Monte wanted to retire, so it felt like a really good opportunity for me.

“I ended up purchasing MIRC because, in my last job just before this, I had been VP of sales for Guild and Cordoba and I was selling instruments to the place. Then I worked at Korg for a long time and, after Korg, I was vice president of sales for Marshall, U.S.A. I was there when we got bought by LOUD Technologies. Louis Music for 10 years, and I had several different territories with St. Later I worked for Eastman and Remo and SWR, before Fender had them. I was working in a music store as I was going to college and ended up managing that music store in West Virginia for seven or eight years. “The short and sweet story: my degree is in music education from West Virginia University. Jason Gano had the background – and the history with MIRC – to make him the ideal successor to Richards. The market for this type of business model proved to be robust and, within less than a decade, MIRC had partnered with well over 30 suppliers and, as of today, is the world’s largest used guitar wholesaler. Originally, MIRC acquired distressed instruments from a handful of suppliers, repaired them to as close to “as new” condition, and then sold the guitars to smaller MI retailers and pawn shops. In 1993, the organization was founded by Monte Richards in Nashville, Tennessee as a wholesaler of refurbished, used guitars. So what exactly is MIRC – Musical Instrument Reclamation Corporation – all about? Perhaps a little history is in order. “That was great when there was no internet, but now you can tell your own story and apply your own narrative – and we want to do just that, because there are some false narratives out there.”

“For a long time, the previous owner of MIRC really didn’t necessarily want anyone to know it existed, in some ways,” says current CEO Jason Gano.

Unfamiliar with MIRC, or only vaguely aware of what it does or how? That’s both not necessarily “your fault,” nor surprising.

Mirc guitars