Loss of industry leaders

[Matthjs]

Over the last year we’ve lost a couple of luthier titans in Bill Collings and Preston Thompson. Both built their businesses by taking the Martin playbook and gently expanding it to create some really phenomenal guitars that stand up on their own. Bill Collings was a master at creating enthusiasm for his vision on how guitars should sound and play. He did it without making me feel like he was trying to sell me something. He just loved making great instruments. Preston Thompson was a more shy and reserved type who simply produced stunningly great instruments. In his most recent videos he sits there quietly but proudly watching like a parent as someone strums their new instrument for the first time. That approach draws people to the product. The instruments speak for themselves.

In this day and age of over hyped salesmanship for everything purchased, I for one am going to miss these two. Guitars are not like buying a car. They are extremely personal acquisitions. These guys got that. They let the music speak for them. I’m going to miss that!

[gmel555]

Yes, these two were a very large part of creating the wonderful acoustic guitar age we live in. I knew less of Thompson than Collings, but by all accounts they were both gentleman who -as Dan Fogelberg once wrote- “ (their) blood runs through (our) instrument(s).”

[JC.]

I wasn't aware that Preston Thompson had died. His company only came onto my radar a year or so ago (perhaps because I'm in the UK).

Agree with the OP's sentiment about the human qualities it takes to produce these beautiful instruments so consistently.

[Mr. Jelly]

Leaders of all sorts are passing. The time when a person learned and experienced an industry from the ground up is gone. Now days somebody has an idea that works and they are billionaires. But they are not experienced leaders or managers and haven't formed their ethics or done any real work. They can be any type of person that hasn't withstood the test of time. They just had an idea that clicked.