Innovative guitar shop in Inglewood creates guitars with built-in amps
Combining musicianship with engineering, ElectroPhonic Innovations in Inglewood makes special electric guitars.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- ElectroPhonic Innovations co-founder Joe Floyd dreamt of an electric guitar that he could play high-quality sound on without an amp.
"There's a lot of things he could have dreamt about," said Andrew Bloch, co-founder of Electrophonic Innovations. "But he dreamt about this guitar that you could just push a button and play anywhere."
"I saw it immediately when it worked," said Jan Lucas, co-founder of Electrophonic Innovations "And I told him, 'Let's do this, let's go for it.'"
Combining musicianship and engineering Floyd, Bloch and Lucas started working on the first guitars with built-in amps. Then they opened their first workshop in Inglewood about seven years ago. Once they outgrew that, they moved to a larger space also in Inglewood this January, reviving a building that was once a flooring shop.
"It really had to do with the diversity of the community and being a part of this community," said Bloch.
After a machine cuts the wooden outline, each guitar is personally handcrafted. A single guitar currently takes about four months to complete and there's about 80 people currently on the waitlist. But, Bloch said they're hoping to get another machine cut production time in half.
"I'd love to have guitars on the wall here that you could walk in and say I want one of those," said Bloch.
"It's not happening yet. We're just too special. There's too much handwork that goes into these at this point."
The designing, the wiring of the built-in speakers, even the detailing of the guitars is all done in the Inglewood shop.
"The idea is that everything's inside and that doesn't exist anywhere," Bloch said. "And so that's our claim to fame for guitars. A lot of people make electric guitars, we make something special."
The goal is to make music more accessible. No matter the skill level or someone's location. And they say every guitar they sell, whether local or international, brings them closer to accomplishing that.
"When you have the ability to pick up your instrument, turn it on and get the exact right sound and mood," Lucas said. "That makes creating music much more enjoyable, simple, immediate."
ElectroPhonic Innovations is located at 729 Centinela Avenue, Inglewood, CA 90302.
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