Serving Southern California's pianos for over 40 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, California. |
evan austin
brings several years of piano repair, refinishing, and moving experience to the Ashly Piano Crafts team. His experience in the aerospace manufacturing industry cultivated steadiness in hand-tool work, creating and adhering to strict procedures, and performing complex and precise processes many times with little variation. Since pianos have 88 keys, this kind of precision and patience comes in handy! As a professional graphic and web designer, evan brings skills such as attention to detail and a functional blend of creativity and intuition. These are well applied to the aesthetic aspects of piano repair and refinishing, as well as troubleshooting and problem-solving since no two pianos are exactly alike. evan has been a musician for many years. He played low brass instruments (such as trombone, baritone horn, and tuba) in high school and college, and has more recently taken up acoustic guitar. He appreciates well-built and well-maintained instruments, and delights in the dual role of pianos as complex musical machines and attractive furniture. evan has lived in the Ojai Valley since 1995 and graduated from Nordhoff High School in 1998. He is married to his high school sweetheart, and they are raising four children together. He looks forward to helping to bring quality music into your home, by providing excellent and timely repair work to your piano. |