Gregg Miner

Gregg Miner is the widely recognized authority on the harp guitar and curator of the Miner Museum of Vintage, Exotic & Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments. A collector, scholar, recording artist, and performer, his work sits at the intersection of rigorous historical research, hands-on instrument knowledge, and a lifelong passion for the stories these objects carry. He is best known for defining the modern organological categorization of the harp guitar family, creating and maintaining Harpguitars.net (the central online repository for the instrument's history, builders, players, and repertoire), founding the Harp Guitar Music label, and co-founding the non-profit Harp Guitar Foundation. His private collection—often referred to as the Miner Museum—spans hundreds of rare, hybrid, and historically significant plucked-string instruments, many of which he has restored, documented, and performed on across a series of recordings that introduce these instruments to wider audiences. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist who later studied classical and jazz guitar, Miner has spent decades hunting, researching, and preserving instruments that fall outside mainstream collecting categories. His approach prioritizes primary research, careful physical examination, and the careful reconstruction of provenance—exactly the kind of detailed, evidence-based work that turns scattered objects into coherent cultural records. He has lectured widely, contributed to reference works including The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, and curated major public exhibitions on the harp guitar. For Gearcheck, Miner's perspective strengthens our commitment to treating high-value and historically significant instruments as both living tools and cultural artifacts. His deep experience with documentation, historical measurement, condition analysis, and the patient recovery of instrument stories directly informs how we help collectors, artists, estates, and institutions create durable, verifiable digital records.