I’m sitting down having a cup of coffee about a month ago banging my head off a desk, trying to get my head around some feature or other for a design… it’s nearing something like some sort of brain training exercise gone wrong]. G. Ryan is on. I think ‘flippit thats all I need…’ But the chap on the phone intrigues me…. and all I can think about is how on Gods earth did he end up doing that for a living, by 34 years of age. I picked up the phone and called Alastair. This is my interview with Alastair of Emerald Guitars….
stevie vai's guitar
- i used to grow plants under my bed. you woke up one morning and thought ‘i wanna build a guitar…….. I have always been fascinated by guitars for as long as I can remember but never had the opportunity to learn to play until I was 18. Its weird my memory is pretty unreliable but I think I can remember every guitar I encountered growing up. I was the Kid saying “lets have a look at that mister” When I went to college I met a great guitar player and he started introducing me to guitarists like Steve vai and Satriani and after hearing their music I went out and bought my first guitar within a couple of weeks. I never really became a great player but while working in St.Louis building Formula 1 race boats I got inspired to try to build a guitar. I came back to Ireland and tried and got hooked and the rest as they say is history.
- when i was 24 i set up my own business. very different to the hobby. most people laughed. how did you go from i think i’d like to - to putting everything in the air. I have always been a bit of an entrepreneur aver since my first business making Boomerangs at the age of 11. I had my own packaging printed up and sold about 2,000 of them before moving on to other things and yes they really did come back. The guitars started out as a hobby but me being me it soon became a business. It took 4 years of hard development before I sold my first guitar and that was probably guitar number 50. It takes a long time to develop the knowledge and skills required to do this and there were times when I questioned my own sanity but I rarely give up on something and thankfully through hard work it has all paid off.
- who bought your first guitar & for how much. He was called Derek Burns and I think it was about €750 The second was for Steve Vai!
- have you ever thought - i’ve made it. this is *the* one. when? I think the first time I felt like that was when Something I built made my hero Steve Vai say “Holy Shit thats amazing” That was when I delivered the Ultra zone guitar to him at his home in LA. Thats something I’ll never forget.
- whats the cheapest guitar you ever sold. The cheapest guitar I currently sell is my X5 which costs €595 but the cheapest I have ever sold was the one Pearce Quigley didnt pay me for.
- have you ever sold a guitar to a person you didnt think would appreciate it No I think every customer appreciates my guitars but certainly not every customer can play them
- how long does it take you to make one guitar - shortest time versus longest time ever Some very basic models can be made in a couple of days but the longest was the Ultra Zone for Steve Vai which I estimate I put 1,000 hours into.
- when i was in south africa with the niall mellon township - i saw a guitar made from a castrol gtx can - whats the most unusual you’ve ever made or seen.The most unusual guitar I have ever made is the Dragon guitar I made for Lee Hom from Taiwan. The body of the guitar is a Chinese Dragon coiled into the shape of a treble cleff. It would also be the most unusual guitar I have ever seen as well.
- if you were to compare one of your guitars to a song what would it be.Thats a tough one. I cant say I can think of one.
- i heard you on the G Ryan show. How the flip did you get that gig? Its easy you just send him a text saying your going to Kuala Lumpur to see Asia’s biggest star using a guitar you built in the shape of a Dragon. Thats usually enough to get an enquisitive reply
- do you get free tickets for gigs & will you be going to electric picnic. I do get free tickets to Gigs but not near often enough. I would love to go to the electric picnic! Do you know where I can get free tickets?
- Ryan says he can get Bono a guitar of yours. [you website says he has one..... ] What’ll that do for you? Ryan says alot of things and hopefully this one comes true but………….Well Bono having one of my guitars would do nothing for me unless he uses it in public. It would be great to see Irelands most famous son playing an Irish guitar. It would be nice but I wouldnt consider it my greatest achievement.
- how did you get the steve vai gig?I had the Idea to build the Ultra Zone guitar which appeared as a drawing on the cover of the Ultra Zone album. It was a really unusual shape but I knew I could build it.I saw Steve Vai signing autographs at a guitar exhibition in LA and I went up to him and told him my idea. I think he thought I was crazy but gave me his assistants email address. What followed was 1,000 hours of painstaking work to be sure it would blow him away and it did!
- have you ever made a guitar and the chap goes ‘ah i dont like it?’ and you go ‘what the fork?!!’ Thankfully that has not happened to a customer but in case it does I always offer a money back guarantee. The last thing I would want would be someone having a guitar they didnt like.
- do you think enda kenny is a spanner? No because a spanner can be very useful!
- coffee or tea? COFFEE !!! A hazelnut capucinno with an extra espresso shot is pure heaven!
- do you know anto? No but maybe I should
- gimme a guitar? Gimme a landscaped garden!
- whats your favourite t-shirt? My 1988 AeroSmith world tour t shirt the same as the one Garth wore in Waynes World
- so barrack obama calls you tomorrow….do go ‘Jasus Barrack…. whats the cluckin’ story horsebox’ or do you go ‘shoite…. its flippin’ Obama on the flippin’ phone’……..? I’d probably say Chris stop winding me up I have work to do and then when I realise its the real deal ask him if he needed a guitar for the Oval office. Now that would be good for business
- if mary mc carthy [joe punter] wants to get one of your guitars how do they go about it…?The easiest way to get me is by email at [email protected] or you can find all my contact details on www.emeraldguitars.com but be warned I am not so good at answering the phone while I am working but I do answer messages.When you do get me then we can get down to creating a custom hand crafted guitar.
- i almost interviewed Aidan Bishop [the comedian] but he never replied to my email. You did. That makes you the most famous person i’ve ever interviewed. Would you recommend me to interview anyone else you know [famous]. Why? If I am the most famous person you have interviewed then I pity you because they dont even know me at the local shop.I recon you should interview Steve Vai. He has some interestng stories to tell!
- britney spears is going to play the 02 Dublin. Will you go? Thats one concert I probably wouldnt go to even if I got a free ticket! Have you got any free tickets?
- ben kenealy thinks *he’s all that* is he? I think he probably is?
- dave from Dublins 98fm got me into trouble with ‘her indoors’ - she made him rhubarb crumble and I ate it. Would you like some pie? What advice would you give to dave? Yes I would love some pie. Rhubarb would go down a treat with some custard.I think Dave should have your wife make him pie at his house where you cant get in the way! But beware Rhubarb pie can so easily lead to Apple pie!
- after this interview - whats the best one you’ve ever done? I think after this the next best interview was the one that only had 25 questions.
alastair of emerald guitars
Great interview. They’re some guitars
wonderful!
it’s like something from a Rodney Mattews drawing.
Love the organic feel of it.
http://www.rodneymatthews.com/main.htm
Peter,
That’s one of the most entertaining interviews I’ve ever read. No offense but the subject matter of the interview (guitar building) didn’t inspire me at all, but your questions and Alastair’s replies - brilliant. Great fun to read. More please.
D.
That’s brilliant! Well done.. it’s like how it’s made in interview form!