CHRIS EUDY w/ THIRD COAST GUITAR

Who would you say is most to blame for your having come down with rock & roll pneumonia?  My folks were only 16 years old when I was born in 1970 so I had a pretty good record collection growing up. I would have to say Led Zeppelin was my first rock and roll love affair, but it was The Police who made me want to play guitar and be in a band.

What are your 5 favorite guitar solos of all-time?

Buddy Holly-“That’ll Be The Day” …Jimmy Page-“Whole Lotta Love”….Robert Quine-“Girlfriend” (Matthew Sweet …..Jim Babjak- “Girl Like You” (Smithereens)…..David Hidalgo/Cesar Rosas- “Mas y Mas”

What was your first guitar and what is your axe of choice these days? Do you collect at all?  My first guitar was my mom’s Yamaha FG acoustic, but I guess my first solely owned guitar was a Yamaha SBG200, kind of like an SG Special copy. Great guitar! My number one these days is a guitar built at our shop by Robert Daniel. it is a 1959 copy of a Les Paul Junior but with an ebony board, stainless steel frets and in cherry red. I don’t really collect guitars, I only have about 5 guitars that I play regularly and a few mutts lying around.

Outside of the household name brands, any new guitars on the market that have caught your eye at Third Coast Guitars?  My favorite right now are the Wild Custom Guitars. They are out of France and they have a really classic look with a twist and they are remarkably built.

Is the guitar ‘set-up’ still the life blood of the business or has that changed over the years? 

That has change a bit over the years. We’ve become more nationally known for our restorative work and for doing higher end repair. We do a ton more vintage restoration these days, but fret levels and set ups are still a big part of what we do every day.

What is the strangest client request (in terms of guitars) that you’ve ever had?   We get weird requests all the time! The most recent one is taking a Parker Fly guitar, putting in a Sustainiac, and acoustic Piezo pickup and a midi driver. It is going to look like an aircraft carrier inside! We have folks request to make their vintage guitars look like new a lot as well. I never have understood that but, as we say in the shop, “it ain’t my guitar”.

Music fills the air 24/7 there in the land of the cobbler: what 5 bands would you say have gotten the most shop air-time over the years?  With the advent of Internet Radio, we listen to all sorts of different stuff these days and rarely listen to stuff over and over again these days, but if you count the years of cassettes and CDs…

Yes (unfortunately for me, I hate prog rock)

The Darkness

UFO

Thin Lizzie

David Bowie

Would you ever consider a Third Coast mobile app and, if so, what might it do?

I have thought about it! I think it would have a tuner, a few maps of guitar anatomy (like what each part of an electric and acoustic guitar are called, people get things like bridge and saddle mixed up a lot), maybe a chart of things to look for when buying a used or new guitar.

What Gooey record is the bands St. Pepper’s? …any plans to finish the White Album?

We are actually getting ready to release a new album called “Rodgers Park” We are going to release it for free on the interwebs and press vinyl for sale at gigs. Vinyl is cool again.

If you could smash any guitar what would it be and why? (have you ever smashed a guitar?)  We actually smash broken, useless guitars all the time! Manufacturers have us smash cheap guitars that have twisted necks and what not a good bit. There are some pretty good photos and a video of us playing “guitar baseball” on or Facebook page. We try to keep it light most of the time, it’s just guitars, it’s not like we are doctors in an ER. You have to be careful when you smash Ovation guitars since they are made out of that composite. It can bounce back at you and smack you in the head. It’s always nice to smash the Keith Urban guitars they sell on Home Shopping Network. Those guitars are such crap and they have Keith Urban’s Picture on them.

Can you provide a ‘state-of-the-union’ for the Floyd Rose tremolo?   The Floyd Rose is still strong! There is still no unit that really provides the tuning stability of a Floyd if you really want to get your whammy on. The Kahler is really good as well for that but Floyd Rose still reigns supreme. Coupled with the GraphTech saddles, there just isn’t anything that comes close.

MATT FEDDERMANN

How did your love affair with rock & roll begin? As a kid listening to Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Elvis, Jerry Lee and more on 104.3 the oldies station in Chicago. My Dad was/is a big oldies fan and that radio station was all he ever listened to. “Smoke on the Water,” “Wild Thing” or “Iron Man” are the first songs most guitarists learn. Mine was “That’ll Be The Day” and “It’s So Easy”.

What were the first three albums you ever purchased and which of those holds up best today to you? Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Run DMC Raising Hell and Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood. Thriller holds up best to me, hands down.

When did you start writing songs and how do they ‘come together’ for you most often? 7th/8th grade with my very first band, Vertigo. Songs come in many ways. Sometimes I’ll be driving a melody with pop in my head, or, I’ll hear a phrase that I like and will write a song around it. Sometimes, I’ll be jamming with other musicians and we write the music and then lyrics will follow.

You’ve managed to carve out a nice niche on the north shore by being a respected ‘jack of all trades’, how has your business model evolved over the past few years ?  My business model hasn’t changed all that much. With the internet and all of the social media resources as my disposal, communicating with fans is much easier on one hand and on the other takes three times as long. I literally work all day to book shows, promote shows, create content to increase my brand awareness, etc..

What advice do you give to young bands trying to build a following and, in turn, get better gigs? A few thing. The BIGGEST thing is to be friendly and outgoing. I try to meet as many people at gigs as possible. Anytime someone gives me a tip, a compliment, a thumbs up, a high five, anything, I make sure to introduce myself and ask them their name. A 30 second engagement can mean a new long term fan. Your fans can be and are your biggest promoters. The more people that come to your shows, the better the bigger the gigs will grow, the more opportunities will open up along with making more money.

Do you have to become Facebook (say hey to Matt) exhibitionists to play the game?  If you are not on social media, you are at a severe disadvantage. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.. Ever walk into a bar to play a gig and everyone is staring at their phones and not you. Chances are they are on one of the previously mentioned sites. Get your “b(r)and” in front of as many eyeballs as possible. A large number of the population spends hours a day staring at their electronic device.

Years ago it seemed as if the Chicago music media shunned artists / bands that came out of the north shore as if they didn’t deserve the coverage; in fact many bands sought to hide the fact so they weren’t labeled as ‘rich brats: does this hold true at all today? Ya know, the scene is so much different these days. Music oriented local Chicago media has shrunk considerably in the last 10 years. Local Anesthetic on WXRT is only 30 minutes on Sunday nights (does anyone listen to terrestrial radio anymore?). Illinois Entertainer only seems to cover the south and western suburbs. Cover bands are a PLENTY these days.

In Chicago, much as in NYC, often musicians get put in one category or another: either your a working musician or an artist…. Is one the dream job and the other vehicle? I’ve been struggling with that for YEARS and I think I’ve finally found a balance. I have two very different song writing styles. One of very acoustic based and the other electric guitar/keys/synth based. I market them differently. I do my acoustic singer/songwriter originals and covers thing in the suburbs where you can make money and use some of that money to pay for my “original artist” project called Monsoons. I keep specific email and facebook lists that are geographically based. I rarely send updates regarding my acoustic covers thing to gatekeepers and decision makers in Chicago and abroad, I send them Monsoons updates. It’s not an easy thing to do and it takes a lot of time, but, it’s doable. My gigs at local restaurants and bars in the burbs has paid for the recording sessions & music video first few Monsoons songs. In fact, producer/mix wizard Sean O’Keefe (Fallout Boy, Plain White T’s) is mixing the first single. – Matt Feddermann