Fera (Guitars) See --> Barnes & Mullins

F. See --> Metropolitan Music Company

Frank Haselbacher (24 April 1922 – 20 May 1990)
USA based guitar builder of German extraction, served in the US Army in WWII and after de-mob in 1946 joined the NYC fire department eventually rising to the post of fire chief. Before the war he had apprenticed for a time with Danish guitar builder Albert Augustine and struck up a lifelong friendship with him and his wife Rose. Mr. Haselbacher continued to work with Hr. Augustine in his spare time mostly as a repairman and worked on guitars for such luminaries as Andrés Segovia but also started building the odd guitar.

Following the death of Mr. Augustine in 1968 his widow, Rose Augustine, gave Mr. Haselbacher the tooling, labels and the jigs that had been used by her husband and a permission to use the Augustine label on his instruments, he started out making instruments in 1969 out of his NY apartment but after his retirement in the 1970’s he moved to Voluntown, New London in Connecticut and there was a marked increase in the volume of instruments up to about 6 to 12 a year but at the same time he became the best known restorer of vintage high end classical guitars and the man recommended to repair Antonio de Torres and Hermann Hauser instruments with endorsements from Segovia and other luminaries. Mr. Haselbacher passed away in 1990 but he had continued making and repairing guitars to his dying day, a couple of unfinished instruments were given to fellow guitar builder friend of his called Thomas Bazzolo who finished them off.

All his instruments used the later round Augustine labels and are marked with serial numbers, year of manufacture and are signed Frank Haselbacher. To give an idea of time line, instruments #37 #38 #39 were made in 1975 and #48 in 1978, the vast bulk of his instruments being spruce tops instruments, with only a few cedar tops in-between. Players that have used his instrument include Eliot Fisk, Robert Phillips and Edelton Gloeden. Mr. Haselbacher was married to artist Vera C. Haselbacher (14 Dec 1923 – May 15 1994).

Resources : William Cumpiano's website has information on how Mr. Haselbacher varnished his instruments.

Franklin See --> David Wexler & Co. (Brass wind instruments ca 1940's to 90's)

Fullerton See --> GTRC Services (USA - Budget folk instuments & accessories - ca 1970's to 00's)

G Blaster (USA - keyboard amps 80's) See --> Evetscorp

Geloso (Guitar amps 50's & 60's) See --> Geloso

George Hayman See --> Hayman Drums

Dr. Gerd H. Möller
German gentleman based in Holzwickede in Nordrhein-Westfalen (Near Dortmund). Hr. Möller is a keen amateur violinist that used his specialised knowledge gained while working in the laquer/paint industry to develop a classical string instrument cleaner and polishing agent that he sold as a sideline to his main business under the Bellacura brand and in response to requests from piano players later developed a similar chemical for lacquered pianos that he sold under the Klavicura name and specialised version of both products for those with allergies. Retired in 2010 and sold the business to Felix Bous.
Homepage: http://www.gemoe.de

Gorilla (USA - guitar amps 80's) See --> Evetscorp

Graham Jones
A gent based in Durness, Lairg in the Scottish highlands that developed and sold a notation OCR program called SharpEye between 1999 and 2006 when he sold the rights to the program to Visiv. The SharpEye program was available for both MS Windows and RiscOs, and was during it heyday around 2000 considered to be the most accurate music notation OCR on the market.
Homepage: http://www.indriid.com/grahamjones.html

Great Dane (Drums & percussion) See --> Grover-Trophy Music Company

Guangzhou Yamaha-Pearl River Piano Inc
In 1994 Japanese company Yamaha Corp. started to get interested in the Chinese piano market, it had been booming since the mid-80's when the government initiated a move from traditional Chinese style musical education to a western style education that placed a lot of emphasis on the violin and the piano, in addition there was slowly emerging a middle class in the country that wanted and could afford to buy a piano.

Problem was that the Chinese government did not allow foreign companies to own companies or factories outright at the time so Yamaha hooked up with Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Co. and together they created an assembly plant in Guang Zhou called simply the Guangzhou Yamaha-Pearl River Piano Inc.. This plant became operational in 1995 and one model of an upright piano from each maker were assembled for the domestic Chinese market with a small percentage of third Yamaha branded hybrid model that featured both Pearl River and Yamaha parts that was re-exported to the price sensitive Eastern-European market for a short while, all other Yamaha branded pianos made there featured Japanese mechanics and hardware. The company was majority owned and controlled by Yamaha and run by Yasushi Yamashita.

In 1997 the Chinese government allowed Yamaha to open up a a fully owned piano parts factory in Hangzhou called Xiaoshan Yamaha Musical Instruments Co., and in 2003 Yamaha got permission to open up a full subsidiary company called Yamaha Music & Electronics (China) Co, Ltd. that in addition to handling all Chinese sales and marketing that company is classified as Chinese under local rules and thus does not need specific permissions to open up factories or participate in other ventures.

YM&E went on to setting up an electronics plant later that same year and to open up a factory called Hangzhou Yamaha Musical Instruments Co. that manufactures upright pianos and guitars for export and also assemble other types of Yamaha pianos and grands for the domestic Chinese market, this was so successful that the company constructed another piano factory nearby and by the time that plant had opened up in 2007 the Guang Zhou assembly line was surplus to their requirements and their partner Pearl River agreed to purchase Yamaha's controlling interest in the company and have since merged it into their own operation.

In 1999 the Pearl River company opened up a sales office in California USA to handle the sales of their pianos in the North American market and hired an ex-Yamaha employee to head it, following that a number of salesmen and distributors of Pearl River in the USA and later here in the UK as well have kept on hammering about the Yamaha connection, and have in fact distributed pictures on the web that show Yamaha and PR pianos being packed together as proof that PR's are the same pianos as Yamaha but sold at a keener price, that there was a technology transfer from Yamaha to PR and even that PR made pianos for Yamaha.

It should be noted that the GYPRPI company was:

1. Run and staffed by Yamaha and not PR so there was no transfer of any techniques or designs to PR, GYPRPI was Yamaha for all intents and purposes.
2. Not a piano factory but an assembly plant hence no "production secrets" to be learnt from it.
3. No Yamaha pianos from that assembly line were ever sold in either the UK or the USA, or anywhere outside of China and for a short while Eastern Europe, so even if they had been the same pianos, they could not have been the same pianos as Yamaha had been selling in those countries, all Yamaha pianos made in China that have been sold in those 2 countries have been made post 2003 and come from their own Hangzhou plants which have no relation to PR.

In addition it should be noted that Yamaha never supplied Chinese mechanical parts to Guangzhou Yamaha, the company only used Japanese mech. Note also that no matter what you read on the web the co-operative venture never made the same pianos for both companies since it never made pianos, Yamaha supplied them with Yamaha sub-assemblies and the main PR factory supplied it with PR sub-assemblies and cases which were then assembled into final products. The venture was simply a means for Yamaha to enter the Chinese market at a time when full foreign ownership of companies was forbidden and imports of finished products limited by a quota that did not apply to unassembled pianos, and for Pearl River it was the means to gain more assembly capacity at a time when sales of pianos in China were skyrocketing.

In all fairness the Guangzhou Pearl River Piano company itself has never tried to leech on the "Yamaha heritage", it is solely down to reps in the UK and USA. Tales on Wikipedia and other places that PR illegally, forcefully or dishonestly took over a Yamaha piano factory are complete fabrications as well, Yamaha have described their relationship with Pearl River as exemplary.

Guitar Man See --> GTRC Services (USA - Guitar Accesories - 80's to 00's)

Gustav Pirazzi & Comp. See --> Pirastro

GT Percussion (Drums & percussion) See --> Grover-Trophy Music Company

Hatch Top See --> Shar Products (Classical string instrument bags & cases)

Hayman Drums
English company founded in 1967 by the Dallas Music Ltd. company from the ashes of the loss making Carlton Drums factory, continued to make the same drums as Carlton had done but with a 5 layer polyutherane coating on the inside of the shells to make them more resonant (louder in other words), and sold the under the George Hayman brand initially but in 1969 the brand was shortened to just Hayman. Company went out of business due to lack of sales in 1975.

Head See --> David Wexler & Co. (1970's)

Hermann Beyer See --> Conn-Selmer

Hite (Mouthpieces) See --> David Hite Inc.

indyguitarist.com (Pedal kit's and modifications) See --> Brian Wampler

Homann Music See --> David Homann & Thomas Kortmann (Guitar accessories & parts)

Next Page : Defunct musical instrument manufacturers - J -- Previous Page : Defunct musical instrument manufacturers - D & E