reconstruir - Mexico OLD THREAD

[Piano Services Tech Dept]

We are aware of the Mexican rebuilding facility and have had the opportunity
to see their work. In fact their service has been offered to us by one piano
wholesaler in particular. For $3000-4000 they will scrape,shim, and refinish
the soundboard and bridges. They will restring and replace the pin block and
refinish the case. They will also replace the hammers and shanks with Renner
parts. Not a bad price if you don't rebuild your own pianos. The factory
they purchased for this is the Baldwin factory in Juarez, Mex. It was
started, I believe by one of the main Techs for Baldwin who struck out on
his own with help from an other main Tech from another company. I don't know
if that was part of the sales pitch or not but I personally saw about 75
pianos from this facility at a piano wholesalers warehouse and the work
cosmetically looked pretty good, but I didn't get to get my hands into them.
We rebuild pianos from uprights to art case pianos so we were not overly
excited but I can see how some dealers could be. Oh well, to each his own.

Ed Mashburn, RPT

----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin E. Ramsey RPT <ramsey@extremezone.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: reconstruir - Mexico OLD THREAD


    I'm a tech who regularly works on pianos that come from SAMA. Our
dealership, of whom I am one of the full-time staff technicians, has sent
piano's down there to be rebuilt. One thing that I have a complaint with on
these piano's is their damper work. Without fail, the dampers are all the
way down on the end of the keys. Damper timing is zero. It won't damp. After
resetting all the dampers, alot of the time they still won't damp because of
bad felt work. Damper wires bent every which way. That's just one complaint.
    To be fair, the re-stringing jobs look good, I don't know how they do
that so reasonably, but to say that deal prep is minimal is a joke.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nichols <nicho@lascruces.com>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Cc: rrg@nevada.edu <rrg@nevada.edu>
Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: reconstruir - Mexico OLD THREAD


>At 08:51 AM 5/9/00 -0700, you wrote:
>>I have been asked by a dealer about a company that is apparently
>>rebuilding pianos in Mexico.  You send them the piano, and using
>>cheap Mexian labor they will completely rebuild the instrument
>>and then return it at a "bargain" rate.
>>
>>Does anyone know about this?  More importantly, what is the
>>quality of these rebuilds?  What type of action parts, hammers,
>>and felt are they using?  Are they doing soundboards, bridges,
>>and pin blocks?
>>
>>Rob Goodale, RPT
>>Las Vegas, NV
>>
>
>Rob and list,
> You may know that I was somewhat "off-line" for a while, and I'm now
>catching-up. This thread is kind of old, but I'm compelled to answer a few
>of your concerns.
> SAMA piano is indeed a "going" concern, with the backgrounds of several
>techs and business people. There have been some amazing hurdles overcome by
>all, and the plant is producing very nicely remanufactured instruments at a
>good rate. The volume capabilities are un-matched.
> In the beginning, there were many "junkers" sent to SAMA for rebuild, and
>as it's been said in one response, some units that shouldn't have been
>rebuilt, period. The initial major contractor set limits and terms that are
>no longer acceptable. So.... the quality of work is as good as it gets,
>over all, and dealer prep time should be minimal.
> The web pages you are looking for are hosted by "jobbers", not the plant.
>You may contact me or Señor Salvador Ortiz (associate member, PTG) for
>further info.
>
>I'm at:
> 505-642-8640
>Salvador is at 915-845-5755 (eves)
>
>Guy Nichols, RPT
>nicho@lascruces.com
>