[CAUT] SAMA rebuilding (Juarez)

[Nichols]

Chris,
      You've made a real valid point. I've seen similar stuff happen to 
jeeps and big steel (Mopar, mainly). Just can't seem to find a decent 250 
buck shell anymore!
      Most of the year, though..... you can walk across the Rio 
not-so-Grande. We've had rain, though, for the first time in over five 
years, you might have to wade! <G> Problem, of course, is the 
Gestapo.(Border Patrol) Like their ad says, "Borders, but no Boundaries." 
Ignore you rights, and they'll go away................
         To stay just a tad technical and informative, what really happens 
is the instruments come in to a customs brokerage warehouse in El Paso. We 
then deal with the bureaucracy and NAFTA and truck them across. Coming back 
can be... interesting. They still do weird stuff like checking keytops for 
new ivory, sometimes. (customs, not Gestapo) Got nothing better to do, I guess.
         As far as shell prices, and the market, well.... I still think it 
beats seeing them turn to dust for lack of 25 grand. We can't control 
dealer pricing, BUT.... the retail price of the basic package is on the web 
site for "end users" to discover, and decide if they are being fleeced. 
Most dealers don't tell the customer that they had the piano done in 
Juarez, unless it's a dealer that has had a lot of nice instruments come 
through, or has another not-so-stellar shop in the area. I've seen some 
.... uh.... amazing ....work, also. <G>Of course, all the other work and 
final prep can come at a premium, from the dealers. Hence, their seemingly 
high markup. We are, by the way, successfully pushing more board 
replacements. It's not easy to get the dealers to spend the bucks if 
there's crown.

ANYway.....
Thanks, and have a great holiday,
Guy
And yes, I'll vote early and often.......

At 06:33 PM 9/2/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>AND HERE is the real issue and the rub to boot. As a result of SAMAs pretty
>good work and extremely reasonable price, dealers are buying up shells,
>particularly Steinways, at higher and higher prices, as the competition
>increases, and getting the factory floor version and doubling and tripling
>their money. All of which makes it very difficult and more expensive for the
>speculating technician/rebuilder to find and acquire shells, hence the
>backlash. If there is any fleecing going on, it is at the dealers and
>perhaps in the decision to not replace soundboards older than fifty years (I
>know, some would say 60 and some would say 40...). As for SAMA and Guy they
>are both quite reputable and the work I have seen is not bad so we shouldn't
>really pick on them. There are also European and Asian versions of this
>"cheap across the border" trick. I don't know if anything can be done to
>reverse this trend. For now, we all have to get to the shell quicker and pay
>more and raise our prices, or stop speculating. This is not Guy or SAMAs
>fault, they are operating legally and ethically, just across the border. One
>question I do have in all this is, Are they floating these pianos across the
>Rio Grande wrapped in sealed plastic or do they use trucks, rail, planes or
>what? Because the idea that more money could be saved by floating the pianos
>across the river is very funny, or at least, alittle politically ironic
>today. N'est pas?
>  Don't forget to VOTE.
>  Chris Solliday
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm@unm.edu>
>To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 9:10 PM
>Subject: [CAUT] SAMA rebuilding (Juarez)
>
>
> > I deleted the recent posts on this subject (Dale Erwin initiated I
> > believe, and Guy Nichols), so I don't have the thread name right, but I'd
> > like to offer a few comments. I have seen pianos rebuilt by SAMA, and I
>can
> > state with utter assurance that they bore no resemblance whatsoever to
>what
> > Dale described (with possible exception of the finish). I'm not going to
> > say that SAMA is in the top 10% of piano rebuilders in the country for
> > quality, but it is definitely in the top half. Workmanship is basically of
> > "factory floor" quality - needs tweaking in the final "finish booth" or at
> > the dealer, but definitely in the ball park.
> > It should be understood that SAMA does a lot of refinishing, but
> > relatively little action work. The "basic package" includes case refinish,
> > soundboard shim and refinish, plate re-gild, new block and restring, all
> > for under $4000. They also do case refinish alone at a very competitive
> > price. Shipping via piano specialist mover is probably $500 or so round
> > trip. So lots of dealers are taking advantage.
> > I suspect that lots of shady dealers just send for the refinish, and do
> > their own shoddy work on the rest. We all know there are a lot of awful
> > characters out there, fleecing the public and running down our profession.
> > SAMA is not one of them.
> > Regards,
> > Fred Sturm
> > University of New Mexico
> > _______________________________________________
> > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> >
> >
>
>
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