret job and set up and is wearing a set of very tasty Status flat wound strings. It plays beautifully and sounds fantastic.

Update Jan 2014:

Further revisions to the spec of this great bass have now made it even better. The Aguilar OBP-1 has been removed as I'm not a fan of this particular preamp. Also I routed out a Hole for a J pickup and fitted a hot Bareknuckle J in there and it balances really nicely with the Nordstrand P.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Sean

[Chris Horton]

The blue body and maple neck look really vivid & striking together !

[ezbass]

Yummy!

[Higgie]

If you ever want to sell, hit me up

[Donnyboy]

Looks good , but a plain pick guard to me might show of the grain/colour of the body better. Do like it though, a lot.

[JimBobTTD]

Looks fantastic!

[NoirBass]

Looking good, hope you are enjoying her.

Thinning out the neck was a smart move, it was the chunkiest I'd ever played too.

[Lee-Man]

It was mine once! The neck was massive, biggest 4 I have ever played. Good work on getting it re-contoured.

[Sean]

[quote name='Donnyboy' timestamp='1358724413' post='1944229']
Looks good , but a plain pick guard to me might show of the grain/colour of the body better. Do like it though, a lot.
[/quote]
I was choosing pickguard material last weekend! Black didn't come out on top but I'll wait til it's done before saying. It's being done on 2nd Apriil.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Sean

[Sean]

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[url="http://s77.photobucket.com/user/PhoneyPoney/media/DSC_0001_zps303cb1e0.jpg.html"][/url]

[url="http://s77.photobucket.com/user/PhoneyPoney/media/DSC_0006_zps64fe7c9f.jpg.html"][/url]

The battery cover, which is now redundant because it's all passive, has been replaced by a standard black one rather than the original black pearl which never looked right. I think it's finally the bass that it wanted to be. The parchment pickguard certainly brings out the wood grain and makes the blue look much brighter. I absolutely love this instrument, it's light and very musical and has a real character to it that few basses I've ever owned have got. It sounds exactly like a good P bass should, I keep it strung with Status flats and when it's played through the 400+ and BT2, it's absolute bass bliss.


Spec as of today:
[list]
[*]Originally built 2004
[*]Maple neck (reprofiled by Jon Shuker and refinished in Satin 2013)
[*]Maple fingerboard
[*]One piece swamp ash body
[*]Gotoh bridge recessed into body (another Shuker mod 2013)
[*]Nordstrand NP4
[*]Bareknuckle J pickup (very hot, spec unknown) - routed by me* 2013
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Swamp Ash Body (one piece!)[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Transparent Blue Finish[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Controls: [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Volume, Volume, Tone. [/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Hipshot HB-1 Tuning Keys[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Hipshot D-tuner[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Gotoh Quick Release Bridge[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Black battery cover added by me 2013[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Allparts 3-ply parchment pickguard added 2014[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]44mm or 1.75"[/font][/color]
[*][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Weight: <8lbs (it's the lightest bass I own by a noticeable amount)[/font][/color]
[/list]
[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]You can see the original entry on the old Valenti blog [/color][/font][url="http://valentibasses5.blogspot.co.uk/"]here [/url][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828] and you'll see it was originally bought by another BCer back in the day. It's certainly sporting a different pickup in those photos, the pole pieces look much bigger than the Nordy's. It changed hands a load of times on BC and I believe that was mainly down to the neck profile and pre-amp. [/color][/font]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]* - [/font][/color]under supervision from JS ;-)

Edited August 24, 2014 by Sean

[JimBobTTD]

I liked it before, but it looks significantly better now. It's amazing what a scratchplate can do. Well done!