The electric guitar has been around for decades, not too far from a century now. Over time, many have come and gone, with only a few having staying power. Even fewer have become iconic – everyone knows what those are. More often than not, new “ideas” are simple imitations or a mashup of well-known designs. It’s rare for something entirely original to be birthed into the world.
This is why we are excited to present the new Powers Electric A-Type. To quote one of the first people we showed it to, “This is everything I like about a guitar and nothing like what I already have“.
Powers Electric is a new line of electric guitars developed personally by Andy Powers, Taylors Chief Guitar Designer. But as the name suggests, this is not a Taylor-branded electric guitar, but an entirely new guitar design developed by Andy outside of Taylors design DNA. Think of it as his solo project outside of Taylor. As a pro-level electric player and builder, Andy has been tinkering for years on his dream electric guitar Andy would say that this guitar is a lifetime in the making. Powers Electric is his creative outlet to continue indulging this longtime love of playing and building electric guitars. This is the electric guitar he always wanted as a player.
- Model: A Type
- Color: Platinum Metallic
- Pickups: PF42 (Partial Faraday)
- Pickguard: Firestripe
- Bridge: Ebony
- Knobs: Neutral
- Serial # B212
Truetone Music was selected to be one of just a few dealers in the U.S. to launch this new brand, and we couldn’t be more proud. Read below for the full scoop, and come to Truetone to experience this amazing guitar in person.
The design was heavily influenced by the area where Andy Powers grew up: San Diegos North County, close to the beach, where he wasimmersed in a vibrant cultural stew of surfing, skateboarding,auto craft, music, art and architecture a rich mix of creativeexpression. Other than the tuners and strings on the guitar, everything was designed and made in-house. It’s a boutique instrument, created by one of the modern masters of guitar design.
The Body StyleInspired by the lines of classic cars, hot rods and surfboard design, the guitar had to look good from every angle, Powers wanted an asymmetrical shape without sacrificing visual balance, and timeless styling with modern embellishments. This is a fully enclosed, trussed hollow body with two internal sound postsfitted into a braced, solid-wood top. This allows the top and back to move in tandem to maximizeresonance, suppress feedback and create a lyrical sustain. Also, this guitar is LIGHT – it weighs in at just 6.2 lbs.
The Feel
Powerswanted the guitar to be lightweight andperfectly balanced whether standing or sitting. The body ishollow so you can hold it with ease; the contoured armrest andradiused body edges add to the playing comfort.The neck is a just right blend of not too big and not too slim,flowing smoothly into the unique fretboard geometry. The fretboardhas a split radius, different from an end-to-end compound radius. Itsasymmetrical from the bass side to the treble side. The treble sideis slightly flatter all the way from the first fret to the end of the board. This allows for maximum playability and easier, choke-free stringbending.
The Sound
The pickups are a new design that blend modern magnetic structure with an old inspiration. It allows the strings to vibrate more naturally and produce both fidelity and colorful warmth which often tend to be at odds with one another but beautifully complement each other within this design. Powers designed two variations of this pickup one emphasizing clarity and warmth, the other with a firm, brighter response.
This particular guitar is loaded with the latter, called PF42 pickups. Its a Partial Faraday cage made with 42-gauge wire. This creates a striking tone that will cut through the mix but still have a vintage warmth to it. And, the PF42 pickups visually features matching pickguard material. These are an all new pickup design, and it’s obvious that Andy Powers has hit a home run.
The Trem / VibratoPowers stated that he loves the tactile expression of a pitch-shifting tail, but they notoriously go out of tune as the pitch changes. So, he engineered a camshaft tailpiece (CamTail) with stringramps compensated for tension and gauge. That way, when you dive on it, the strings move in pitch unison relative to each other. This is influenced by his playing of lap and pedal steel, and its similar to moving chordsand maintaining relative pitch. It’s machined in house. The CamTailalso contains a locking mechanism that stops thevibrato back at its normal pitch and allows the player to bend notes without pitch droop. This is called a zero-pointreturn. It can be easily adjusted to allow for a full floatingvibrato.
The Knobs & TipsThe colorful knobs (and trem arm cap) are shop-craftedin-house from layers of surfboard resin, which originallywas a byproduct of the surfboard glassing process.Because of this, no two resin knobs look exactly alike.
- Solid Maple top, Urban ash body
- Bracing Tone bar with soundposts
- Mahogany neck (one piece)
- Scale Length: 24 7/8
- Neck profile – Powers Electric Carve
- Honduran Rosewood fingerboard
- Number of Frets: 21
- Frets Jescar Custom Jumbo
- Fingerboard Radius: Split/asymmetrical
- Inlay Material Italian Acrylic
- Nut – Ebony
- Nut Width 1 11/16
- Saddle Material: Delrin
- Tailpiece / Truss Rod Cover material – Aluminum
- Knobs/Tips Type: Epoxy Resin
- Finish Poly-based UV
- String DAddario XS 10-46
- Custom leather softshell case
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