Palatino 500 Electric Upright Reviews 
1 / 5 based on 1 reviewsThis is a fiddle-shaped electric upright that sells for about $650 [year 2010, USA dollars]
I play mainly in a duo, with Ms Diva on KB.
I got it used from Bass NW in almost mint condition for about $450.
Sound, shape, price.
It actually fell apart.
I know other players of this ax who have had no problems and like it as much as I used to like it, but mine has self-destructed.
When the neck joint opened up, I thought I would just reglue and clamp it, but it wasn't simply the neck joint that let go. It was something deeper inside the body.
The body is built up of numerous pieces of wood, to create hollow chambers, and it seems one of the pieces 'went crazy', or warped horribly.
The neck is still solidly glued to whatever piece it's supposed to be glued to, but that piece seems to have twisted or expanded (?!?!?!) and I cannot move the neck back into place to be reglued. The bottom of the body is also delaminating, being pushed outward by something inside the body.
This bass has never suffered impact nor poor storage. Over a dozen other basses are in the same room, all kinds, hollow, solid,
and even a regular 'doghouse' upright bass. All these other basses are fine. This room has been my music room for 10 yrs.
As I mentioned, I know other players who are happy with their Palatino 500 EUBs -- and I used to be happy with it as well. It's the least expensive full size EUB on the market, and you have an excellent chance of getting a good one .... but I felt I ought to report what CAN happen.
I would HUGELY recommend you spend the extra $200 for a Ned Steinberger [NSD company] basic model EUB, his 'WAV' bass. I had a minor problem with one of the very first WAVs, and they treated me like royalty. NSD paid for priority shipping BOTH ways and fixed it in 48 hours. They even added an upgrade that early versions like mine did not originally include !
Palatino OTOH is just another faceless importer with no customer service connections. Ned Steinberger is ... well, you can look him up. He's real. He's been building basses for 30 yrs, and he takes proper care of his customers.
Golem rated this unit
on
2010-01-26.
