Josh Homme with his newest guitar thanks to Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars.
For luthiers, it's 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 pro's hands. That's exactly what Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars did when given the chance.
The reclaimed Honduran mahogany body of Homme's guitar is a chambered, one-piece slab. 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 '50s Kay guitar.
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. "I couldn't go over empty-handed because I'm a guitar builder—that'd be embarrassing—so I grabbed a few pieces that I recently completed to introduce myself and my brand," Currie remembers. "I met Josh, we shared a laugh, and I welcomed him to try out one of my guitars." Homme was immediately taken aback by the Downtowner Custom Koa's 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 band—Currie excitingly obliged.
"We didn't 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]." The headstock is made of nitrate celluloid−tortoiseshell−with a custom-made sterling silver crow skull inlaid in the center. The tuners are aged nickel, pre-war-style, 18:1-ratio Grovers.
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. "That's when Josh's eyes lit up and he asked me to build him a custom model, too." Van Leeuwen's guitar was fairly easy because Currie had an idea in his head and the templates were based on the Trisonic he found in Leo Fender's shop while working at G&L. But Homme's guitar was custom from the ground-up.
"I 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 it'll balance tonally with all the different woods and pickups." confesses Currie. "So 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."
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 Currie's '59 Custom model, Homme insisted that it be part of the equation. For the bridge position, Currie went with a customwound Arcane Ultra'Tron. Homme wanted a big neck profile so Currie based it on his early '59 double-cut Les Paul Jr.—about .980" at the nut and 1.15" at the 13th fret. "I like to do a 1938-style 'soft V' carve and roll it into a '59 'D' carve at the 9th fret so that it feels natural and fills your hand but remains playable for long gigs," Currie says. "It's 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."
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. "All of it is very old, very mature, very dry, and very bell-like," he says. "I 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 Homme's guitar is a chambered, one-piece slab. "We didn't 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]." 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 '50s Kay guitar. The headstock is made of nitrate celluloid—tortoiseshell—with a custom-made sterling silver crow skull inlaid in the center. The tuners are aged nickel, pre-war-style, 18:1-ratio Grovers.
"Josh freaked when I finally gave it to him the night they taped the KCRW special in L.A.," says Currie. "It 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. I've been a big fan of the band and I'm honored to get the unusual request from an artist like Josh—that's the type of guitar building I live for."
A special thanks to Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars for allowing us to feature this fine piece of gear and its story.
[Updated 10/7/21]
Blues-rock guitarists have squabbled over the last quarter century about what contributed most to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s colossal tone. Some believe it was his heavy-handed attack or the beaten-with-love Strat with an alchemy all its own from a ’63 body, ’62 neck, and ’59 pickups. Perhaps that’s true, but the bedrock of his signature “Texas Flood” firepower was his two 1964 Fender Vibroverb amplifiers.
Introduced in February 1963, the 40-watt Vibroverb was Fender’s first amplifier to feature both onboard tremolo and reverb effects. The first iteration of the 2-channel amp was built with the 6G16 circuit (based on the Vibrolux), two 10" Oxford speakers, and an output transformer from Fender’s Super. It used two 6L6GC power tubes, three 7025s for its preamp and phase inverter, a GZ34 rectifier, and two 12AX7s—each controlling reverb and tremolo. The normal and bright channels both had two inputs and controls for volume, treble, and bass. The bright channel had additional knobs for reverb, and speed and intensity dedicated to the tremolo. Cosmetically, the seminal Vibroverb was covered from head to toe in brown.
The following year, Fender overhauled most of their amp models, including the Super, Twin, and Vibroverb. (The Super was given two more 10" speakers, the Twin was given two 12" speakers, and both were outfitted with reverb.) The second version of the combo saw several modifications, like swapping the two 10" Oxford speakers for a single 15" speaker from either JBL or Jensen. Power-wise, the ’64 Vibro was constructed with an AA763 circuit, 12AT7 tubes for the phase inverter and reverb, and the optical-coupler tremolo that replaced the tweed-style effect. This also marked the first year Fender’s amps were decked out in the now-classic blackface design that incorporates black tolex, a black control panel, and skirted black knobs. In addition, each channel had its own bright switch and the second channel was now labeled vibrato instead of bright.
While SRV’s tech, César Diaz, heavily modded his Vibroverbs—swapping input resistors, coupling capacitors, and countless tubes—the ’64 blackface shown here is nearly mint. “I have seen some nice vintage amps come through the shop, but the rarity and condition of this one is unmatched,” says Zach Smith, store manager of The Minor Chord. “There’s not one crackle to any knob, switch, or jack. We even had a copy of the original bill of sale, all the original paperwork, and the original dust cover is still in great condition.”
Smith and his colleague Gary Supernor test-drove the cherry Vibroverb with three era-correct guitars—a Rickenbacker 330, a ’66 Fender Mustang, and an original mid-’50s Fender Stratocaster. They weren’t surprised when each guitar sounded outstanding. “The Ricky had a nice warm meaty tone,” remembers Smith. “For the Mustang, we cranked the reverb and it was surfing time. And the each pickup position of the ’50s Strat was its own little slice of heaven [laughs]." Smith believes the amp’s original 15" CTS speaker is what makes the ’64 so special. The amp easily handled anything they threw at it and has a nice low-end oomph, he says, but it can maintain a brighter, clearer crispness as you turn up the treble.
The original Vibroverb lacked in sales compared to other Fender amps and was made only two years, with under 1,500 produced. The ’63 model was reissued from 1990–1995 and the ’64 Custom reissue—designed with César Diaz—ran from 2003–2008.
A special thanks to Carl Strathmeyer and Zach Smith of The Minor Chord in Littleton, Massachusetts, for allowing us to feature this fine piece of gear and its story.
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