Ryan McGuire

President

Finding his way into music thanks to his guitar-playing father, Ryan McGuire set off early down a path filled with the sounds of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers. After graduating from Albion College, he became obsessed with acoustics, recording techniques and vintage gear and eventually began building his first recording set-up with Pro Tools.

"Soon after that, I decided to build out my first recording studio, which evolved over time into my current studio, The 45 Factory, in Pontiac, Michigan," McGuire says. "In 2005, I started buying gear for the studio from Vintage King and while picking up an order, I met Vintage King co-owner Andrew Nehra. It quickly hit me that Vintage King is a unique and invaluable resource for people like myself that were in the process of building their gear collections."

Since becoming a Vintage King employee, McGuire has risen through the ranks and held many impactful positions, including a long tenured role as one of the company’s leading sales consultants. He also founded and oversees Vintage King’s distribution arm, M1 Distribution. In more recent years, he has served as Director of Business Development, a position which saw him lead the sales, marketing and merchandising strategy of the company.

In 2018, Mike and Andrew Nehra announced that Ryan McGuire would be taking on the role of President of Vintage King. His focus would be on providing strategic leadership for the company, creating operational efficiencies and improving the customer experience.For McGuire, the customer experience is #1. His goal is to bring that experience to a new level by aligning all departments with laser focus towards customer service.

"The company has grown a lot since I first started working here over a decade ago - from 10 employees to 100 - but it's never lost that sense of family," McGuire states. "It also hasn’t lost that focus on honesty and transparency with our customers that made me a believer on day one. I want to continue that tradition."

Q & A

What does it mean to you to work at Vintage King?
Being able to work in a family atmosphere where everyone is aligned by a love for music and recording is like a dream come true. Our customers come first and our main mission is to help them find new ways to inspire their art and improve their workflows on a daily basis. That's a mission that truly feels good to be a part of.

What is your favorite album of all time and why?
Harvest by Neil Young or The Band’s self-titled record. The soul, the feel, the songwriting and how they were recorded are all amazing to me. Neil and Levon Helm are icons and I play those records constantly.

What do you like to do when you're not working at Vintage King?
Get in the studio and create; I'm still actively producing and engineering records whenever I can. While not in the studio though, I like to get out on the water and relax with friends. Michigan has beautiful lakes and I've been out floating on them since I was a kid.

Meet the Rest of the Team