The North American Guitar
About us
Home of the world’s finest guitars
The North American Guitar is the home of the world’s finest guitars. Representing the greatest luthiers and handmade guitar brands on the planet, TNAG is the number one destination for discerning players and collectors alike both online and in their showroom in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee.
Together with an incredible passion for everything that is high-end steel-string guitar, and with music running through their veins, The North American Guitar has grown from a passion project in London to a world-renowned guitar store.
As the number one destination for the finest guitars, TNAG’s mission has always been to bring the very best guitars to the most discerning players and provide a superlative customer experience both in-store and online.
Meet the team
Board
Founder
Robert J Montague
The North American Guitar was founded by entrepreneur and keen blues guitarist Robert Montague CBE in 2010. Having experienced first-hand the pleasure of owning a bespoke instrument he decided to start a new company to bring the work of the guitar builders of this new Golden Age to wider attention. Before this, there was nobody in the UK with the experience and expertise to offer a true bespoke service for discerning players. The North American Guitar was born!
Chairman
Simon Morse
Since leading the management buy out of the marine division of Inchcape PLC, Simon has chaired a series of private equity backed businesses specialising in the service sector with established brands looking to achieve accelerated growth through either M&A or disrupting traditional markets by expanding the range of scope of their specialist services through digitisation
Co-founder and CEO
Ben Montague
Ben has been a vital part of The North American Guitar's growth since it was just an idea over coffee with his father in early 2010. An established singer-songwriter and touring musician in his own right, Ben's love of bespoke guitars has led to him using the work of several prominent luthiers in front of audiences of thousands. With accolades from BBC Radio 2 including Album (Tales of Flying and Falling) and Single Of The Week (Haunted) and high-profile tours with some of the biggest names in the UK music scene.
Director, Magenta Parnters
Max Hallam
Max is an InvestmentAssociate at Magenta Partners and has over 10 years’ experience working in bothfinance and industry.
Management
Managing Partner
Kim Sherman
Kim has been playing guitar since she was 13 and writing songs since she was 16. She grew up on a western Kentucky farm and came to Nashville to be a songwriter. She studied guitar, English Literature, and history at Belmont University, graduating Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English and History. After working for some time in the music and book industries, Kim found herself ‘on the other side of the counter’ at Cotten Music where she had years to work on moving from full introvert to partial extrovert. Co-owner of the shop for the past 23 years, and now Managing Partner at The North American Guitar, Kim loves her work of matching her customers with instruments that suit them best.
Director of Marketing
Guy Little
Having studied journalism at university in England, Guy started his career as a journalist with the BBC. With his passion for news reporting and storytelling firmly set, Guy moved into local journalism working for regional newspapers before venturing into international consumer music magazines for six years where he combined his love of guitars and passion for storytelling. Guy then moved into the world of technology where he spent the next seven years running global content and marketing teams for Fortune 500 companies right through to tech start-ups across North America and Europe. When Guy’s not writing about music or tech, he’s reading le Carré in preparation for the not-so-inevitable call to be the next George Smiley.
Chief Financial Officer
Eric Bergesen
Eric has over 20 years of experience as an investment banker, financial consultant, and chief financial officer. He was the original CFO for Medalogix LLC, a venture backed home health care technology company, and Employment Staffing Group, a staffing business with over 30 branches across the Southeast, prior to its sale. He most recently served as CFO of Healthcare Value Analytics, which was acquired by EvidenceCare, Inc. in June 2021. Eric has a BA in English and Economics from Cornell University, an MA in English from Louisiana State University, and an MBA with honors from Vanderbilt University. He lives in Nashville with his wife, two sons, and rescue basset hound Billie.
Sales
Head of Sales, UK
Richard Poll
Richard is a trained rock and pop acoustic and electric guitarist, reading music at the University of Chichester and working as a professional musician and guitar tutor before developing a digital marketing career in the professional audio and musical instrument industries which resulted in the global coordination of brand marketing for Chinese microphone manufacturer sE Electronics and British pro audio brands MunroSonic and Aston Microphones.
Head of Sales, US
Jordan Santiago
Jordan has a life-long dedication to exploring music across multiple genres, on multiple instruments. His journey began studying classical violin, but it was when he discovered the versatility, and sheer variety, of acoustic plectrum instruments that he finally felt at home. His time spent on the road touring and recording as a side man has sparked a particular interest in finding instruments with unique voices that occupy their own place in the mix, and although he has a fairly extensive collection, he insists that every instrument does something different. These days he spends his time flipping between mandolin family instruments and guitar as part of a duo with his wife, Lindsay, who is also part of the TNAG team. To ensure that not every second of his day is spent thinking about music theory, or what instrument to play it on, he also makes time for spending time outdoors, running, and playing the occasional game of chess.
Head of Electrics
Joel Bauman
Joel brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with him from Chicago, where he worked in the guitar industry for years. Though he may be especially passionate about vintage Gibsons, his energy and enthusiasm for all things electric guitar goes way beyond, encompassing everything from the big shops to boutique builders.
Marketing
Digital Marketing Manager
Scott Frans
Scott has over 15 years of digital marketing experience in the music industry, but his passion for guitars has taken up most of his free time. After studying New Media at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Scott moved to Nashville where he managed digital strategy for record labels, artist management, the Grand Ole Opry, and Country Music Association. He combines his passion and experience as Digital Marketing Manager for TNAG. Scott lives in Nashville with his wife and two daughters, and still spends his free time looking at guitars online.
Head of Graphic Design
Chris Sweeney
Chris has over 20 years’ experience as a graphic designer, both in-house and agency side. Starting off in the world of magazine publishing and working on exhibition design and event branding he creates all of TNAG’s marketing, branding and video assets and has finally started to learn to play guitar so he can try and keep up with his TNAG colleagues.
Digital Marketing Manager
Annie Wheeler
Luthier Annie Wheeler studied Guitar Building at London's South Thames College before becoming Assistant Luthier to TNAG acoustic roster member Rory Dowling aka Taran Guitars. Annie's in-depth knowledge of lutherie and the building process means you'll often find her with TNAG Bespoke customers appreciating the subtleties of bracing, line and voicing.
Content and Sales Manager
Lindsay Straw
Lindsay, though born and raised in Montana, spent over a decade in Boston, MA before joining the TNAG team in Nashville. There she forged strong connections in the acoustic folk and Celtic scenes, performing and recording both solo and in traditional Irish bands, and touring and playing festivals in and beyond New England. She also taught at Cambridge’s legendary Passim School of Music, and served on the organizing board for the Boston Celtic Music Festival. When not taking photos, writing guitar descriptions, or helping customers find their perfect fingerstyle guitar, you’ll find her playing music in a duo with her husband Jordan, or out enjoying one of Nashville’s many vegan restaurants.
Videographer & Media Manager
Thien Phan
Thien is an experienced videographer, photographer, and editor with a demonstrated history of working in the music industry. Born in Bangkok, Thailand as a Vietnamese refugee, Thien’s family moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1985 to seek a new life. At the age of 15, his dad taught him a few chords on the guitar which led to his desire to pursue music. He auditioned and got accepted into the Nashville School of the Arts guitar program. In 2006, he graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in Music Business and Production Technology. Thien spent the next 13 years working in the music business as a music video director, touring videographer and photographer working with Grammy-Award winning artists such Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Bela Fleck, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill. Today, he spends his time off the road to focus more on family while still pursuing his love for music and the arts.
Operations & Finance
Operations Manager
Nick Davison
Nick is a Nashville-based guitarist who is part of the TNAG foundations: looking after customers, organizing stock, fulfilling orders, packing guitars, checking inventory… you name it, Nick’s on it. If he’s not doing any of the aforementioned, you’ll find him in front of the camera leading our Presents videos and talking about the guitars he loves the most.
Logistics Manager
Sarah Eitel
Sarah is a guitarist and singer/songwriter originally from Southeast Michigan. She plays guitar in various bands located in the Nashville area in addition to performing as a solo act. She is happy to apply the experience she’s gained working for a customs broker towards running the logistics side of TNAG. She understands how important the right guitar is to the creative process, and she loves working with customers and luthiers to ensure that TNAG provides the best vehicle for musicians everywhere to reach their creative goals. In her free time, Sarah enjoys going to see live music, reading books about indie/punk subculture, and rollerblading with her French bulldog, Sheldon.
Financial Controller
Amy Calvert
Financial Controller Amy has been with the company since 2017 and has watched it grow from a three man team in London to the amazing team now in Nashville as well as the UK.
Dealing with the day to day back of office means she gets a front seat view of the companies amazing growth and now knows more about guitars than she ever thought she would!
Finance Manager
Beth Fiete
Beth is our finance manager. Coming in from a billion dollar healthcare company, she has years of experience with multitudes of all things accounting. She graduated from University of Wisconsin, Parkside, with a Bachelors in Accounting and migrated to Nashville shortly after. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, Ariana and goldendoodle Kali, travelling to new places and reading.
Operations Assistant
Grayson Jones
Grayson works in our operations department to ensure guitars are inspected upon arrival, are set up to customer requirements, and are packaged safely and securely for dipatch.
Join the team!
If you’d like to join the TNAG team, we’re always on the lookout for passionate guitar afficionados. Check out our vacancies and apply today!
