Joel was born and raised in Oregon among a very musical family. His parents were both part of the music scene during the 60’s influencing Joel and his siblings. While Joel was in college he found he enjoyed the expression that comes with making music and learned to play guitar and songwriting.
After living in Bend for several years his father helped with a connection at Bedell, leading him to be hired and learning how to make guitars starting in 2013. After several years at Bedell he wanted to pursue a smaller company to learn all the aspects of guitar building.
He knew several of the crew and was recommended to join the Thompson family. Over the past two years has become an integral part of this company as lead string up, inspections, body building and also helps with graphics and photography.