Thompson OM MA Regency Torch

Preston Thompson Guitars build handmade flattops in Sisters, Oregon — the shop Preston Thompson founded after decades studying pre-war Martin construction. Preston came up under Charles Fox at his Vermont guitar school in the 1970s and then through Randy Wood's Old Time Pickin' Parlor in Nashville, but his defining education was the years he spent with bluegrass great Charles Sawtelle measuring his collection of pre-war Martin dreadnoughts — measurements that still drive the shop's bracing patterns and top graduations today. The instruments were chosen as winner's prize at the National Flatpicking Championships three years running, and players including Eric Bibb and Sawtelle himself put them on records. Preston passed away in 2019, and the team he had spent years training continued the work in the same Sisters shop using the same methods and the same hands.