Andy Summers and Fender guitars go together like cold beer and a hot day. However, The Police guitar great has now praised one burgeoning luthier for a “breakthrough design” that has convinced him to put down his beloved Fenders.
In conversation with Ultimate Guitar, the guitarist says he owns over “200 guitars”, but three new acquisitions from Powers Electric Guitars have quickly become some of his favorites
“I'm generally known for playing a Fender,” he admits, “and they are an incredible invention and an incredible product. Guitars are great and you find which ones you like, and there's still a lot of them I'd like to have that I don't have.
“I've got this guitar called a Powers Electric, which is made by Andy Powers. He is the guy who oversees Taylor Guitars in San Diego... and he's made these little guitars as a sort of offshoot of Taylor.
“They're incredible guitars,” he continues. “I picked one up in the Guitar Emporium in Massachusetts while I was on tour very recently. I don't go to a lot of guitar stores, but they had great guitars, all that stuff you'd expect – the Martins, the Gibsons, the Fenders, and then there was this little electric guitar over there, and I thought, ‘That's a really hip looking guitar.’
“I picked this thing up. It's got a short-scale neck, and oh my god, it plays so easily. I started playing it and it's just one of those that called to me. It's a fantastic guitar. I bought a yellow one and I went straight on stage with it. I didn't hesitate.”
Summers, in a surprise to no one, wasn’t content with owning just one of these instruments, though.
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“You know, usually you're neurotic about playing a guitar for a while beforehand,” relays the 81-year-old. “But no, this thing, man, I was on the stage that night. I was so taken with it that I went back the next day, and I bought another one.”
“Then I bought another one on the internet. So I've got three of them – I've got a yellow one, a green one, and a purple one. I'm just about to go to Brazil for five weeks and I'm taking that guitar.
“So that's the first time I will have not gone taking the normal Strat with me. I will have a Strat down there as well, but I think the guy has got a kind of a breakthrough guitar with this one.”
The Powers Electric A-Type has a smattering of Stratocaster in its DNA, augmented by a little Surfcaster flair and perhaps even a hint of Danelectro for what is certainly an eye-catching silhouette.
“I wanted a timeless styling with modern embellishments,” says Andy Powers of its design, via the firm's website. “I was inspired by the lines of classic cars, hot rods, and surfboard design. The guitar had to look good from every angle. I needed an asymmetrical shape without sacrificing visual balance.”
It features a hollow-body design for a lightweight build while there was a great emphasis on the neck and its “new fretboard geometry”.
As a deviation from the typical end-to-end compound radius found on most guitars, the A-Type has a split radius meaning it is asymmetrical from the bass to the treble slide, the latter being a little flatter for “maximum playability and easier, choke-free string bending”.
“It's a breakthrough design,” Summers adds. “It’s not often you see something that you go, ‘Wow.’ There's basically three designs that everybody makes. We all know [Strats and Teles], and there's a reason for them, because of how they sit on the body and all that. But this cat has done something special.”
