Over the last 40 years, Gregg Miner collected the cool instruments that crossed his path. Twenty years ago, he took on the fantastic challenge of filling out his collection to 100 instruments, and recording each somewhere in a collection of 27 Christmas arrangements. This album’s concept was the vision which gave rise to his museum of vintage, exotic, and just plain unusual musical instruments.
The Miner Museum of Vintage, Exotic, and Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments
It was as Miner wrapped up his album that he decided his menagerie of musical instruments needed a name. “I could have said, ‘I’m the guy with this collection of weird stuff’,” Miner explains, “But there were about 100 instruments there; it seemed pretty substantial, so I came up with the name The Miner Museum of Vintage, Exotic, and Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments. And in fact, when scholars and museums use my information, quotes, or just talk about my stuff, I always try to insist that they use the full name, so they have to have fun with it.”
Free Online Admission to Miner’s Museum of Vintage Musical Instruments
Miner’s Museum is open by appointment to serious researchers, collectors, and musicians, but he generously shares his entire collection online. “Sharing my instruments through the CD and musical recordings actually was the whole point,” says Miner. With each volume of his two-CD set, he includes a booklet with color photos and entertaining introductions to each musical instrument.
Miner’s introductions for his exhibits are far from the stuffy write-ups common to most museums. His tongue-in-cheek captions are concise and engaging. “You’re hearing and seeing the instruments,” Miner says, “and then I’m telling you something about them in funny laymen’s terms.” As soon as the Internet made it possible, he duplicated the booklets and posted sound clips from the CDs online.
Visitors are treated to a virtual tour of the Miner Museum and a harp guitar performance. Online visitors can also peruse the Museum’s entire inventory of over 200 musical instruments.
The Rare and Vintage Musical Instruments of the Miner Museum
“I wouldn’t have called my collection world-class or even valuable at the time the Christmas CDs came out,” says Miner. “Now, there are many more interesting instruments, particularly harp guitars, and I’ve focused on more one-of-a-kind instruments.”
Miner’s goal was to acquire an example of every string group, i.e. guitars, ukuleles, banjos, mandolins, zithers, harps, lutes, dobros, etc. Eventually, he began specializing in instruments of the harp family and hybrid instruments such as mandolin banjos or harp guitars. “I specialize in the unusual,” Miner explains, “and most of the unusual strings tend to be hybrids. None of them are one guy’s wacky garage experiment. They’re all inventions that were taken quite seriously by whoever created them. That appeals to me. Why does anyone like or collect anything? I find the more unusual instruments appealing.”
The Miner Museum and Its Vintage Musical Instruments Today
During the 15 years after the publication of Miner’s Christmas CD, the museum and its curator have grown together. His collection has more than doubled in size and Miner has become, as he puts it, “quite a serious scholar.” He’s actually the world’s leading expert on the subject of harp guitars.
Miner still actively shares his collection, but he isn’t expanding it as quickly these days. “I could name many, many, many, instruments I’ve known about from collectors, museums, and in history books that I would love to have found by now,” Miner laughs. “The cross-strung harp is one. It’s a giant, 1900s harp with strings that interlock and cross for diatonic and chromatic. But at this point, I don’t have the room.”
Interested readers can check out similar articles covering -
The story behind the vintage instruments and recording of Gregg Miner: A Christmas Collection,
Techniques enabling Miner to learn 100 rare and exotic musical instruments for the recording,
The equipment Miner used to multitrack 100 musical instruments in his home recording studio,
And Miner’s thoughts on restoring, recording, and collecting vintage instruments.
Quotes taken in conversation with Gregg Miner January 2011.
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