California guitar maker sets up shop in the Motor City

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie shows off a pair of solid electric guitar bodies in his new shop in Detroit.

Unfinished electric guitar bodies are stacked in Gabriel Currie's Echopark guitar workshop in Detroit.

This is a handmade, unfinished electric guitar body featuring a buckeye burl wood top.

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie play a handcrafted 0028-model Traditional American Acoustics brand guitar, which features a carpathian spruce top, 300-year-old mahogany neck, brazilian rosewood back and sides and gabon ebony fretboard inside his new, old home in Detroit Michigan.

This is the first electric guitar Gabriel Currie built from spare parts in legendary guitar maker Leo Fender's California loft at G&L guitars.

This is the first electric guitar Gabriel Currie built from spare parts in legendary guitar maker Leo Fender's California loft at G&L guitars.

Echopark also builds tube amplifiers.

Gabriel Currie sorts through handcrafted guitar necks in his new Detroit guitar workshop.

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie stands outside his new workshop in the Old Redford section of Detroit. He new shop is 4,000 square feet, much larger than the cramped 2,200 square-foot shop where he built Echopark Guitars in Echo Park (Los Angeles) California for the past eight years.

Representing both his native home of California and his new home of Detroit, guitar maker Gabriel Currie drives a Dodge Challenger with a California vanity plate.

Gabriel Currie holds one of his handmade Traditional American Acoustics brand mahogany guitars at his new, old home in Detroit Michigan.

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie play a handcrafted 0028-model Traditional American Acoustics brand guitar, which features a carpathian spruce top, 300-year-old mahogany neck, brazilian rosewood back and sides and gabon ebony fretboard inside his new, old home in Detroit Michigan. The guitar retails for between $8,000-$10,000.

The Echopark La Carne handmade electric guitar, which retails for $7,500, features Koa wood body, Gabon ebony neck and custom humbucker pickups.

This is the headstock of the Echo Park La Carne handmade electric guitar, which retails for $7,500.

Gabriel Currie shows off a high-end Echopark La Carne handmade electric guitar, which retails for $7,500, inside his new Detroit workshop.

Unfinished solid-wood electric guitar bodies are stacked beneath a work table in Currie's Detroit guitar workshop.

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie shows off the grain on a block of mahagony that's between 200 and 300 years old.

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie shows off unfinished electric guitar bodies in his new shop in Detroit.

This is the headstock of the first electric guitar built by Gabriel Currie (from spare parts in legendary guitar maker Leo Fender's California loft).

The Echopark La Carne handmade electric guitar features a Koa wood body, Gabon ebony neck and custom humbucker pickups.

Gabriel Currie plays one of his handmade Traditional American Acoustics brand mahogany guitars at his new, old home in Detroit Michigan.

The headstock of Gabriel Currie's mahogany wood Traditional American Acoustics guitar features an Inca coin.

Guitar maker Gabriel Currie play a handcrafted 0028-model Traditional American Acoustics brand guitar, which features a carpathian spruce top, 300-year-old mahogany neck, brazilian rosewood back and sides and gabon ebony fretboard inside his new, old home in Detroit Michigan. The guitar retails for between $8,000-$10,000.