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'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.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.
We have several small equity owners plus a couple larger shareholders that make up the private holdings of PK Thompson Guitars, LLC. The board is made up of Jamey Hampton, Christine Funk and Julie Thompson. Dan Stewart has retired recently after many years of dedication to the company.