Music

Pedals Plus

local music scene veteran opens own music shop

Eric Christenson, photos by Brian Buell |

When not laying down bass lines for what seems like hundreds of local  bands, Eric “Pedals” Thompson has been busy opening his own music shop in downtown Eau Claire’s Phoenix Park area.
 
When not laying down bass lines for what seems like hundreds of local bands, Eric “Pedals” Thompson has been busy opening his own music shop in downtown Eau Claire’s Phoenix Park area.

Eric “Pedals” Thompson is what you could call a sporadic enigma in the Eau Claire music scene. If you haven’t seen him pop up around town in, oh, 7,000 bands (including Jim Pullman, Dead Dogs, Snifter, Eau Claire Blues All-Stars, and Excellent Adventure) in the last few years, you might have seen him at Brickhouse Music downtown.

But now, Thompson has moved on, just across the river to the Phoenix Park Neighborhood for a more Pedals-centric take on music stores with Pedals Plus.  

“I’m hoping to give better service, faster service, and a little more payback to musicians,” Thompson said.

In addition to having cool, unique, used, and vintage instruments, the new store (at 313 E. Madison St. next to Tempo coffee shop) will (naturally) feature the reason for the namesake: pedals.

“It’s a lot of pedals,” Thompson added to succinctly drive his point home. Thompson hopes to collaborate with the Dwarfcraft dudes (local pedal-making masters) to really give the area a store that’ll turn sighs of “just-another-music-shop” into a resounding “holy cats!” and “this place rules!” or “EC forever!” Something like that.

But rather than only sell equipment, Thompson said Pedals Plus aims to be a more community-based effort, cooperating with other businesses in the “growing and fun” Phoenix Park area by hosting in-store concerts and clinics and also co-sponsoring and promoting community events.

“I want to cater more to needs, and not just the wants of musicians,” Thompson said.

Currently, the new store has no set date that the doors will blow off with slightly altered guitar tones, but Thompson optimistically said they’re hoping to unleash their pedal power all over the place sometime in July if not sooner.

So if your itchin’ to get your hands on some of Pedals’ best pedals and even more pedals, you’re just going to have to wait ‘til July.