OH Taxonomy
Jim Hearn brings a great deal of experience to his position as Vice President at Piano Craft in Springfield, Missouri. Jim owned and operated his own music store in a local mall for over twenty years and before that cut his teeth in sales at one of the Wurlitzer factory-owned retail stores in...
Tom Wittrock remembers the very moment he decided to dedicate his career to the guitar: when he purchased his first Les Paul sunburst in the mid-1970s. Many of his friends thought he was crazy when he paid more for a used instrument instead of getting a new one cheaper, but Tom knew just what he...
Shelley Wilson and her husband, Greg Murdaugh, opened the Piano Craft store in 1999. The store, which is located in Springfield MO, has a family feel whenever you visit, which may be due in large part to the mom and pop approach Greg and Shelley have towards their customers and staff. Shelley...
Sheilah McDowell is a saleswoman and Lowrey class instructor at Piano Craft in Springfield, Missouri. Her passion for the industry goes back to the days she first met her husband, Jim McDowell, and worked in his family's music store in St. Louis. She traveled the country with Fred Waring playing...
Ed Seelig opened a small guitar shop when he was a teenager, having already made connections within the concert circuit selling used gear to traveling musicians. The store, Silver Strings Music and Repair in St. Louis, Missouri opened in the early 1970s. He organized one of the very first vintage...
Richard Gellis remembers the early days of the vintage guitar movement when greater value was being placed on "used instruments." As his small store grew in Santa Cruz, California, so did his reputation for knowledge and customer services that helped make Union Grove Music the go-to place for...
Markus Jahnel, COO of Adam Hall started out working for the company when he was 15 years old. After 30 years working closely with David Kirby he is now a partner since 2013 overseeing the day to day operations of the business. Markus talks about the early days of product development at Adam Hall...
Tom Steuckert is a veteran of the music industry having served as store manager at Union Grove Music in Santa Cruz, a road rep and sales manager. His career began when he helped assemble synthesizers for Dave Smith at Sequential Circuits in the early 1980s. Tom later owned his own store in Half...
David Kirby, originally from England, started out as a professional musician touring in Germany in the mid 70’s. Playing bass, he also took charge of fixing and upgrading the equipment as well as managing the band. After five years of touring the band broke up and David partnered with Adam Hall in...
Jason Berg is a guitar tech at Union Grove Music in Santa Cruz, where he was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program to discuss his involvement with the Supro Guitar line as well as other parts of his career in the industry. As a repairman for Union Grove Music, Jason rents a space in the...