Mission Statement:
My philosophy is simple: I believe almost any guitar can be made to look, feel, play and sound like a high-end guitar if enough attention to detail is paid to upgrading it, assembling it, and setting it up, and a little artistic flair is added.
Feelgood Guitars is the product of one offset-obsessed musician & tech whose loves for guitars, art, and music combine to create unique custom instruments with a reverence for the classics that inspire them, while daring to get a little weird and wild with colors and design.
Meet the Maker
My name is Christian Hulsey, AKA Charlie Rain, owner/operator of Copacetic Customs. I'm a 26 year old musician, artist, guitar tech, and painter based in Austin, TX. I've been playing guitar since 11 years old after being inspired by Nirvana and Guitar Hero and mastering all the songs on Expert difficulty. (I know guys, kind of a big deal) Ever since I got my very first guitar & subsequently became curious about how it worked, I have always taken apart my instruments, fiddled with them and tweaked them to my liking. Even from that young age I was fascinated with how modular electric guitars are, with just about every piece being able to be customized and upgraded to your liking, be it for aesthetic purposes or to upgrade the stability, playability or sound of the instrument.
This of course led to a new fascination with neon guitar strings and stickers and painting my guitar with paint pens to simulate a "dripping blood" finish. Oh the joys of being a young punk rocker, right? This initial foray into guitar modding and customization gave me confidence to mod pretty much every guitar I had after that and soak up all the knowledge I could along the way.
My guitar obsession stayed strong over the years and led to me eventually getting my first job as a sales associate at a local music store at age 20. There, I quickly proved my aptitude with setups and tech work by grabbing older dusty guitars off the wall in my spare time and making them sing and shine again, addressing and fixing small issues, etc. The positive feedback from customers on guitars I had set up led to me eventually taking on service tickets of my own, despite the store already having other techs. I taught myself the basics of soldering and guitar electronics work, built and refinished guitars of my own on the side, and furthered my craft as a musician while I was there. By the time I was 23, I was taking on more complex jobs like nut replacements, fret levelling, full re-wire jobs, etc. for satisfied customers on a regular basis.
Unfortunately when COVID-19 hit the US in 2020, my small hometown store no longer had work for me as shutdowns forced business to come to a halt. Without work and without a way to satiate my need to fiddle with guitars, I began to refinish and modify guitars at home and resell them to fund the next project. It was a fun hobby at first, until I realized work was not going to come back and things were not going to return to "normal" anytime soon. My gameplan shifted and I decided it was time to use my unique skill set for a new endeavor: I moved to Austin to live with my best friend and started Copacetic Customs in our garage.
And as they say, the rest is history! Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to potentially helping make your dream guitar a reality! Check out the "Gallery" to see finished projects and "FAQ/Pricing" page to read more about what services I offer. Cheers!
