George Gaskin signed an exclusive contract with Columbia beginning in 1901, and this broke up the Manhansett Quartet. With singers S. H. Dudley, Harry McDonough and William F. Hooley, John Bieling formed a new group, the Haydn (or "Hayden") Quartet and began recording hymns, ballads, Christmas songs and minstrel material for Victor (the group also recorded as The Edison Quartet for Edison.) In 1909 the Victor Company decided they wanted to make some quartet records featuring their star tenor Billy Murray in popular material, and recruited Bieling and Hooley from the Haydn Quartet to form (along with Steve Porter) the American Quartet. In 1912, when countertenor Will Oakland began making a series of records with the group, they became the re-christened Heidelberg Quintet.Bieling had injured his vocal chords during a 1910 session for Edison requiring him to produce cowboy "whoops." Doing triple-duty with the American, Haydn and Heidelberg groups was taxing his voice past the breaking point, and finally something had to give. In the summer of 1913 John Bieling decided henceforward to refrain from all singing, making his last records with the American Quartet on September 3, 1913. Bieling then went to work in the sales department of Victor. By 1915 he had left the company, and ultimately became a dealer, running his own Victrola shops. In 1926 he opted for retirement and settled in Hempstead, Long Island.
