Serving Southern California's pianos for over 30 years...
Dennis DeGroat Ashly is a Registered Tuner/Technician with the Piano Technicians Guild,
the only organization that tests and qualifies Piano tuners in the States. He has been a
member of the Guild for the past 28 years, serving as a past president of the Santa Barbara
chapter as well as being an officer in various other capacities over the years.
Raised to a great extent in a mom and pop piano shop in Kansas City Missouri, he had an
early indoctrination to the inner workings of the piano, doing his homework in the back while
mom and dad attended to the business. Dennis' mother specialized in replacing key tops on
older pianos and keeping the books while dad did much of the general repair, refinishing and
moving. They had tuner/technicians doing the tuning, regulation and voicing. Dennis recalls
being called down quite regularly for being too noisy while they were trying to work. Still he
thinks much of his natural ability at tuning was derived from listening to literally hundreds of
pianos being tuned over the course of his elementary years.
Thinking that learning to tune pianos might be a great way to work his way through college,
Dennis took a job as an apprentice to a master tuner/ technician in Texas. A couple of years
later and probably still a bit green he embarked on a life long career studying and practicing
the art of piano technology, soon becoming a concert level tuner/ technician in his own right
and establishing himself as a much sought after and often referred service person.
Now with 30 plus years in the trade he still takes great pleasure in breathing life
back into these most wonderful of instruments, as well as greeting and meeting the
needs of his customers throughout Ventura County.
the only organization that tests and qualifies Piano tuners in the States. He has been a
member of the Guild for the past 28 years, serving as a past president of the Santa Barbara
chapter as well as being an officer in various other capacities over the years.
Raised to a great extent in a mom and pop piano shop in Kansas City Missouri, he had an
early indoctrination to the inner workings of the piano, doing his homework in the back while
mom and dad attended to the business. Dennis' mother specialized in replacing key tops on
older pianos and keeping the books while dad did much of the general repair, refinishing and
moving. They had tuner/technicians doing the tuning, regulation and voicing. Dennis recalls
being called down quite regularly for being too noisy while they were trying to work. Still he
thinks much of his natural ability at tuning was derived from listening to literally hundreds of
pianos being tuned over the course of his elementary years.
Thinking that learning to tune pianos might be a great way to work his way through college,
Dennis took a job as an apprentice to a master tuner/ technician in Texas. A couple of years
later and probably still a bit green he embarked on a life long career studying and practicing
the art of piano technology, soon becoming a concert level tuner/ technician in his own right
and establishing himself as a much sought after and often referred service person.
Now with 30 plus years in the trade he still takes great pleasure in breathing life
back into these most wonderful of instruments, as well as greeting and meeting the
needs of his customers throughout Ventura County.
Photo Album
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| 805-649-1035 |
| Dennis with his parents, Lorene and Jim |
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