Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

John, a friend of mine traded for an NS at a Dallas Guitar Show about a year ago. It was the best the ever sounded. The action is not quite as high as an upright. A lot easier to play. He also bought it for a super deal, about $2000. It seems you can pick them up occasionally on ebay in the $2400 range.

John, the Palatino is a decent bass but it needs some tweaking to sound good. I have a friend who has one and had to shim the bridge w/rubber or something and then it sounded good. I guess there's a bunch of tweaks you can do to it. I'll ask him.
I've played it and liked it.

Thanks Bill, let me know.

Nothing sounds like an upright, they have thump that no other bass has, a good one is almost like hitting a bass drum when you pluck it and talk about growl. They cost about 200 bucks to ship at least from Golliher's place, he has a shipping indicator on his sight. Uptonbass sets them up really nicely though that's why they cost more there. They are a very satisfying instrument to play, very hard physically but once you get your strength and learn how to get a good sound and get stamina there's nothing like them. People love them too, hey what's that, a Cello? I've heard that about a thousand times. When I play mine it is the only time I get more people watching me than the guitar player.
If I get another one I'll get a blonde Engleheardt, they took over the old Kay factory and are supposed to be making some nice basses.
There are some piezo pickups now that are very natural sounding and don't feedback unless you are really blasting.

Yeah, Jason you stole that one.

Thanks guys, but unfortunately the bass does need a little work. The neck joint is separating from the back of the body pretty significantly. I leave it detuned just to avoid breaking in the middle of the night. I'd like to get it fixed but I can't fit it in my car and don't really know who I should take it to anyway. I can barely find a decent GUITAR repair person in this town. Any ideas?

From Bob Gollihurs' site: http://www.gollihur.com/kkbass/luthiers.html

FL, Tampa, Port's Music, 813-971-1510, 813-971-6380 fax
repairs, instruments, bows

I agree w/Bob. Call me old fashioned, but as much as they've improved, I've yet to find an EUB that can match the richness, power, and complexity of tone which can be produced with a high quality acoustic upright. I have played the NS and the Azola Bug Bass...both fine sounding instruments, but essentially large fretless electrics...nothing like the real thing.

Another thing I miss is the freedom of movement (due to the fact that the stick basses are usually held on a stand), and the feeling of balancing the upper and lower bouts of the bass against the body while playing. I found both EUBs very difficult to play (especially arco) for these reasons.

I will add though, that a good EUB could be a wonderful thing for traveling! This Kolstien travel bass looks interesting.
http://www.kolstein.com/Merchant2/merch ... _Code=bass

Try doing this with one of those EUBs.

...what I'm talking about!

I love this Forum. Awesome, gang. Thanks! -J

Check out The Amazing Royal Crowns, their former bass player who is an unbelievable punk a billy slapper now does the set up at Uptonbass. Jack Hanlon AKA Jack the Swinger. I think they have a demo of him playing at the site, nope can't find it, it was amazing though.

Nyrkickazz1 asked about the Palatino VE500.

I bought one about 3 months ago. I'm pretty happy with it, but as Bill said, some minor changes are needed. I've done these tweaks:

- Put rubber shims above and below the pickup. I used an old bicycle innertube. The pickup is right under the bridge and easily accessible.

- Run it through a Tech21 BassDI.

- Rounded the bridge and cut new notches for the strings. This is for arco playing. The string spacing was very narrow at 3/4". I cut new notches with a needle file so I have 1" spacing.

- New strings - I tried Helicore Hybrids, but for arco they have a scratchy sound on this bass. I switched to Obligatos, which work well for arco and pizzicato.

- Mounted it on a cymbal stand. This puts the bass in a fixed position for storage and playing.

I think that covers it. I got it for $630 from BassNW. I think someone has an Ebay store with a better deal. The strings were $127 shipped from Lemur music, and the cymbal stand was $30 from GC.

I am happy with it, and would use it on gigs, but haven't yet. Unfortunately, it makes you want a real bass, so you might was well start saving now. No matter how much you pay for an EUB, you won't find one that gives you the same sound and feel as the real thing.

There's a lot of discussion about the Palatino on t**kbass:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221493
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=237985

I guess this is a good a place as any to ask about this..................As some of you know, I bought a Martin B1e recently, but I am uninformed about electronics and such, and I have been playing my 4001 through my Peavy Classic. Well, I saw an ad in the paper last weekend for some flute, clarinets, PA's etc so I went to see what they had. The horns weren't anything I wanted, but I got a great Yamaha PA and I asked if he had any bass amps. Now, he is a sax player so why would he have one? He said that he had bought one called an Acoustic Image Contra, because it is small and light, but it was too dark for his sax, really and I determined that he is an equipment junkie, so I told him, that duh, I have never heard of it, but what the heck? He said it was THE acoustic bass amp. The money was in my pocket ( a lot, it seemed) so I got it. OMG< this thing is awesome!!
http://www.acousticimg.com/testimonials.html
Have any of you tried it? Actually, the electric bass sounds great, too , but it has no effects, and it isn't REALLY loud, so I don['t know who all would like it, but it faithfully reproduces your sound like no other!

I've never heard one either but a lot of upright jazz players like them. They're sold on sites like the two above.

The contras go for just under $1000 new.

I've been shopping for a small combo, and that is on my list, along with the Eden CX110.