[bryede]

Jim,

   I am loving my Song Towers more than any speaker I've owned before, so I just want to get a big thanks out to you and of course Dennis.

   I think you should make up a couple kits of finished veneer samples that prospective buyers can rent (perhaps require a deposit) to select the look of their speakers. I thought of this because so many people post pictures then say the pictures don't really represent the look of the speakers. Since we know photography often lies, the veneer kit would help people make their decision.

  I would put the square or rectangular samples in cloth bags for protection or make a box with lined dividers, and possibly include a card with a picture of a speaker in the veneer and a short description of the qualities of the wood and a ballpark price level.

  Anyway, I know I'd love to see some of these finishes close up for possible future orders so what do you think?

   -Bry

[Houston1]

When I go furniture shopping, all of the stores have swatches to pick out fabric, wood choice, etc.  Since Jim's speakers are really nice pieces of furniture, I think it is a great idea.   

BTW, I am still waiting for my wife to OK my new set of speakers.  Life was much simpler when I was single. 

John

[coke]

I think it would be best to get a sample of whatever veneer he has in stock.  Not all veneer will look the same, and a general sample might not work well.

[srb]

There is a local green building materials store here in town, and they sell a "No-VOC/Non-Toxic" paint called YoLo (that detail isn't pertinent to this post, but thought I'd mention this great product).
 
They furnish a large sample, a rolled up 18"X24", which can be held up to the wall in different rooms and different light and you can get a real good idea of what it will look like.  Paint is relatively cheap, so they only charge $5.00 for each sample, refundable when returned.
 
To get a decent idea of what a veneer would look like, you need to see something bigger than a chip size.  My idea would be veneer samples, probably glued on to a piece of backing cardboard, maybe something like 6" X 8",  which would be a size easily mailed back and forth in a sturdy standard letter size cardboard mailer.
 
I would be fine with paying $20 per sample, refundable (or credited to the purchase) upon return.  I assume most people would be able to narrow it down and not have to order more than 2 or 3 samples.
 
Steve
 

[Christof]

This set of sample books is very handy http://certainlywood.com/detail.cfm?ID=1799

I'm sure Jim orders or has the ability to buy from them. Maybe if you are serious about buying a pair of custom speakers it would be worth buying the sample set yourself and selling it to another of Jims clients after you make a decision...just an idea.  I have this set and it's worth the $. 

[ctouhey]

We rank among the "imagination challenged".  In speaking with Jim, he offered to make us samples of veneers we were discussing.  He sent them and that sealed the deal.   But we're talking samples that were roughly 18" x 24".  Hand rubbed finish.

Talk about going the extra mile...

[oneinthepipe]

Maybe in high-population areas, where specific Salk owners frequently provide auditions, those owners could keep some veneer samples for prospective buyers to peruse, reducing the number of samples that Jim might be asked to send out.  The difficultly with samples, except perhaps with standard veneers or other wood where the pattern is more consistent, is that samples vary widely, especially with heavily patterned, burl, and color varied woods, such as cocobolo, kingwood, amboyna burl, ironwood burl, et al.  Maybe the samples should be limited to the more popular veneers.

[jsalk]

Thanks for the ideas.  The Certainlywood samples are one viable option.

I have given this quite a bit of thought over the years.  One issue, as oneinthepipe alluded to, is that the looks of any given veneer can vary quite dramatically.  So if a customer chooses a specific veneer, chances of getting a batch the matches closely may be slim.

But I'll give this one more thought. 

- Jim

[bryede]

Hey Jim!

Well, you could either try to find what you consider to be a middle-of-the road sample and make clear how much variation there can be or perhaps make a single sample have squares or stripes from different veneer batches, or just include more than one sample per wood.

It would also be nice to see some dyed samples for the most popular choices.