[CAUT] SAMA

[David Love]

The pianos I've sent for finishing were ok.  They do a decent job but I
wouldn't call it top of the line--of course the price is reasonable.  You
must ask for extra thick finish and if it were available I would ask for
extra extra thick finish.  Any repair work on damage and you will easily
sand through the finish if you go for the standard.  The devil is in the
details on finishing and they could use some improvement there.
Communication can be difficult.  They do get back to you but not always in a
timely manner.  Several phone calls are often required.  Salvatore does a
good job trying to stay on top of things and is very pleasant to work with.
Transportation to and from can be problematic depending on the mover.  They
tend to use Keyboard Carriage and I can't recall a single one that didn't
come back with some damage.  Time frames for the work were ok but when you
tack on as much as 6 weeks additional for transportation (Keyboard's window)
then it's not that quick.  I wouldn't have them do action work if you can do
it yourself but I'm picky and weight and geometry issues are beyond the
scope of what they do--at least at the level that I'm interested in.  I've
only had one stringing job done by them on an upright that I couldn't turn
within the customer budget so I had them do it.  The work was ok but they
forgot little details like installing pressure bar felt.  If you are used to
rescaling pianos it becomes difficult as strings tend to be ordered by model
and individual string measurements or patterns are not the standard.  Work
like repining and renotching bridges is not in the routine for them so I'm
not sure how they would approach it or perform.  

Overall the costs are very good and difficult to argue with on certain types
of jobs but you get what you pay for and the overall quality is reflected in
the price.  When Guy was still there (may he rest in peace) he was really
trying to push the quality up and I believe Salvatore is committed to making
things work well.  For me personally it's not the kind of work I would like
to turn around to my customers but in some situations where there are severe
budget constraints it is an alternative to consider.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeff
Tanner
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 8:37 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] SAMA

A local dealer here and a tech friend of mine sent a Baldwin grand down 
there a couple years or so ago.  He was very happy with the results.  He did

the action work himself (I didn't think SAMA did action work at all).  I saw

the piano, but didn't go over it with a fine tooth comb.  Finish, stringing 
and plate refinishing looked very nice, especially for the price.

But I have heard from others that they've had concerns over how long the 
work took to complete and how difficult it could be to communicate with 
someone at SAMA during the process.  When they've got your piano down there 
for months at the time and you can't talk to anyone to find out the status, 
that can make one nervous.
Tanner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Coates" <tcoates1 at sio.midco.net>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 8:23 AM
Subject: [CAUT] SAMA


> Has anyone used SAMA?  Did someone take over for Guy Nichols?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tim Coates
>
>
>