Hapsburg - Beal & Co LTD

[Bill Kibby]

This was a name used on some pianos from the Beale company, Australia, thought to be just an alias, possibly on german-made pianos. Beyond that, I have no information so far.

[VTRgirl]

We were lucky enough to score a Hapsburg upright yesterday, for FREEEEEEEEE from some nuns (yes, nuns!). A lovely lady put an ad in our local trading paper for it to go to a good home. I'll be using it to teach our two young daughters to play. It has one broken string & three sticky hammers.

This morning I rang the nearest piano tuner who gave the spiel about it being old & worthless & I was devastated. It's such a beautiful instrument. My partner, not to be deterred, insisted I ring another tuner. The second man was more than helpful & has even found time to fit us in before Christmas. I told him of the first tuner's remarks & he got quite cranky & explained that he had left the piano-tuner's guild because they're "a bunch of snobs" & get huge kickbacks for getting rid of old pianos & selling new ones. He's quoted me between AUS$150-200 for repairs & tuning.

So I pity the naive who give up when they're given bad advise from disreputable tuners and I'll be forever grateful to the honest ones.

[Bill Kibby]

And I pity the naive music pupils who give up when they're given bad advice from reputable teachers - be grateful to the honest ones.