KeyB Organs Disavows DMI

[Mitch Towne]

From KeyB's Facebook page.

 

Dear customers,

 

DMI (Davis&Muller Instruments) is not fulfilling the terms of the agreements with KeyB Organ company regarding the production of KeyB products in the US and so Id like to warn potential customers that DMI is producing KeyB instruments using non-original and non-certified components in his Missouri factory, without authorization and quality control by KeyB Organ Company.

 

In these months I received mails and videos from US customers who bought KeyB products assembled by DMI having problems and noticing failures resulting from bad production line work and non-existing quality control. These customers cant contact DMI and get answers regarding these issues.

 

All this created a bad image damage to KeyB Organ and myself, since customers think I am working in DMIs factory and being in charge of production line. The last time I have been in the US was at the NAMM Show 2013 and since then I never had the chance to supervise the production that should have never started without me.For all these reasons I am working on a legal action against DMI.

 

I cannot provide any assistance and upgrades to customers who bought (or will buy) DMI products .

 

Musicians interested in KeyB Organ products must contact the KeyB Organ Company at info@keyborgan.com

 

 

Elvio Previati

KeyB Organ maker

[mate stubb]

Well, that didn't take long.

[CEB]

Yikes.

[Mitch Towne]

[video:youtube]

[davinwv]

Call me if you need a lawyer, Elvio! I am Italian-American, after all.

 

davinwv

Clonewheel Attorney ;-)

[Tonysounds]

Drag.

[davinwv]

By the way - just noticed this:

 

http://www.keyborgan.com/products/master/

 

Another dual manual controller enters the fray.

[Outkaster]

Good thing I was warned I almost bought one of the solo units. I really wanted one of these things too.

[Mitch Towne]

You can probably still get it through KeyB directly.

[cgiles]

Ummmm, looks like I'll have to recant any recommendations I may have made or implied. I had no knowledge of any of this and must say that I am extremely disappointed if this is true (and I assume it is). I WAS aware of some possible QC problems at the factory but chalked it up to start-up 'jitters'. I still applaud the company for their response to my problems with the instrument but in retrospect, I guess these problems should not have occurred in the first place. Although my instrument is working fine now, I am concerned about receiving updates or possible future repairs. Personally, I think Elvio, who by all accounts is a very nice guy, should step in and provide any needed assistance to innocent customers who bought with the understanding that they had the full backing and support of KeyB Italy. We were told that this was only a change in manufacturing location to facilitate greater production to meet customer demands for the product. Oh well, guess I can forget about that bug-fix to allow programming the presets or the foldback to prevent note dropout. Hey, maybe we can get dazzjazz to pass on any updates to his U.S. 'cousins'.

 

Anyhow, thanks for the heads-up Mitch. BTW, if you get any early news on my Cancer screen, just save it, Ok .

 

chas

[JMcS]

I thought the initial announcements were that DMI bought the KeyB company and would be moving operations to the US. This looks more like they worked out a distribution deal. Diversi part Duh.

 

Edit:

 

Here is the original announcement:

 

"Dears,

I add this news from KeyB.

Regards

Elvio Previati

 

/KEYB Organs Opens Manufacturing Plant in U.S.A. Columbia, MO, December

1, 2012-- Dietrolequinte di Elvio Previati today announced the opening

of a manufacturing facility in Columbia, Missouri, United States. This

move is to drastically increase manufacturing capabilities and KeyB

product offerings.//

//Sales of KeyB Organs have increased steadily over the last few years.

The current facility in Fabbrico, Italy, cannot keep up with demand.

This has prompted Dietrolequinte di Elvio Previati to make the bold move

to relocate all manufacturing to the United States in their new 100,000

square foot campus in Columbia, Missouri, USA. This location was

strategically chosen because of its geographic proximity to the center

of the country. Columbia, Missouri is between St. Louis, MO and Kansas

City, MO and is most noted for being the home of University of Missouri

as well as several other colleges and universities. The KeyB campus is

located off Interstate 70 which is a main artery for trucking in the

U.S. as well as an international trade zone. KeyB Organs campus includes

a state of the art research and development department, and

collaboration is in progress with University of Missouri Industrial

manufacturing systems engineering department to develop cutting edge

processes to improve quality and increase efficiency while preserving

top standards of craftsmanship.//

//KeyB Organs new campus will also house a comprehensive call center for

consumer, dealer and distributor for sales and support. The expert

support staff has been provided a state-of-the-art database system to

track and catalog all support tickets, and creating a dynamic knowledge

base which will be available online in early 2013.//

//KeyB Organs has turned their focus on dealer profitability and

consumer support in designing this new facility. The move to the USA

helps to accomplish just that, lowering the cost of manufacturing and

distribution, improving dealer support internationally, and giving the

consumers what they are looking for, a product manufactured in the USA.

KeyB"s employees are taking great pride in bringing manufacturing of

their products to America; KeyB Organ"s new campus is only 400 miles

from the birthplace of the original Tonewheel organ. While other

manufactures are moving their manufacturing to Asia, KeyB Organ"s has

moved their manufacturing to the Global leader of musical instrument

consumption, the USA.//

//Whereas significant investments have been made in the moving of KeyB

Organs to the USA in the areas of technology and manufacturing, a great

care has been taking to keep the hand built quality of these instruments

unchanged by marrying computer controlled processes with old world

craftsmanship. KeyB believes that this strategy will yield the best

balance for quality control, consistency and technological innovation,

with attention to detail and pride of craftsmanship unmatched in the

world of production musical instruments./"

 

 

 

I thought I had also read that Davis & Muller had bought the company and was moving production to the US. From the initial post in this topic it looks more like DMI is supposed to be just a contract manufacturer and distributor.

 

[DulceLabs.com]

It's a shame. Although I'm not an "organ guy", I do like to see smaller companies succeed. I feel bad for those who bought in good faith and can't get their instruments fixed. Hope it all works out.

[Kurt W]

They are building a 100.000 squarefeet factory and support center in USA and the owner has not been in the country for months? How many clones could be built in a factory like this, the market for clones must huge.

[LX88]

I am sorry to have to say , this is what led me to buy a Numa two and a half years ago.

 

I just cannot justify getting a very expensive instrument that cannot be serviced in this country. I know many may disagree

(particularly Mojo owners, who seem to be a very satisfied lot ).

 

I learned this lesson unfortunately from a friend who bought an original single manual Diversi. It went down, and he could not get it fixed.

 

I love Key B products, and I like what I hear from the Mojo. I really like Elvio too. I have spent quite a bit of time with him at NAMM. But he is in a a VERY vulnerable situation being a one man operation.

 

I could see that there were going to be issues when I was at the Davis Muller booth at NAMM . It looked like a replay of the whole Diversi fiasco.

 

We need to hook Elvio up with Mike Martin and the guys at Casio.... perhaps that might work.

[timwat]

From my perspective as a contract and deal negotiator, my first thought is there are always two sides to a story.

[AnotherScott]

From my perspective as a contract and deal negotiator, my first thought is there are always two sides to a story.

But no matter which of them is in the right or wrong, it doesn't seem very reassuring to the consumer at the moment.

[Delaware Dave]

By the way - just noticed this:

 

http://www.keyborgan.com/products/master/

 

Another dual manual controller enters the fray.

Hmmm, this looks very much like a takeoff of Elvio's first creation, the Voce Key5:

 

http://voceinc.com/

[timwat]

From my perspective as a contract and deal negotiator, my first thought is there are always two sides to a story.

But no matter which of them is in the right or wrong, it doesn't seem very reassuring to the consumer at the moment.

 

Completely agree.

[LX88]

The Key 5 was Elvio's? I seem to remember that it came out at around the same time as the Diversi.

[Delaware Dave]

The Key 5 came out, then the Key 5 copy (the Diversi DV-100) came out after that. I was going to buy the last Key 5 made but it was delivered significantly damaged to the distributor and instead I ended up buying the V5+ for 1/10 the price.

[Keybass]

The manner and fashion in which this news has hit the public is shocking to me. I concur with the earlier sentiment that Italy should step up and protect the current clients service and warranty needs.

[cgiles]

What's next. Am I going to find out that my Nissan Leaf made at the new plant in Smyrna, Tn is really a golf cart with a Leaf body bolted on?

 

chas

[Delaware Dave]

The manner and fashion in which this news has hit the public is shocking to me. I concur with the earlier sentiment that Italy should step up and protect the current clients service and warranty needs.

Completely agree. In fact I find this statement rather shocking:

 

" I cannot provide any assistance and upgrades to customers who bought (or will buy) DMI products ..".

 

If DMI is in fact a contract manufacturer/distributor of Key B products then how can Elvio disavow responsibility to the customers who purchased these products in good faith?

[DavisMuller]

It is very unfortunate that this has spilled over into the public eye. There is clearly a communication issue between Mr. Elvio Previati and Davis Muller Instruments, Inc..

 

In January 2013, Davis Muller Instrument, Inc. purchased DLQ assets from Elvio Previati which included KeyB Organs. Unfortunately things have not gone smoothly with the transition. I am confident that once Elvio and myself can communicate we will have everything worked out and KeyB owners all over the world will have the support and quality products that they have grown to expect.

 

I will also freely admit when we have had our issues with production and shipping, and have FINALLY worked them out. The issues shouldn't have happened, but they did. I will point out every one of the issues we did have, we made it right. Including the Music Players forums very own cgiles. He had and issue with a Key Contact, we paid for him to ship the instrument back to us, not only did we replace the whole keybed but we rebuilt his entire instrument because when we received the instrument we noticed some "wear" and damage that occurred to the wood end caps. We then went above and beyond and color matched the new wood panels to his old panels as he had a stand custom built that he wanted continuity with.

 

Rest assured KeyB Organ owners, no matter when you purchased your instruments, or where, will have the support of DMI and the KeyB brand.

 

As far as the internal transition issues, that really is a private matter which we will work tirelessly to resolve and make sure KeyB owners around the world are taken care of.

 

Best regards,

 

Paul Davis

President / CEO

Davis Muller Instruments, Inc.

[Delaware Dave]

From my perspective as a contract and deal negotiator, my first thought is there are always two sides to a story.

As Timwat predicted the other side has now spoken...

[LX88]

I just wonder how DMI is going to be able to maufacture and market the Key B without Elvio's participation.

 

The Key B is certainly unique.And the thing that is unique about it is how true to the sound of a tonewheel Hammond it actually can get. Particularly due to the Chorus vibrato and leslie simulation.

 

 

[JMcS]

Maybe it is similar to Diversi. IIRC, They bought technology to use in the keyboards they were building and at some point found out it was the old technology and they didn't have the rights to the new technology.

[mate stubb]

I wish both sides well and hope they can make it work for everyone involved, including customers.

[DavisMuller]

Elvio is/will be an employee of DMI and developing future technologies with the support of a large manufacturing facility. Bringing the great talent and innovation Mr. Elvio Previati has, together with the great talent and innovative ideas and products of DMI, and all the resources of a large musical instrument manufacturer in America, means great new and innovative products. DMI is not just focusing on Tonewheel organ products. We have products coming, not only in other keyboard segments, but other non-keyboard related products. I will state again, because of my limited time and extremely busy schedule as well as Elvio's time and schedule, it appears a communication break-down has happen, and as soon as Elvio wakes up and reads his email, I am confident things will be back on track.

 

As far as KeyB organ owners are concerned, DMI will make sure that you are taken care of, and any issue you may have are resolved in a timely fashion. As future development of the product line happens, as far as new features and software related upgrades you will be sent the appropriate files load into your existing product.

 

Sincerely,

 

Paul Davis

President / CEO

Davis Muller Instruments, Inc.

Brands: Moore Organs, KeyB Organs, Melos

Proudly made in the USA

[cgiles]

This is somewhat reassuring and I must admit that I feel better than I did yesterday when I first heard about all of this. I suppose the only concern now is whether USA customers got the same quality instrument as their European counterparts. Only time will reveal the reliability record of each but absent a reliable, active user forum, we may never know that.

 

Looking at the 'News' statement on the KeyB webpage, http://www.keyborgan.com/ , it would appear that 'products' are still available from the Euro facility and with the implication that all software/firmware and technical support (including the upcoming, updated User Manual) emanates from there. This is confusing and contradictory. I, for one, would very much like to see a current statement from Elvio posted here stating his view of the current AND FUTURE situation.

 

Although an instrument like this represents a significant investment for most musicians, that is not my major concern. I really, really like this instrument and am rooting for it to succeed in the 'clonewheel' marketplace. I still think that with an aquired record of good QC and company stability, it represents a significant value when compared to it's competitors. I'll be handling mine with kid gloves until I feel confident about the possibility of future repairs. As far as feature updates, IT'S AN ORGAN! I'm pretty happy with it as is, as it emulates nearly every function of a real B3. Now if they'd just fix that problem with the presets. Oh well.....

 

chas