Thanks Ryan! From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Sowers Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 1:57 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Ethics and efficacy of art-time tuning and then some It looks nice, Jerry! I still like the classic look of the old logo. Here's a tip in regards to business cards: I found out that for not much more money you can have your card put on extra heavy card stock. It really feels more substantial in your hand than most cards. On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 4:31 PM, Gerald Groot <tunerboy3 at comcast.net> wrote: Hey, now you dudes and dudette's can see what I look like too. If it comes through.. My cousin did this for me so, I can't take the credit for it.. (see my business card at the bottom. No cheating! You have to read this first!) :-) Seeing as how I'm fairly new on this tech forum thread I thought I should introduce myself to those of you that do not know me. Some of you already do. My history is as follows. My grandfather was a full time piano and organ tuner as well as an organist. He started our business back in 1926. My dad, George W. Groot took over both his pipe organ and piano tuning business going into it full time with his brother Rich in 1946 right after his dad died from a sudden heart attack. They decided to also sell pipe organs, draw up blue prints for them and they installed them. As time passed, dad trained his other brother Bob who also went into it full time and then he started me when I was 10, by having me hold keys down for him on the organ while he was in the chambers tuning. Man!!! What a boring thing for a kid!!! Boring thing for an adult too!! I'd get so bored that I'd be walking back and forth on the pedals until dad said, "Jer, come up here." I thought, ut ohhhh.. Dad went back to the organ, walked on the pedals, pushed down on the other keyboards like I had been doing going up and down with my fingers and thumbs and said "hear that?" (It was going "click clickity clickty click click.") Uh huhhhh, I hear it.. "Well???!!! THAT'S what I hear constantly while you're farting around down there." Ohhhh. And I giggled. NOT FUNNY he said. OK dad. I knew when it was time to straighten up!! Dad helped to train my cousin Rich Groot (his brothers son) who is still tuning full time but, we never went into business together. Eventually, dad had me going out tuning organs with my own crew and the pianos in the same churches. I'll be 53 in May now and have been tuning full time since high school. But, we gave up the organ business in 1977 I think it was. I didn't like the 2 and 3 week long road trips, never being home and the seemingly, endless 3 AM Saturday AND Sunday phone calls from church organists that were practicing and had a blower motor go out or some other problem. Dad would complain saying, "what in the heck are they doing there practicing at this time of the morning anyway!" We'd get up and drive sometimes 250 miles or more to go and fix it for them. What a nice bill they got! :-) Shortly after I got out of school, my mom got cancer, eventually dying from it when I was 22. Dad had spent so much time with her that the business had basically fallen apart so at that time then, there was barely enough work left to keep me busy. Prior to that, he had so much work it was keeping us both busy full time and then some. Consequently, I had to knock on doors, call on dealerships etc. Dad was friends with Gerald R. Peterson who owned Peterson Pianos. Peterson used to work at the old Everett Piano Factory in South Haven Michigan. I worked for Jerry "part time" 2-3 days a week for 6 years. I worked in his shop tuning, rebuilding uprights, grands and player pianos which I HATE to work on. I learned a lot from that old fart. It was amazing to see how FAST he could string a piano from his days of working in the factory! Wow! He could wind that wire around the tuning pin and whack the pin into the block so fast it would make your head spin! The rest of my time was spent rebuilding our business back up again. Dad worked part time for 20 years after he so called, "retired." He loved it. He'd call me when he got bored saying, "hey, Jer, you got anything for me to do?" Sure dad, I need this or that piano tuned before Sunday, can you do it! "YOU BET!" He'd say. I added, and I'm going to pay you what you used to pay me! We'd both laugh as he said, "I don't care if you pay me anything, I just need something to do!" We had a great working relationship. I also worked with Harold Buyce (Some of you may know him as Harry) on and off as well. Harry also had worked at the Everett Piano Factory. Dad, Jerry Peterson and Harry were all RPT's. So is my cousin Rich and myself. I can't begin to tell you how much it meant to me for them to take me under their wings mentoring me. Unfortunately, all 3 of these guys have since, passed away. Dad about 3 years ago, Harry about 1 year ago and Peterson a few months ago. However, my oldest son who is 22 is working me now which will make him the 4th generation of Groot's! He will be attending the convention with me this summer. He has too! I paid for it! I stopped rebuilding pianos after I quit working for Peterson. I didn't really like it and I realized I could make more money tuning and reconditioning and it was a heck of a lot less time consuming. I am also the only technician for one of the local colleges here. 3 generations us have tuned for this college. They currently have 90 pianos. I do a lot of concert work for them throughout the school year. So, I basically decided to tune, recondition, regulate, trouble shoot and do a lot of college and concert work. I subcontract all of my rebuilding work to Lyle Wood in Muskegon who is a fabulous rebuilder. One thing I constantly keep in my mind though, is this. I am FAR from knowing it all!! And, we should never be to proud to ask questions. We can always learn which is one reason why I am so looking forward to the convention here in my own town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. So, working part time is not a big deal so long as we understand the piano, do good work and keep our ethics under control. Took me while to get at that point huh? :-) So, how do you like my new email business card? I hope it came through! Jerry Groot Jerry.5 _____ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090331-0, 03/31/2009 Tested on: 3/31/2009 7:31:26 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. -- Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net _____ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. 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