A string of businesses have operated out of the corner building at 24211 John R Rd. throughout the last several years here in Hazel Park, including everything from taxi companies to tax preparers. Its latest tenant, however, doesn’t fill the space with the hum of ringing telephones and tapping keyboards. Instead, it’s a faint radio in the background punctuated by the occasional buzz and blast of power tools. But Jesse Hopkins finds music in the clang and clatter of his workshop – and, as owner of the Clay Avenue Guitar Company, he makes it here, too.

“For this kind of work, you make a lot of noise. That was a concern for a lot of the people I talked to (before finding this place),” Jesse says. “Some of the more industrial spaces that we looked at were actually anything but. They had grown into something substantially less industrial and more like call centers and dental labs where they didn’t want to listen to saws and Shop-Vacs running.”

“I was always the kid that wanted to know how things worked," says Jesse Hopkins.

It’s not a constant racket that Jesse is making here. Although making guitars requires turning on the occasional saw or CNC machine, it’s an otherwise quiet workshop. And Clay Avenue Guitar Co. is, at least for now, pretty much a one-man show. Jesse recently brought on an apprentice to help fix the guitars that clients bring to the shop; fixing guitars is what helps pay the bills but making them is Jesse's passion. Bringing on an apprentice affords Jesse more time to focus on that which really motivates him, building out his boutique guitar company to the point of not even needing to fix guitars to pay the bills anymore.

Easier said than done, of course.

“Usually with guitar makers, if they do repairs and if they’re good at it, they end up getting bogged down with that kind of work,” Jesse says.

Making guitars is a luxury. In the time it takes Jesse to build one electric guitar, currently anywhere from 150 to 200 hours, he could be filling repair orders and paying the bills. And over the decade-plus run of his company, it’s often been the case that he’s had to do just that: fill repair orders and pay the bills. Bootstrapping a boutique guitar company is no easy endeavor. But opening his Hazel Park workshop represents a new chapter for Clay Avenue Guitar, he says. With a plan and a product, Jesse now has the space to bring it all together.

“The idea is to build these guitars as best we can, approach players that we think are a match and build from there,” Jesse says. “We’re trying to build a Ferrari here, and I’m confident at this point that we really are.”

A family business

While Clay Avenue Guitar Co. is primarily run by Jesse Hopkins, his father Larry plays a prominent role. Larry is often at the shop himself, running the machines and bouncing back Jesse’s ideas with a few of his own. The company itself actually started in 2010 as J & L Guitars, named for the father-and-son team but eventually changed because of an already-established and similar-sounding guitar company.

The Straightener is “based on the classic solid body, single cutaway (electric guitar) that we all know and love from the 1950s," Hopkins says.

It was Larry who first encouraged his son to entertain the idea of becoming a luthier, the term for someone who fixes or builds stringed instruments. Jesse wasn’t enjoying traditional college as a young man, he says. It was his dad who saw Jesse’s desire and ability to make things with his hands, as well as his love for guitars and music. Larry recommended his son check out Galloup Guitars in Big Rapids, a world-renowned lutherie school that offers apprenticeship programs, professional certifications, and more. Jesse would leave after a short stint at Central Michigan University to attend Galloup, setting him on the path to becoming a full-time luthier.

“I was always the kid that wanted to know how things worked, and this is the case with people that I've worked for, as well. They say the exact same things,” Jesse says. “I had Tinkertoys. I had Erector Sets. I had Legos. Anything that I could get my hands on and build things with, I was always doing that. Always spread that stuff out all over the floor on Saturday morning in front of the cartoons, building spaceships and God knows what.”

After school he left home and worked out of state for well-established guitar companies like Reverend Guitars and First Act. He’d move back to Michigan and purchase a home in Hazel Park in 2006, eventually launching his guitar company from a small workshop in the basement there. By 2010, he approached his dad and they started J & L Guitars. They rented a space at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit, renaming the company after that location’s Clay Avenue frontage. They’d leave the Russell after that company’s building code violations forced an intervention from city officials just one year later.

Jesse Hopkins in front of his Hazel Park workshop.

So back to Jesse’s Hazel Park basement it was. The fits and starts of Clay Avenue Guitar Co. can be traced to any number of reasons, from the difficulties of bootstrapping your way into the boutique guitar business to never finding a proper space to build the intricate instruments. Jesse credits his wife with the company’s latest iteration; the couple agreed to sell their home and use some of the money to fund a proper space for Jesse to do business.

“Hazel Park is conveniently located. The pricing down here is more affordable than four miles north of here, and more accommodating. But you’ve got to put a little sweat equity into it,” Jesse says, which is something he has no problem doing.

“Usually with guitar makers, if they do repairs and if they’re good at it, they end up getting bogged down with that kind of work,” Jesse Hopkins says.

The sum of it all

Jesse’s flagship guitar is called The Straightener, so named after one of Jesse’s mentors referred to the riff from Black Sabbath’s “Wheels of Confusion” as “the straight.” The company’s first model, The Boxer, rounds out the current product line and remains integral to their future. But it’s The Straightener where Jesse sees a path forward.

“It’s based on the classic solid body, single cutaway (electric guitar) that we all know and love from the 1950s that are worth, in some cases, $100,000 today. And that’s absolutely prohibitive to most players,” Jesse says. “So my idea was to take everything that I've learned about guitar making and take that iconic platform that has remained largely unchanged for decades, and carry it lovingly and thoughtfully into the modern age while incorporating some sensible design. What improvements would better fit the modern player? That's this guitar.”

Where before Jesse would build custom guitars as they’re ordered, maybe making and selling three to four guitars per year, he’s now working toward building an inventory of guitars before bringing them to market. It currently takes him anywhere from 150 to 200 hours to build one guitar, but with the new workshop, equipment, and an apprentice that can help with guitar repairs, Jesse is working toward completing each new guitar in about 80 hours. That’s a big difference, and one of the reasons he thinks Clay Avenue Guitar Company’s future is brighter than it’s ever been.

Clay Avenue Guitar Co. moved to Hazel Park in 2023.

“The Straightener is kind of the sum of it all. Here’s everything that I’ve learned manifested into an electric guitar,” Jesse says. “We call it The Straightener because if you have something that needed to be done and you needed a tool in order to do it, you would want to pick the right tool.”

Visit Clay Avenue Guitar Co. online to learn more about their products, services, and future plans.