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Topic: Everything OK with Jay at Paloma Stone Slides? |
Bob Kagy
From:
Lafayette, CO USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2012 10:23 am |
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Anyone have the latest on his business?
Thanks, bk |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Bob Kagy
From:
Lafayette, CO USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2012 1:12 pm
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| Just by e-mail Brad. I didn't want to bother him if he's just very busy, but I got worried about him having seen the May post on health issues and the wildfires up in his vicinity, but not knowing how close they might have been. |
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Ron Victoria
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2012 2:27 pm
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he replied to my email several weeks ago.
ron |
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Dick Chapple Sr
From:
Hardin Montana, USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2012 10:23 pm Jays Paloma slides
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I hope all is okay. I sent him an order last week but no reply. I really like his slides.
I guess I should try to contact Jay again.
Dick |
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Robert Allen
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 4 Oct 2012 5:17 am
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| I received another order for four slides last week. He said the Paloma Slide business has been very busy. |
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 4 Oct 2012 10:48 am
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| Robert Allen wrote: |
| I received another order for four slides last week. He said the Paloma Slide business has been very busy. |
What a racket... create a breakable bar!
Actually, I love my Palomas... they are less slippery than a chrome bar for several reasons, the big one being that they're lighter, making them easier to hang onto. And for phosphor-bronze Dobro strings the effect is synergetic... just a little extra grindy really brings the 'zing' out.
And I've only broken one... and it broke on the second bounce. Just don't drop them on concrete. Also, buy plenty, they're cheap (20$), and keep another handy just in case. I bought four in Dallas, I'll probably buy another four next Jamboree.
_________________
New FB Page: Lap Steel Licks And Stuff: https://www.facebook.com/groups/195394851800329 |
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Robert Allen
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 4 Oct 2012 12:39 pm
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| Hey, why not, they make breakable strings and picks and we still buy them. My customers ask for them so I ship a Paloma slide with each lap steel when I have them in stock. Otherwise I ship whatever is here in the store. I don't use a Paloma Slide myself. I use a custom slide made by Gary Swallows of Monterey, TN. After 60 years of playing with a heavy bar I just can't seem to get used to the lighter feel of the Paloma. But my customers love the Paloma. |
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Jay Seibert
From:
Woodland, WA, USA
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Posted 5 Oct 2012 8:31 am
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Thanks to all for your concern about my "where-abouts"! This past summer has been my toughest yet. While my health has improved somewhat since May, I am really only able to work about 4 to 5 hours a day and then I am wiped out. UGHHH! Now if all I was doing was making Paloma Stone Slides, then the situation wouldn't be all that difficult... perhaps even manageable.
But I have a full time responsibility I need to deal with in my wife's and my pottery business, Clay Rabbit Pottery, which we have operated for over 25 years. There are only two of us who make the pottery and it is the main driver of our income. Many of you know that in the summer, we travel extensively, showing our pottery at upscale art fairs all over the west coast. There seems to never be enough hours in the day, or days in the week to get everything done as quickly as we would like.
This often results in my delivery time for tone bars and slides being negatively impacted. I must always keep my priorities in the proper perspective. To this end, I have significantly changed my "processes" in making Paloma products. Yes, they are all still made by hand by only me, but after a few years of doing this, I continue to learn ways to refine and improve my processes, allowing me to make more in less time, with fewer ceramic issue rejects. My current loss rate is about 11% now. A final firing temp at 2400 degrees can be brutal if all is not perfectly executed.
I am also learning which items are most ordered so it has become easier to anticipate orders and have a small stock of tone bars and slides in various stages of completion to help cut my delivery time for customers. This is why I can deliver some items faster than others. I currently offer 64 different Paloma choices for the player!
And the final issue is that Paloma Stone Slides continues to grow as a business. In August, I received an order for 247 slides from Sam Ash Music stores! Very cool! But it put a delay on several orders that came in after Sam Ash. It takes time to make these... the wet clay needs to be formed, dried (3 to 4 days), detailed, fired (48 hours), re-detailed, glazed, and then fired (48 hours) again! This is not like making a metal bar on a lathe! 
A few players have suggested adding employees to help with the load. All I can say is as a small business in this country, with current economic issues, hiring another worker is simply too expensive and riddled with to much regulation to be worth the expense and effort.
I am so thankful that Paloma products are used and appreciated by so many fine players all over the world. It makes all the effort so worthwhile. I am planning to again attend the Jamboree in Dallas this coming winter and look forward to seeing again the friends I have made and making new ones.
Again, thanks so much for your continued support!
Cheers,
Jay
_________________
www.stoneslides.com is my Paloma Tone Bar and Bottleneck Slide web site
www.clayrabbit.com is my Pottery web site |
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L. Bogue Sandberg
From:
Chassell, Michigan, USA
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Posted 5 Oct 2012 12:23 pm
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I just got the bar I ordered. Tore the box open and headed directly for the guitar. My first impressions are very favorable. The lighter weight takes some getting use to, but the more comfortable I get with it the more I like it.
Being married to a work-alone machine quilter, I know the struggles Jay and other small craftsmen and women face everyday. The red tape alone is enough to make a lot of folks give up. I am thankful there are people whose creative spirit drives them to persevere.
Bogue |
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Bob Kagy
From:
Lafayette, CO USA
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Posted 5 Oct 2012 12:40 pm
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Jay, thanks so much for taking the time to tell us where things are with you. Take the rest you need, grow stronger and be well.
Best wishes, Bob |
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