Powers Electric Guitar A-Type: The Story, First Impressions, Product Review & Video Demo

An electric guitar as envisioned by Andy Powers of Taylor Guitars built from the ground-up with Southern California iconography throughout its design and DNA. The Powers Electric A-Type is available at The Music Zoo now!

There's a new electric guitar design on the market, designed by Andy Powers - the man behind some of Taylor guitars most exciting developments and models in the last ten years. It's called the Powers Electric: a guitar with a fully-hollow body featuring innovation in both electronics and woodworking as well as aesthetics that are pure Southern California charm. We're talking surfboards, classic cars, blue skies and sunshine.

Watch the Powers Electric A-Type Demo Video Now!

More than the sum of its parts, the Powers Electric A-Type offers comfortable playing experiences and piano-like clarity with its pickups and hollow design!

The Powers Electric has a hollow body with internal bracing and a bridge design where the bridge is screwed directly into the soundposts that join the top and back: every piece of wood is vibrating in unison with one another. The pickup design is a wide-range single-coil pickup housed within either 'fully enclosed" or "partially enclosed" Faraday cages that are dead-silent and respond super quickly to pick attack and playing dynamics. With the Full Faraday pickup option, the pickup sound remains pristine and clean. With the Partial Faraday option on some models, you'll find a pickup with a bit more grit to them but still that same definition and clarity.

Everything except the tuners and strings are made in house with the Powers Electric A-Type. The tailpiece on the guitar is of course familiar looking and is used just like another classic vibrato tailpiece, but this one is engineered by Powers to act more like a lap or pedal steel where all of the strings bend in unison relative to each other, thanks to the unique camshaft tailpiece that has ramps compensated for tension and gauge. As you bend down or up - the strings move fluidly and in tune with each other!

What does the Powers Electric A-Type have to do with Southern California?

Andy Powers grew up in San Diego, right in the same neighborhoods in which Taylor Guitars are made. Just like any of us are the products of our surroundings: Andy's childhood filled with surfing, surf music, and classic American cars influenced his tastes.

For the release of the Powers Electric, The Music Zoo's Garrett Hess, Jordan Usatch and Tim Reynolds took a trip to San Diego where Andy gave us a tour of his hometown through his eyes, and it was clear how much Southern California is present in the Powers Electric. The colors and curvature of a surfboard are reflected in the silhouette of the guitar, and those colorful bits used for the tremolo arm tip and control knobs? Those are built in-house to resemble the buildup that happens when glassing a surfboard, but also "Fordite" which was the unique material that happened when cars were hand-sprayed and the paint would build up on walls, being chipped off and eventually recycled into creative projects.

Our first impressions and review of the Powers Electric A-Type: two thumbs up!

The Music Zoo has seen every guitar design under the sun, and we think it's safe to say that the Powers Electric has its place in the market as a guitar that will be a welcome addition to players of many genres collections. The pickups and hollowbody construction give you a crystal clear sound with immediate pick attack that's excellent for Jazz, Blues and Rock styles. The neck is a comfortable slightly tapered "C" shape that fits right in your hand. The tailpiece design is set from the factory to only move downward, however it's easy to adjust the pin set and allow the tailpiece to float and let you bend upwards in pitch too! The Partial Faraday set of pickups adds more grit, with which you can get more into the Shoegaze territory of sounds once you add in a pedalboard and some fuzz pedals!

Powers Electric A-Type Specs

• Fully Enclosed Hollowbody Electric Guitar
• Solid Maple Top or Solid Flame Maple Top on the A-Type Special
• Urban Ash Body
• Mahogany Neck
• Honduran Rosewood Fretboard
• 24-7/8" Scale Length
• FF42 or PF42 Pickup Set with Master Volume and Tone Controls
• High-Carbon Steel Base Bridge
• "CamTail" Camshaft Vibrato Tailpiece with Zero-Point Return Option
• Resin Knobs

Shop Powers Electric Guitars Now:

Have a question on a Powers Electric Guitar?

Contact us at (516) 626-9292 or sales@themusiczoo.com