What's up with these Polish rebuilds at U.S. dealers?

[Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano]

Paul,

SAMA and several companies stemming from Poland and Eastern Europe are our COSTCOs of rebuilding. The only difference is that while the COSTCO or wholesaler model works great for selling stuff like juice boxes and diapers in bulk, it yields some very interesting results with piano restoration.
 
Jude Reveley, RPT
Absolute Piano Restoration, LLC
Lowell, Massachusetts
(978) 323-4545
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: paul bruesch 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 7:20 PM
  Subject: Re: What's up with these Polish rebuilds at U.S. dealers?


  For the benefit of the clueless and uninitiated (e.g. me), could someone please provide a definition for "Polish rebuild" and "Mexican Sama job"??

  Paul Bruesch
  Stillwater, MN


  On 7/15/07, Erwinspiano at aol.com <Erwinspiano at aol.com> wrote:
      Hi Gene
      I've seen many of these.  It's one step up from the Mexican Sama job.  They don't replace boards in Europe routinely.....re crown them sometimes but rarely replace from what I've heard on this list. Shim it yes, many many shims
      The thing is...... Dealers are business folks not usually Artisans & some people will... just like trout .......go for shiny sparkly rather than the real deal.
      If a dealer gets the price of new M for trash like this then in my book, that's fraudulent, or maybe just an excellent rip off artist with a great line. same thing

      In this case the client swallowed hook,line & sinker.  How truly unfortunate.
       INMO it would be better for these kinds of dealers to go do something like sell refrigerators or ice to Eskimos.
      Moral of story. Don't work for this type of retailer

      Rant over...done...for now... maybe
      Dale
      I had only one experience.
      1918 SSM
      First impression was confusing - nice high gloss poly with beautiful 
      matching veneer inner rim, music desk and fallboard - this and the Steinway 
      name threw the first curve. New action to include frame and keys. However, 
      glides were omitted and the sostenuto monkey guide as well.
      Action was not even close to being balanced at over 70 grams down and less 
      than 19 up.
      Back action was original and I replaced it. The lift lever tray was badly 
      warped and they had gone to great pains to make the dampers work ok.
      Sound board appeared new but on closer inspection it had been stripped, 
      bleached and refinished very carefully - it was dead.
      Many case parts did not fit well because of the extra thick finish.
      The una chorda stop on the cheek block was missing.
      All trap levers were new.
      The action was not regulated very well and a few samples showed over 10.5mm 
      dip - customer did not want me to do any regulation.
      It was the shiny kind of thing that trout like people go for.
      The rebuilder did not include a disclaimer.
      The customer paid about the same price as for a new SSM.
      As I was working for the retailer it was a difficult situation.
      I will avoid them in the future.
      Gene Nelson







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