Before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, marketing was done through business cards. A well-done business card demands respect and attention. Case in point: Patrick Bateman in American Psycho shriveling when his business card was outdone by his colleagues. For luthiers, itās a bit more complicated than logo placement, font selection, and what background color exudes more confidence. Their business card is their axe, and the most beneficial way for a luthier to exchange credentials is by getting their guitar directly into a proās hands. Thatās exactly what Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars did when given the chance.
In early May, Currie received an out-of-the-blue call from friend Rob Timmons of Arcane Pickups, notifying him that Queens of the Stone Age were rehearsing nearby and he should stop over. āI couldnāt go over empty-handed because Iām a guitar builderāthatād be embarrassingāso I grabbed a few pieces that I recently completed to introduce myself and my brand,ā Currie remembers. āI met Josh, we shared a laugh, and I welcomed him to try out one of my guitars.ā Homme was immediately taken aback by the Downtowner Custom Koaās beefy neck size (he has a tough time finding necks to fit his hands) and its feedback-resistant P-90s. Homme asked if he could borrow them for a few days to show the rest of the bandāCurrie excitingly obliged.
The next week during tour rehearsals, Homme pulled Currie aside and told him that he, Troy Van Leeuwen, and Dean Fertita were all interested in buying guitars, but only one of the guitars was available for purchase. So Currie agreed to build Troy his own model. āThatās when Joshās eyes lit up and he asked me to build him a custom model, too.ā Van Leeuwenās guitar was fairly easy because Currie had an idea in his head and the templates were based on the Trisonic he found in Leo Fenderās shop while working at G&L. But Hommeās guitar was custom from the ground-up.
āI had no safety net or platform to go off of because of the organic nature of this build. I usually have the benefit of knowing the design and how itāll balance tonally with all the different woods and pickups.ā confesses Currie. āSo other than the aged-neck timbre and the body-chambering, I had no actual knowledge of how the end result would sound, just a familiarity with all the pieces individually.ā
Currie and Homme had several conversations about feel, look, vibe, tones, body size, shapes, pickups, and playability. After hearing the custom Gold Coil in the neck position of Currieās ā59 Custom model, Homme insisted that it be part of the equation. For the bridge position, Currie went with a customwound Arcane UltraāTron. Homme wanted a big neck profile so Currie based it on his early ā59 double-cut Les Paul Jr.āabout .098" at the nut and .115" at the 13th fret. āI like to do a 1938-style āsoft Vā carve and roll it into a ā59 āDā carve at the 9th fret so that it feels natural and fills your hand but remains playable for long gigs,ā Currie says. āItās carved from a 200-year-old piece of Honduran mahogany that came out of the Los Angeles library and the fretboard is old-stock Brazilian I had stashed.ā
For his custom builds, Currie uses old mahogany he amassed while working in the historic restoration of old buildings around Los Angeles and Southern California. āAll of it is very old, very mature, very dry, and very bell-like,ā he says. āI started using it for two reasons: One, because it was old, stable, and resonate. And two, because it was readily available and the best way to get a new guitar to feel, behave, and sound old."
The reclaimed Honduran mahogany body of Hommeās guitar is a chambered, one-piece slab. āWe didnāt chamber it simply for weight-reduction. We agreed during our conversations that the tone of a semi-hollow instrument has the best warmth and growl without the howl [laughs].ā The top is a 300-year-old burl walnut (the knots still have moss and earth in them) and it was outfitted with a trapeze-style tailpiece like one from a very rare ā50s Kay guitar. The headstock is made of nitrate celluloidātortoiseshellāwith a custom-made sterling silver crow skull inlaid in the center. The tuners are aged nickel, pre-war-style, 18:1-ratio Grovers.
āJosh freaked when I finally gave it to him the night they taped the KCRW special in L.A.,ā says Currie. āIt was great seeing him playing it that night at the showcase and it sounded better than I hoped and planned because of its round, creamy articulation. Iāve been a big fan of the band and Iām honored to get the unusual request from an artist like Joshāthatās the type of guitar building I live for.ā
A special thanks to Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars for allowing us to feature this fine piece of gear and its story.