I worked at a company just outside of Chowchilla for 40yrs. I worked with a lot of people who were affected by that tragedy.
Yeah , Stereoadvisor may be overwhelmed , but also , he is 70 . When I got my Sansui sc737 back, the door worked for a couple of times. Then it would not stay shut. Found that an arm that worked the locking mech. came off. The e clip was missing. I could not hear it when I moved the unit around and suspect that he forgot to put it on. I say this because at 66, that is where my memory is at. I put a new e clip and it's all good. I still will use him as he seems to be genuinely interested in doing a good job. And that goes a long way with me. After I get my Akai quad tape deck back , I plan to see if he is interested in working on my Fosgate Tate II. I got it from a guy in Sac who is a estate buyer. So he didn't know the history. I did not want to try it until it was checked out. Hopefully Stereoadvisor will get it back in shape.
I agree that he's definitely interested in doing what he does and genuinely wants to do a good job. He's also a very nice guy to talk to. And he fixed a cassette deck that another local shop had botched. I guess they put the wrong belt in and I didn't realize it was running slightly too slow until I'd digitized one of my cassette compilations of SNL/Letterman musical performances. Grumble.
On the other hand, just yesterday I picked up a cheapo Sony linear tracker (PS-LX520) that he brought back from the dead a few years ago. But it had an annoying THUNK in the audio every few seconds. Turned out that every time the linear tracking mechanism moved the arm, it would jerk so dramatically that it would create sound that made it to the output. I took it back and explained the problem. He ultimately said he tried but could only minimize it rather than eliminate it. I used that particular turntable pretty casually and just put up with it. But eventually it completely froze again. I ignored it for a year or more but finally took it to Delta Breeze. For $30, Ben lubricated it and replaced a belt (he said it wasn't really necessary, but as long as he was in there anyway...) and now there's no thunking at all. I really wasn't expecting that and can't help but wonder why Luis couldn't fix it.
I do wonder if belts are being made out of inferior materials these days. I have a Technics SL-Q6 that I inherited from a late friend in 1998. It was already at least 10 years old by then and I had it for ten or more years after that before I decided that I should get it looked at Just In Case. I figured that after 20 years it was due for at least a cleaning, if nothing else. Luis replaced at least one belt, lubricated it and I suspect adjusted the auto-return, because it never again lifted off too soon, which had been an intermittent problem before.
But, after lasting 20 years without service, it only lasted about 5 after that. Turns out it was just a belt and Delta Breeze fixed it quickly for $30. I don't blame Luis/Stereoadvisor for that, but it's a bit alarming.
He also worked on my Tate II and determined that one of the Unobtanium chips is bad. If that winds up being the situation with yours, I should probably just send you mine and you can combine the two.