DETROIT – A Detroit guitar company is carrying on the Gibson legacy right here in Michigan.
Echopark Guitars, started in 2008 by Gabriel Currie, has personally made instruments for players like Aerosmith's Joe Perry, Jackson Browne, Charlie Starr, Josh Homme, Joe Bonamassa, David Catching, Larry McCray, Dean Fertita, Jimmy Vivino and many more.
In November 2016, Currie was drawn to relocate from Los Angeles to Detroit, just hours away from Gibson's birthplace in Kalamazoo.
Gibson, founded back in 1894 in Kalamazoo, shifted production to Nashville between 1974 and 1984.
Now, Echopark is making officially licensed Gibson guitars in Michigan for the first time since the company left Kalamazoo.
Watch Alex Atwell's Uniquely Detroit feature story on how Echopark is making Gibson guitars in Michigan again.
The Flying V made its ambitious debut in 1958, capturing the "retro-future" spirit of the times, but sold fewer than 100 in its first two years. After a brief rebirth in the late '60s, thanks to iconic rock and blues legends adopting the guitar as a tool for performing and recording some of the greatest guitar tones ever produced in history.
Originally conceived as the Futura in the 1958 Futuristic Series, the Explorer debuted alongside the Flying V and the mythical "Moderne." This creation found its home early on with southern rock and blues icons and has etched a tonal footprint in American rock and blues, world over, to this day.
Echopark also does guitar repair at their shop in Old Redford.