SAMA PIANO

[Nichols]

Greg,
         Yes, I work with SAMA, you got that part right. As for the 
rest.... whew! I'm blushing a bit, here. I really appreciate your kind 
words, and was happy to meet you at TSA. Glad you enjoyed the class, but... 
really! It wasn't THAT amazing. Thanks anyway, hope you got something 
useful from the class.

         Gary, the SAMA plant is a joint-venture operation based in El 
Paso, with the plant in Juarez, Mexico. NAFTA at work. The boss is Salvador 
Ortiz, who a lot of techs know from his years (29) at Baldwin. The plant is 
currently remanufacturing about one grand piano a day, at a real reasonable 
rate. The Illinois address is the marketing and traffic office, Mr. John 
McGuire. He's the one to talk with, but I'm happy to answer questions, 
etc., as you might need. We also encourage visits to the plant. There is a 
web page, listed on your post card. SAMA does no retail, and can do 
complete or just belly or whatever. Dealers and techs are their customers. 
Round-trip freight of $400. anywhere USA makes it pretty economical.
         Buzz me if I can be of further assistance.

Regards,
Guy Nichols, RPT
nicho@cybermesa.com
505-642-8640



At 10:23 PM 11/8/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Gary,
>I met Guy Nichols (Las Cruces, NM) at the Texas State Association 2001 PTG 
>Seminar in October. I believe he works for SAMA. He held a grand piano 
>action handling mini-tech class, and it was excellent. He showed us this 
>thing they do with an aluminum doorstop threshold to handle grand hammers 
>and to lubricate bushings and centerpins. It was amazing!
>He discussed the economy of motion they try to use in their rebuilding 
>shops to make them more efficient, which saves them time and saves their 
>customers $$$, while doing a very complete job. Although I cannot 
>personally vouch for the quality of their finished product because I 
>haven't seen one of SAMA's rebuilds, but if Guy Nichols is typical of 
>their techs, then I would submit that SAMA would be worth considering. 
>(Look him up in the PTG Directory)
>
>Greg Boles
>Denham Springs, LA