The Valenti M21-J5 Custom Series

Details

Nino bases his builds off of five base models: the Modern 21F J (21-fret Jazz-style), the Modern 24F J, the Modern 24F P, the Traditional 21F J, and the Traditional 21F P. Each one of those can also be built as either a Verrazzano or Custom Series. What we have here today is a Custom Series Modern 21F J 5-string, or “M21-J5” for short, build number 294. The Modern body shape is characterized by a “downsized J body with an extended treble cutaway for easy access to the upper register, and a sharper 3/8″ body edge radius.”

This bass has a swamp ash body with a natural gloss finish, a graphite-reinforced maple neck with a 21-fret maple fretboard and a spoke-wheel adjuster (I love these). The neck has 6230 vintage wire nickel frets, which are slightly smaller than average (and which are generally used to improve intonation). The nut width is 1-7/8″. It has Nordstrand “Big Single” pickups, a by-passable Nordstrand 2B preamp via a push/pull “vintage tone control” (VTC), also known as a passive tone control. The VTC is available in both passive and active modes (I only bring this up because there are basses out there where the passive tone control is only available in passive mode). It has black Hipshot hardware, including a KickAss™ bridge with 18mm spacing. The Hipshot tuners are from their Ultralite® series. It came with the Gator Cases™ Pro-Go gig bag, though a Gator molded hard-shell case with TSA compliant locks is also available. It also has my favorite Dunlop® Dual Design Straplocks.

The Control layout is volume, blend, passive tone (w/ preamp bypass push/pull), and treble/bass stack.

Fit and finish

Nino commonly uses Pat Wilkins for his finishes – Pat is very well known in the industry for producing finishes at the highest quality level. This particular review bass, however, was finished by Reyes Painting, who is also highly reputable. He also switched parts vendors fairly early on, resulting in an improvement in both quality and playability, the most notable of which is probably the neck profile. The new/current neck profile is more slender than the earlier models. The neck pocket fitment is excellent, if not perfect. The fretwork is absolutely superior, with a nicely rolled fingerboard edge. The body has some interesting contours and a fairly unique sculpting that blends into the tapering neck heel. All the routes are clean, the hardware operates smoothly and perfectly. Looking inside, the electronics cavity is nicely shielded with paint, and the wiring job is extremely neat and clean, using the well-known star ground configuration based off of a common lug … among the very best wiring jobs I’ve ever seen. In short, I can’t find anything to complain or even nit-pick about this bass. Everything is on-point, commensurate with a bass in its class and target market.

On the gig

This bass weighs in at 8.9 pounds, which is right in my preferred weight range for a 5-string bass, and relatively light for an ash-body 5-string. That’s particularly note-worthy, as lightweight ash is getting harder to get as time passes (look up the ash borer beetle, if you’re not familiar). The neck profile is a joy to play. Nino has done his homework on what makes a bass neck feel great in the hand, and notably, the 18mm string spacing, combined with his neck width, allows for that nicely rolled edge to be far enough away from the strings, so there’s no risk of accidental “pull-off.” The neck heel’s corners are still fairly squared off, but it’s thin enough that in the higher registers, you don’t notice it at all. As a J-style instrument, it also hangs on the neck in a familiar comfortable way, so no complaints there. The hardware operates smoothly and perfectly, and the bass takes an excellent setup easily.

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Carey Nordstrand’s work, so I love the 2b preamp and the Big Single pickups. They offer a broad spectrum of tones due to the fat sound of these single coils, plus their inherent single-sensing tonal focus, and Nino’s pickup spacing. The bridge pickup has bite, clarity, and focus for days, while the neck pickup is fat, woody, earthy, and pure. Ironically, I rarely found it necessary to use the preamp, and especially with the mid presence of these pickups, I don’t miss that third band, either. Just as with other fine basses I’ve played where they just sound great “out of the box/flat,” I bumped the bass just a touch when soloing/favoring the bridge, and I used the VTC a lot, but not much else. I know, broken record, but from my perspective, that’s a very good thing. I’ve never been a fan of trying to use a preamp to improve a sound that’s inherently lacking. Also, even though I play a fairly broad range of music styles, I got most of my tonal needs just using the blend control with the tweaks I just mentioned.

The Bottom Line