Meet The Shop Crew

It’s no accident that we’re situated in Sisters, Oregon, a town with a national reputation for Americana and roots music. Our shop is located right next door to The Belfry, an iconic music venue that also happens to be a converted church built in 1914. Each fall, the annual Sisters Folk Festival celebrates American music from folk to bluegrass to blues, drawing people from every corner of the country.

Our shop is always humming with the sound of power tools and music. Life is good and we are busy working to get more guitars into the hands of talented players, while still closely maintaining our personalized, handcrafted quality. If you find yourself in Sisters, stop by to say hello, tour the shop, and play a guitar.

Gareth Jenkins

Vocier and builder

Gareth's woodworking skills started in crafting furniture and accessory lines that he sold in galleries and his skills were honed over many years. The first musical instruments he made were Appalachian dulcimers that he crafted for his friends and family. His deep love of music and his woodworking skills would eventually lead him to study guitar building at the Charles Fox School of Luthiery. He was then fortunate to be able to apprentice with his friend and mentor, the master builder John Greven, who taught him the art of voicing vintage style guitars.

Gareth met Preston in 2012 at the River City Music Festival where Preston was exhibiting a few of his guitars. They kept in touch and then Preston floated the idea of Gareth moving to Sisters and helping him take his one man operation to another level. Gareth has been here ever since filling many roles over the last 7 years. He is responsible for voicing all the guitars using his skills to hand graduate the tops, brace each guitar and then carving the braces to maximize the response and the sound.

His long time love of playing Bluegrass music and being one of the hosts for KBOO radio's "Music from the True Vine" also helps us hone in on the various players on the scene and in reaching out to people interested in these types of guitars.

Here is a recent article from the Oregon Bluegrass Association about his radio show, his love of bluegrass and art of guitar making.

OBA Express summer 2020 cover story

Simon Haycraft

Inlay, Builder & Finisher

Simon is originally from the UK and has been in Central Oregon for over 15 years. He attended the “A” Level Art, Stratford-upon-Avon College and then received a National Diploma in Design – fine art, graphics and photography. His interest in the outdoors led him to pursue a Higher National Diploma in Wildlife Illustration adding to his artistic education. Simon loves the marriage of art, craftsmanship and technology, which guitar making incorporates all of these elements. His interest in wood and working with a natural product, along with his talent with paint finishes works well with expressing his artistic ideas in the color work on our sunbursts and designing special inlays for custom guitars. He is a keen fisherman and this inspires other art projects, outside of guitar making, that focus on his fascination with lakes and rivers and the creatures that inhabit them. Water has become a recurring theme in his work and he uses a variety of media in pursuit of its depiction. We can't say enough of what Simon contributes to the look and feel of a Thompson guitar.

Peter Daggatt

Finish Department

Peter studied music at University of Oregon with guitar as his concentrated instrument. During his time in Eugene he was introduced to old time and bluegrass through the band Watertower, who he as played with on and off for over ten years. This band continues to play today, and at times, Peter joins them on tours in between working in finish at Thompson guitars. We met Peter in Sisters when he came into the shop to check out our guitars. The crew knew Peter had some painting background and we were looking for a trainee in finish and it seemed like a great fit. Jason Hardesty, the finish guru, is passing on his knowledge of all the details one must know to create the perfection we are known for in the look of each guitar. Peter has expanded into learning how to build bodies, make rosettes and helps with top/back glue up and brace material. He is eager to learn all aspects of guitar making and has become a valuable member of the team.

Olivia Elia

Body-Building

Olivia is an artist with a hands-on philosophy that is applied to her photography, woodworking, teaching, and life. After graduating from UCLA, where she studied Fine Arts, Olivia embarked on a journey to deepen her understanding of the arts she is passionate about. She spent some time in the mountains teaching Fly-Fishing, and then dove into the world of woodworking. She began to build bamboo fly fishing rods from there to ukuleles. After building a guitar she found her way to Sisters, Oregon and is excited about the new direction in guitar building. She loves feeling connected to the wood in the dance of building musical instruments. Olivia likes to spend her free time learning new skills in her wood shop and tinkering with little projects like investigating the mechanics of her camera so she can use it in a new way or researching a river's ecosystem so she can tie a fly that the fish will bite. She also plays a mean upright bass and has been playing since 4th grade. We are happy to have her join the team in building bodies and binding.

Bud Bown

Body-Building and CNC

Bud Bown recently joined the Thompson crew, moving to Central Oregon from Utah. The Bend area has been a place he has always wanted to explore. Bud took up guitar to foster his musical ambitions while growing up in Utah. In high school he became interested in wood working and the connection between his guitar playing and learning about woodcraft blended together, inspiring him to go to the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair. While there he realized that the direction for him was high-end building that included all the fine details and refinement which exciting him to pursue a job in the industry. He realized that to get the best education after school was to find a boutique builder that was looking to share their knowledge to continue building on his foundation. Each guitar has a unique voice and he is inspired by the musicians that will breath life into that instrument. He is thrilled to be here and we are happy to show him the way!

Ryan Ediger

Lead Set-up

Ryan joined Thompson guitar crew over a year ago in the set-up department. He started playing guitar in high school and is a Northwest native from Gaston, Oregon. After working in several different fields, he decided that his love of music and woodworking was where he wanted to concentrate his talents and took the path of becoming a luthier. He chose to start his training with a few classes at the American School of Luthier with Charles Fox. After realizing that this was his true calling, he saved up the funds to go to the Galloup School of Guitar Building for an intensive master’s program. His love of details and fine woodworking are the perfect combination for our set-up room with the level of attention we give to each of our guitars. He is an accomplished finger-style player adding to his ability to hear tone and nuances as he completes the final processes in string-up. We are very happy to have him onboard and it is funny how things work out because initially we wanted to hire him but unfortunately, he had a car accident and had to decline our first offer. Recently we reconnected, and he was able to start even though there was a pandemic looming. We are happy to have him employed and he is now based in Central Oregon.

Jason Watkins

Set-Up

Jason Watkins recently transplanted from Hawaii to Sisters and is bringing along his set-up knowledge. He was an apprentice under master luthier Chris Davis of BR Fret Shop in Honolulu for several years. His production chops come from the high-end boutique shop - Kanile'a Ukuleles - where he was a final assembly tech. He is looking forward to learning all aspects of luthiery and perfecting the processes we have here at Thompson guitars. His wife and sweet dog will be exploring Oregon this summer and are happy to set up shop in our little town of Sisters.

Matt Behnke

Set-Up Department

Matt has had a long standing career in wood working and music. He spent many years in Nashville with his wife Jenny and the have a duo called SkyBound Blue. He is a master craftsman and is thrilled to be here at Thompson part-time learning the art of finish. His skill set is perfect to make our guitars shine and sanded carefully between all the spray days. We appreciate his positive nature and look forward to having him around for years to come adding master finisher to his list of accolades. He enjoys living in the small town of Sisters and being a great dad to his son Max. He looks forward to making more music with his wife Jenny play around Sisters more often to share their soulful sounds.

Storm Wolf

Whitewood and Finish

Storm Wolf Storm joined us in late 2024 and we could not be more happy to have this dedicated craftsman at one of our benches. Actually he has many benches as he performs a variety of skills at our shop from finish work, the start process of gluing up back and tops, bracing all the backs, rosette work and learning some CNC tasks. He is always helpful and happy to keep learning and perfecting how we do things here at Thompson guitars. He came from the Colorado mountains from an artistic family, landing back in the Oregon mountains and we are grateful.

Christine Funk

CEO, General Manager, Sales

Christine Funk has recently become an equity owner and now CEO/General Manager of Thompson Guitars running the day-to-day operations with the team of talented crew members. After Preston's passing she has stepped up and is the point of contact for sales and customer service with the help of each crew member and their area of expertise never far away to lean on for additional information the customer might need. She has a long career in producing commercials as well as directing several documentaries via her company South 40 Films. The Tao of Bluegrass, A Portrait of Peter Rowan was the film project that ultimately led her to Thompson Guitars. Peter Rowan purchased a Thompson back in the 1980's at Winfield and still plays it, along with his other special guitars, today. Christine learned from her friend that lives in Sisters about Thompson guitars being located next to The Belfry where she was showing her film about Peter and a connection was made. Thompson guitars was in need of a multi-tasker, production oriented type producer to help move the company into the future and Christine was ready to move back to Oregon with her family making it a perfect match for a new job. She has helped in all aspects of the business to expand Thompson guitars and solidifying its reputation into the boutique guitar market.

Joe Maloney

Shop Facilities

Joe is the guy you can call about anything - he will help out even if it is late at night. Thank you for your dedication to keeping things clean and fixing what needs fixing.

Consultants

We are grateful and thankful for all the help over the years at Thompson Guitars. Here are the past crew that all had a big hand in the foundation of our shop setting us up for success and working with Preston.

Kaleb Klein provided his expertise with jigs/fixtures as well as binding, building and design. He was a key player in getting the shop set up to make more than one guitar at a time.

Scott Salgado provided training sharing his high-end binding techniques of 45 styles and beyond.

Joel Chadd was an integral part of the main team that worked under Preston in the set up department. He is a full time musician now and works with his wife Sheila Dunn in their art business.

David Peto stops by once and awhile and we know he is there if we needed anything- he was part of our set up department and the initial crew that laid the foundation for our shops success.

Jamison Owens excelled in the set-up department, he is now pursing other avenues in the music industry and leather making.

Levi Carbonell-Weiss was part of the set-up crew and loves bluegrass music. He helped us out when we really needed some new talent in the shop. You can probably catch him playing music in Bend as he is part of a new band called Snow Creek.

Jason Hardesty was a huge part of our finish history and will forever be a part of what we do here thanks to Peter who learned so much from Jason for many years.

These crew members worked with Preston for years and their employment is cherished and always will be. We thank them for all their work and inspiration. Preston really put great trust and faith in this crew.

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Meet the Crew