Unfamiliar with MIRC, or only vaguely aware of what it does or how? That’s both not necessarily “your fault,” nor surprising. “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. “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.”
So what exactly is MIRC – Musical Instrument Reclamation Corporation – all about? Perhaps a little history is in order. In 1993, the organization was founded by Monte Richards in Nashville, Tennessee as a wholesaler of refurbished, used guitars. 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. 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.
Jason Gano had the background – and the history with MIRC – to make him the ideal successor to Richards. “I’ve got 30 years [in the industry],” he explains. “The short and sweet story: my degree is in music education from West Virginia University. 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. Later I worked for Eastman and Remo and SWR, before Fender had them. Following that, I worked for St. Louis Music for 10 years, and I had several different territories with St. Louis Music. I was there when we got bought by LOUD Technologies. Then I worked at Korg for a long time and, after Korg, I was vice president of sales for Marshall, U.S.A.
“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. Monte wanted to retire, so it felt like a really good opportunity for me. But I knew MIRC from selling them things and it had solved a big problem for me because returns come back, shipping damage – there’s a few percentages of what comes off the containers that just didn’t make it safely across the water, and that stuff piles up after a while. It never really made sense to me that you would throw away instruments that could be repaired.”
Setting the Record Straight
In this industry we’re all about creating more music-makers, so fixing up instruments and passing along savings to independent dealers and end-users – rather than tossing those imperfect guitars in the trash heap – seems like a good thing, right? So what are those “false narratives” that had emerged during MIRC’s era of relative “radio silence?”
Gano explains: “From my vantage point, when I said, ‘Oh, hey, I’m purchasing this business,’ some people were like, ‘Oh, great,’ and some people replied, ‘Isn’t that just, like, a junk shop? Don’t you just do junk?’ It’s like: ‘No, we have 20 really talented people that work here that restore instruments and keep things from going to a landfill.”
And, truly, without a more public face, it was easy for some – either those with an agenda or just a healthy dose of cynicism – to take some minimal awareness of MIRC and evolve that into a belief that the wholesaler was really just a place where factory seconds go to die or be resold in shoddy condition to naïve dealers and players. But, as Gano noted, these instruments are meticulously refurbished and very transparently marketed and sold as “non-new” musical instruments. Nobody is being swindled, unplayable guitars are given a second life, and both businesses and players benefit from access to instruments that, as new and unblemished product, would be unattainable to many.
Back to those “20 really talented people” who work on MIRC’s gear: “Let’s see, we have seven in the shop currently,” says Ian Harrold, director of operations. “There are five full-time in the warehouse, we have a couple different departments or divisions, too, we have three people on the sales staff, and an office manager.”
What exactly goes on in the shop? “That’s mostly just structure work,” Gano explains. “So, snapped off head stocks, acoustic guitars with an extra sound hole in them which we have to fix, et cetera. And we have a full-time electronics repair technician and a full-time painter who is fabulous. So, the work will get done, and then, if it needs electronics, it goes to the electronics shop, or it will go over to paint when it’s done in the shop. And our paint booth that we have here is better than the paint booth we had at Guild!”
A lot of the team’s efforts are spent not just dispelling misconceptions and negative assumptions, but also pointing out the fairly obvious upsides of a partnership with MIRC. “Every manufacturer that I’ve ever worked for, or been part of, always has a pile in the back corner of the warehouse that just kind of grows,” says Gano. “So, the conversations I have with manufacturers that aren’t familiar with us is, ‘Hey man, go back to the back corner of your warehouse and you see that pile of stuff?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘You usually just throw that away, don’t you?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Well, how about instead of that, I’ll just send you a call tag, and then, I’ll run you a check?’ And it’s like, ‘Oh…’
“And then, the next question is usually, ‘Well, you know, I don’t want things out in the market that are going to negatively impact my brand.’ Which is totally valid and a great point, but once you buy a guitar and then sell it to someone else, the used market is already there. So, all a seller needs to do is differentiate between what is new and what is used. In a lot of cases, we stamp the instruments ‘USED’ on the back of the headstock and, that way, there’s no question about what it is. Our repair guys are pretty darn good. So, when we get done with something, it’s in pretty great shape, but it’s also got that stamp or a new serial number, so that we keep that line clear for it.”
Whether a MIRC guitar is stamped “USED” or given a reassigned serial number is entirely dependent upon the arrangements that have been agreed upon between the company and individual manufacturers
The benefit of a relationship with MIRC is even more apparent for smaller MI dealers or other retail outlets. An MI store that may not be able to afford a minimum buy from some of the big-name brands can likely find a solution with MIRC. “We deal with a lot of those types of retailers,” Gano says. “That’s the bulk of what we’re doing: the small mom and pops, pawn shops, and tiny online retailers. We have a thousand-dollar minimum to start with, and you can get from us kind a smattering of everything to check it out. And in a lot of cases, these are the people who will end up, 10 years from now, being bigger dealers and probably go on to be a dealer for certain manufacturers. But this gives them the opportunity to answer the question, ‘Can I really do this? Can I sell these instruments?’”
One particularly large conduit for sales of these carefully reconditioned instruments has also been helpful in addressing questions from both dealers and players. “A lot of our stuff gets sold on Reverb, and we were having to answer a lot of questions,” says Gano. “It would be like, ‘Why is this serial number changed? Why is this stamped USED on the back of the headstock?’ So, we ended up doing an article with Reverb explaining, ‘Hey, here’s what we do, and this is why this is actually in great shape when you get it.’”
Multiple Divisions, Multiple Solutions
Just as MIRC represents opportunities for dealers and suppliers as a wholesaler, the company’s other divisions address other needs: Nashville Guitar Works, The Music Retail Show, and Franklin Guitar Works.
“Nashville Guitar Works is our brand that is just entry-level instruments for these small mom and pops who generally would buy things out of a jobber or someplace where they’re getting just the inexpensive instruments,” Gano explains. “When you’re in that $99 to $149 range trying to find something that’s playable and will stay together can be tough. So, we bring in our own brand to help these small mom and pops have something brand new to sell as well.
“Franklin Guitar Works is basically our parts division,” he continues. “When something can’t be repaired and it’s just not going to work, then we strip everything off of it. So, we’ll get pickups, we’ll get all of that stuff – that’s available to dealers who may need some kind of a nice, cost-effective pick up where you just need turners for something. We have so many parts, we’re still going through everything and cataloging everything and getting all that done.
“The last thing, in the other part of our business, is we have a podcast that’s called ‘The Music Retail Show,’ and that is designed to help our dealers be more educated, because a lot of them are just starting out in the business. And overall, like we tend to focus everything we do on how can we help the smaller dealers succeed and thrive in this climate that we have right now?”
One other thing that MIRC does to assist smaller retailers is simply that they do not sell directly to the consumer. “We don’t compete with our dealers,” states Gano. “What we do sell are the parts. So, at our Franklin Guitar Works, we’ll sell the parts and bodies and some mix, but we do not compete on instruments.”
When asked what message he’d most like to convey to MMR readers, Jason Gano replies simply, “I think if I wanted to say anything, it’s just that we’re here to help.”
