Inventronics-Paul Sanderson

[Avery Todd]

List,

    A very few of you know about the troubles I've had with my SAT III, 
app. 1 yr. old.
I've already sent it back to be repaired twice (and it was done and 
returned very
quickly, indeed). This past weekend during our International Piano 
Festival, it locked
up totally and no matter what buttons I pushed or in what order, it never 
came back
on again. I tuned for the last recital completely aurally (thankfully I can 
do that). :-)
    Anyway, I had a long talk with Jim Coleman and from what we were able 
to do over
the phone to get it working again (at least, temporarily), his thought was 
that it was
locking up in the midi mode and then wouldn't come back on again. For a 
couple of
days, I was able to get it to come on by pressing the midi button first and 
then the
power button. But last Sunday, even that wouldn't work. Hence, the aural 
tuning.
    The whole point of this post is to publicly thank Paul Sanderson and 
Inventronics
for being so wonderful to work with and so willing to stand behind their 
product. To
make a long story a little shorter, after talking to Paul on Monday, he 
sent me a
replacement SAT III at no further cost to me! No hesitation, no "hemming 
and hawing",
no nothing. Just "yes, I think we can do that. I should be able to get it 
to you tomorrow."
Well, it took an extra day past that :-) but I now have the replacement and 
it's working
great.
    A plug for the SAT (and probably for the Cybertuner): Thursday I found 
out that a
competition I had to tune for that happened today, could not have the grand 
they were
renting, delivered to the location until about 8:30 AM for a competition 
starting around 9 AM.
So, I had to go to the store and tune an. almost 7', Seiler grand (the one 
being rented) which
was about 11 cents sharp, and then go to the competition site and tune a 5' 
or so, Tadashi
grand to be used as the second piano for the concertos. Boy, talk about a 
"Mutt & Jeff"
situation.
    Since there was no alternative, I tuned the piano at the store with the 
SAT and then went
to the church and tuned that one with the same tuning. It actually sounded 
pretty good,
considering the difference between the FAC numbers. (I've tuned that 
particular piano a
couple of times before.(
    This afternoon, I got a call from one of the teachers who had two 
students competing (one
of whom won) and also who I'd told about the situation, and he was just 
amazed at how good
he pianos sounded together, considering I'd tuned them about 15 miles 
apart. Plus, it was
delivered the day after it had been tuned.
    So, once again, the SAT III saved by bacon, as they say. In this 
particular situation, there
was no way I could have done it aurally with any semblance of a guarantee 
they would sound
decent together.
    Wouldn't it be wonderful if all companies gave such good service and 
stood behind their
products like Inventronics does? THANK YOU, PAUL SANDERSON!!!!!
    I've been an aural tuner for app. 28 years and have done concert work 
for 18 years or so and
I love having this "tuner"!
    One comment though, for those using an SAT or any other, learn to tune 
aurally, also!!!!!! If I
couldn't have, I'd have been in deep d**d** this past Sunday!
    Please forgive the "plug" and the length of this post but I'm just very 
impressed with Paul and
Inventronics and wanted to acknowledge them publicly!

Avery