page_title: Nick Valensi
section_title: Instruments and influences
hierarchical_section_title: Nick Valensi / Instruments and influences
caption_attribution_description: English: Nick Valensi at 2 Dollar Bill
context_page_description: Nicholas Valensi is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and session musician. He is most famous for his role as lead and rhythm guitarist, as well as occasional backing vocalist and Mellotron player, in the American rock band the Strokes. Valensi has also worked as a songwriter and session guitarist with various artists, including Sia, Blondie, Brody Dalle, Regina Spektor and Kate Pierson. In 2013, he founded side-project CRX, for which he acts as singer, songwriter and lead and rhythm guitarist. Their debut album, New Skin, was released on October 28, 2016.
context_section_description: Valensi's main guitar, which he uses for nearly every live show and recorded song, is a 1990s Epiphone Riviera with Gibson P-94 pick-ups, which was given to him by friend and fellow Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. In a 2004 interview with Epiphone, he called it "the greatest guitar never made" because Gibson had never produced a semi-hollow with humbucker-sized P-94 pickups.  He has several models in different colours (all with P-94s), including multiple naturals, one in vintage sunburst, one in red, and a 12-string elite in red.  In 2005, Epiphone released a signature model of his guitar, the Elitist Nick Valensi Riviera P-94, and followed it up with a standard model Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 in 2007. Back-up/warm-up guitars include an Epiphone Dot fitted with 2 P-94s, an Epiphone Casino, an Epiphone Sheraton, and a Gibson Faded Special Double Cutaway with 2 P-90s. Valensi often borrows fellow Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s backup guitars, which include a Gibson Les Paul Jr. and a Les Paul Special.  New guitars used for the First Impressions of Earth tour include a Les Paul Custom in black, a Fender Telecaster Custom (which he can be seen using in the music video for Under Cover of Darkness ), and a Duesenberg semi-hollow.  Valensi's main amplifier is a 2x12" Fender Hot Rod DeVille, used with Fender 4x12" extension cabinets during live shows.  He also recently purchased a Carr amplifier to use on the last few stops of the First Impressions tour.  His pedalboard consists of a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive pedal, Boss TR-2 Tremolo, Vox Cooltron Bulldog Distortion, MXR Micro Amp (2) and a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner. He has also been seen with an Electro Harmonix Memory Man and a Boss Blues Driver.
  His recent pedalboard consists of a Fulltone GT-500 Distortion/Booster, a Korg Pitchblack Tuner, A Visual Sound Visual Volume Pedal, a Visual Sound Double Trouble dual overdrive, a Maxon Distortion Master, an Electro-Harmonix XO Holy Grail Reverb, an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, and an MXR Micro Amp Boost. He uses a Fender Super-Sonic 100-watt head into two Fender 2x12" cabinets.
  He cites his influences as The Velvet Underground, The Cars, George Harrison, Slash, Bob Marley, and Blondie.
caption: Valensi in 2002
exif: {}