Animals as Leaders has had a massive impact on modern electric guitar. The 8-string instruments the band use for their mind-bending fretboard acrobatics are now commonly found in stores around the world, their use of Fractal Audio’s Axe-Fx units helped propel the company’s products to international recognition, and their heavy electronic-music influence made it okay for bands to add considerable non-guitar elements to their guitar-based live performances. For proof of the band’s influence, start an Animals as Leaders Pandora channel and listen to a steady stream of like-minded artists that would have never achieved recognition without this trio from Washington D.C. come pouring from your speakers.
Animals as Leaders had their genesis in what was supposed to be lead guitarist Tosin Abasi’s solo album. Initially the outing was intended to have more electronic-based production, but with the help of Abasi’s friend, producer, and Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor, the album Animals as Leaders took on the heavier and more guitar-based character we know today. When it came time to put his band together, Abasi reached out to Javier Reyes, his former bandmate from the D.C. area, and the 8-string guitar-playing core of Animals as Leaders was set.
Since then the band has achieved critical and commercial success, touring the world with a wide variety of artists and releasing three more acclaimed albums, including their latest offering, The Madness of Many. Each album showcased a new side of the band and drew on the influences of outside producers and musicians, such as Mansoor and Adam "Nolly" Getgood from Periphery, drummer Navene Koperweis, and Volumes’ Diego Farias.
The Madness of Many represents a rebirth of sorts for the band. For the first time in their career, Animals as Leaders kept all performance, songwriting, and production duties in-house. What you hear on The Madness of Many is the sound of three mind-blowing artists with free rein to create the music they want.
Their newfound approach allowed Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka to interject their song ideas and compositions on an even playing field. This brought influences as diverse as Squarepusher, classical guitarist Yamandu Costa, and even Björk.
The trio also stuck to a less-is-more ethos in all aspects of this project. Pulling way back on post-editing their performances allowed Garstka to push and pull the songs’ grooves and lent a human element to the band’s super-human sound. “I think I’ve gotten out a lot of the super-aggressive technique-based lead playing on the previous releases,” says Abasi, explaining the bands’ current song-first approach.
Animals as Leaders and their new album continue to defy categorization. When they released their self-titled debut, the world was treated to an aggressive blending of genres and guitar-playing techniques that had seldom been heard before. Many rushed to call them djent. But one listen to The Madness of Many disproves that notion, and any comparisons to other genres or bands are simply due to a lack of obvious descriptions.
As a massive fan of the band, it was this journalist’s honor to get the opportunity to chat with Abasi and Reyes about the new album, their gear, and their ever-expanding playing styles and knowledge. And maybe most importantly, why they feel like the challenging, intellectual, and often mystifying sound of Animals as Leaders continues to thrive across the world.
The Madness of Many introduces a new way of working for Animals as Leaders. What was it like self-producing the album and why did you choose to go that route?
Tosin Abasi: We initially intended to just do pre-production on our own. Then the songs started to really come together in a way that, ultimately we were like, “I don’t really know what a producer would do.” And it started to dawn on us that we could release this thing as the work of just three of us.
Javier Reyes: The original idea was to work again with Misha Mansoor of Periphery. Even with the mixing, we actually sent it out to three different people. But the mixes that I had on it were closer to what we wanted. So we decided again, “Well, let’s just handle it ourselves.”
You seem to have benefitted musically from the process. Going forward, is this the way you see yourselves working?
Abasi: It’s a good question. We’re really feeling empowered by self-producing this album, so I think there’s going to be more of the same. And you’re just going to hear more exploration from us.
Are there any drawbacks to keeping everything in-house?
Abasi: Some of the drawbacks would be, depending on who you work with, you’re going to get different levels of editing, quantization, and stuff like that. We wanted as little editing or quantizing as possible, but there are some producers whose sound is reliant on replacing drums and samples and editing things to fit perfectly on the grid.
Reyes: The drums are way less edited than they were on The Joy of Motion or any of the previous albums. We just wanted to have a more organic feel. The band wants to grow in that direction.
Listening to the mix, I noticed the guitars in particular are very clear on this album. You can really hear the strings moving on the instruments. How did you achieve that?
Abasi: By using as little gain as possible. And by choosing [Axe-Fx modeled] amps that are mid-forward and articulate. The cool thing about extended-range guitars is that the lower the pitch, the more amplitude the actual string seems to have. It’s almost like driving the preamp harder just because the string is that much thicker. We really like the sound of the lower strings, so we go for as little gain as possible.
Reyes: Also by referencing a lot of recordings that I felt were really good. And listening to Matt and Tosin’s feedback. It was a matter of a lot of negotiating with each other and a lot of referencing other really good material.
You guys are well known for using Fractal Audio Axe-Fx guitar processors and playing 8-string guitars. Is that what you used for this album?
Abasi: It’s funny you say that, because for the album, yes. But right now I’m running a completely analog rig. No Axe-Fx. I just fell back in love with the immediacy of that response. I’m using a Morgan SW50R. It’s a single-channel, handwired tube head. It’s just very basic. Pure, clean, lots of headroom, and nothing fancy. I use it as a pedal platform. I actually realized rehearsing The Madness of Many songs that I didn’t need a bunch of different amp models and a bunch of different effects. I’m actually using the equivalent of a 3-channel head and some core effects.
Reyes: I’m still running the Axe-Fx. I like the simplicity of it. And with travel, I don’t want to have to remake tones wherever I go. It sounds great, I know it, and it’s extremely economical. I love my Axe-Fx. If I could sleep in bed with it, I would! [Laughs.] I’m using the XL+ right now. I’m also using a Sub Machine fuzz octaver pedal from MXR on “The Brain Dance.” That’s the only third-party pedal I’m using outside of my Axe-Fx.
Besides his signature electric 8-string model and its accomplices, the rest of Javier Reyes tonal recipe lies in his blend of Fractal Audio’s Axe-Fx and Port City’s Pearl head and cabinets with Celestion speakers. Photo by Joe Russo
Is the band still using Port City cabinets?
Abasi: Javier is. But I’m using Morgan and a 4x12 that Paul Reed Smith gave me. It has alnico 65-watt speakers in it. I mike up my Morgan 2x12. It’s got Celestion G12H speakers.
Reyes: The Port City cabs are great. They haven’t done me wrong. I’m actually sending two signals out of the Axe-Fx. One has a cab sim that goes to front of house and my in-ear monitors. The other doesn’t have a cab sim, and it goes into the front of the [Port City] Pearl, which is a very clean single-channel amp with a non-colored tone. I have two 2x12 Port City cabs. One of them has Celestion Creambacks and the other one has G12s. I use that for my stage sound.
Tosin Abasi's Gear
Guitars
• Ibanez Tosin Abasi prototype signature 8-string
• Ibanez TAM100 signature model 8-string
• Ibanez RG90 Prestige 9-string
• Strandberg custom 8-string
• Rick Toone Blur 8-string Extended Range Guitar
Amps
• Morgan SW50R 50-watt head
• Morgan 2x12 cabinet with Celestion G12H speakers
• Paul Reed Smith 4x12 cabinet with Celestion G12M-65 Creamback speakers
Effects
• Pro Tone Tosin Abasi Signature Overdrive
• two Friedman BE-OD Overdrives
• Leqtique overdrive
• Empress ParaEQ
• Strymon BigSky Reverb
• MXR Carbon Copy Delay
• TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
• Wampler Ego Compressor
• ISP Decimator noise gate
• Carl Martin Octa-Switch
Strings and Picks
• D’Addario NYXL custom 8-string sets (.0095-.074)
• Dunlop .73 mm signature (similar to a Jazz III, but slightly larger)
What guitars did you play on the album?
Abasi: For about 90 percent of the album, minus the acoustic songs, I played my signature prototype Ibanez—though “Private Visions of the World” is on a 9-string.
Reyes: I think I used an 8-string PRS on a couple of songs. We used an Aristides guitar with Bare Knuckle pickups in it. And on “Private Visions of the World,” I used a Vintage Plus from ESP. I love that guitar. We used my signature Ortega 8-string classical on “The Brain Dance,” as well.
Tosin, your prototype guitar has been seen all over the web and on tour. I’m assuming it is something that will be coming out soon?
Abasi: Yeah, we’re just trying to nail the design, but I’ve been playing it for over a year. And, I should add, I’m using Fishman Fluence pickups now.
Why the change from your signature set?
Abasi: It was kind of an accident. I A/B’d them against my Duncan prototypes and they smoked my Duncans. I just couldn’t believe it. So in that moment I literally couldn’t move forward with what I was playing. Those A/B comparisons are definitely the best way to really expose differences between pieces of gear.
You’ve also been famously seen with Rick Toone and Strandberg guitars. Did those guitars make it to the album?
Abasi: Yes. The Rick Toone is on “Backpfeifengesicht.” Those instruments have a unique sound. And they both have extended fretboards beyond the nut, on the seventh and eighth strings. So there are certain songs, like “Physical Education,” that were written specifically on the Rick Toone or the Strandberg.
Javier, are you still playing your signature ESP 8-strings on tour?
Reyes: Yeah, I have two of them out right now. In Europe I even took my lower-tier model. It’s a really great guitar. For the price, it’s one of the better 8-string guitars. I use my signature Eclipse 8 DiMarzio pickups. I voiced them to have a single-coil sound but still have that humbucker thing to them. I love them. They’re very clear.
Animals as Leaders is known for incorporating Latin influences and electronic elements, and using such guitar techniques as slapping and heavy low-tuned riffing. Are those trademarks something you’re conscious about keeping in your sound?
Abasi: Animals as Leaders is a space to bring all that together without many rules, and so you hear it all come out.
Reyes: The technical stuff comes pretty naturally. But I always want to come up with something that’s listenable and isn’t complicated for the sake of being complicated. But I think we’re aware that the “thumping” is definitely a unique quality that the band has. For the time being, it’s definitely our signature sound.
Tosin, in the last interview you did with Premier Guitar for The Joy of Motion, you mentioned wanting to increase the lyrical qualities of your playing. Do you think you achieved that on this album?
Abasi: Yeah,I think so. This album is the least shreddy, as far as my lead work is concerned, and I feel like it’s a result of a few things. One is not trying to express the same things repeatedly. And my taste in guitar music has really evolved a bit. I’m really responsive to vocal-centered minds, like Derek Trucks. And by doing the Generation Axe tour and being around guys like Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie, and Vai—all quintessential electric guitar players—it starts to really sink into my playing.
Javier, how has your playing expanded on the new album, and who has influenced you?
Reyes: I’m thumping a lot more. A lot of these songs I can get through without using a pick. The line between guitar and bass technique is getting more blurred. Sometimes I look down and think, “I’m literally playing what looks like bass stuff.” But it’s still guitar. I like that it’s a totally unique style.
There’s a Brazilian classical player named Yamandu Costa who is just phenomenal. He has an album with a Brazilian mandolin player named Hamilton de Holanda that will blow away any guitar player with an appreciation for beautiful music.
Drummer Matt Garstka and guitarists Tobin Abasi and Javier Reyes, from left to right, summed all their diverse influences for The Madness of Many, crafting a sound that extends from classical music to Björk.
Are there moments on the album that display each of your styles and influences?
Abasi: I think all of Javier’s parts on “The Brain Dance” and “Apeirophobia.” And even “Private Visions of the World” … he’s doing the lead line there based on my chord melody. I think you can really hear him offer a wider range of expression than just rhythm, like on the first album.
Reyes: On “Private Visions of the World,” Tosin has really dense chord melodies happening. So I wanted to write something that was very complementary, but still very melodic. Sometimes it’s hard because we’ve been playing together a long time. We definitely go back and forth with influencing each other.
Javier Reyes’ Gear
Guitars
• ESP LTD Javier Reyes Signature JR-608 8-string
• Ortega Guitars Javier Reyes Signature JRSM-RWC 8-string classical
• ESP Vintage Plus 6-string
• Paul Reed Smith 8-string
• Aristides 080
Amps
• Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II XL+
• Port City Pearl Head
• Port City 2x12 Wave cabinet with Celestion G12H speakers
• Port City 2x12 Wave cabinet with Celestion G12M-65 Creamback speakers
Effects
• Fractal Audio MFC-101 Foot Controller
• Fractal Audio EV-1 Expression Volume Pedal
• MXR Custom Shop Sub Machine Octave Fuzz
Strings and Picks
• D’Addario NYXL custom 8-string sets (.009-.074)
• Dunlop .73 mm signature (similar to a Jazz III, but slightly larger)
You have electronic elements and harmony guitar lines running throughout your albums. How do you pull those off live?
Abasi: If it’s not something Javier and I can play, then it has to be a layer, the same way the synth stuff is on the background track.
So you have to be right on your click track! That’s impressive. You have to be tighter than humans, basically.
Abasi: We are just really tight humans. [Laughs.] We play to a click for everything, so we know that if we get off, it’s a potential disaster. There’s no margin for error.
How would you describe the evolution of Animals as Leaders from the self-titled debut to where you are now?
Abasi: With the self-titled, it was not really a band. It was a bunch of guitar ideas I had and some demos I made. Basically the self-titled was the end result of my collaboration with Misha Mansoor.
And then with Weightless, we worked with Navene Koperweis, who was our drummer at the time. And that kind of led things in a slightly different creative direction.
On The Joy of Motion, we went back to Misha, as well as working with Diego Farias of Volumes. And the focus was on making tracks that were shorter, a bit more focused, and song oriented.
Then with The Madness of Many, we just wanted to reference everything we had done previously. But we also worked where we didn’t have outside influence at all. I think The Madness of Many is the album we all wanted to make collectively. So the biggest difference in the process is that it was purely an internal collaboration.
Reyes: It has definitely been an evolution, as far as third-party contributors and ourselves. We always try to write as who we are in that current time, using the influences we have at the time. But this time we really wrote everything together. It was way more collaborative within the band than it ever has been.
What do you think it is about your sound that makes it so accessible worldwide?
Reyes: I think we were at that cusp of the internet that allowed us to blow up, as well as timing it with Misha. We were super-impressed with what he was doing. I remember hearing demos of Animals as Leaders before Misha, and they do not sound like anything from the first album. I don’t know if the band would have had the same amount of success without him. And we’re lucky that there are bands today that are making it a scene for us now.
Abasi: I think it’s because the sound is of musical value at the end of the day. We’re concerned with compelling rhythm, melody, and harmony, and I think that is what people are responsive to. We are trying to bring metal, progressive metal, electronic music, jazz, and classical all into one space. So I guess we’re merging the things we love. And by doing that, providing music for people who love the same things.
Today such artists as Intervals, Plini, Sarah Longfield, and Chimp Spanner are doing their own take on a similar sound. But it was Animals as Leaders that helped bring that sound to prominence. How do you feel about so many players now chasing the Animals as Leaders sound?
Reyes: It’s a dream come true. To get to the point where you’ve seen a piano, flute, sitar, or harp cover of your songs, or people writing to tell you they’re using your song for their Berklee [College of Music] audition ... I don’t know if there’s really words that can describe it.
Abasi: I think it’s awesome—the word “renaissance” comes to mind. There’s an elevation of artistry on the instrument and an attraction to learning about harmony and technique. It’s inspiring to see someone do something on this level, and I think these young players have their eyes on a very awesome prize. We’re in store for a lot of great guitar playing.
YouTube It
This live version of The Madness of Many’s opening track is a stellar example of how the band uses a wide array of guitar techniques. Check out the atmospheric breakdown at 1:10.
Pickup screws with latex tubing.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to eliminate most of these issues. And if you haven’t faced such problems on your Tele, you can still give these a try, and chances are good that you never will. These procedures will not alter the tone of your Telecaster in any way, so it’s better to have it and not need rather than to need it and not have it.
Checking the Pickups
Over the years, I have seen the wildest things coming stock from the factory, especially on budget pickups: unbent metal tabs on neck pickups, loose metal base plates on bridge pickups, bridge pickups only held by the springs, and other crazy stuff.
Let’s start with the neck pickup. Make sure the cover is installed tightly and is not loose in any way. The metal cover is only held by three metal tabs that are bent around the bottom of the pickup, one of them usually connected to the pickup’s ground. Make sure they are tight, holding the metal cover firmly in place. If not, they need to be re-bent. Be careful to not break them.
“Often, these small metal springs can cause feedback, and I’m sure Leo Fender had his reasons for choosing latex tubing instead.”
On the bridge pickup, the metal base plate on the bottom needs to be attached firmly. Check with your fingers to see if it can move. If so, even in only one spot, you need to re-glue it to isolate vibration. Otherwise, it will squeal at high volumes. This is easy to do, and the easiest and best way is to completely take the base plate off, clean it, and re-glue it with a thin layer of silicone from your local Home Depot.
While you are in there, it’s always a good idea to convert both pickups to 3-conductor wiring by breaking the ground connection of the metal cover (neck pickup) and the base plate (bridge pickup). Attach a third wire to one of the lugs of the metal cover and another one to the metal base plate, and solder both to a grounding point of your choice, e.g. the casing of one of the pots. This can be helpful for future mods, like any 4-way switch mod, where this is a mandatory requirem
Un-springing the Pickup Attachment
If your pickups are attached with metal springs to enable height-adjustment, you should replace them with some latex tubing. Often, these small metal springs can cause feedback, and I’m sure Leo Fender had his reasons for choosing latex tubing instead of metal springs. This is cheap, fast, and easy to do; you can get latex tubing from any guitar store or online for only a few cents. (See photo at top.)
Cushioning the Pickups
On a Tele, there’s usually a gap between the bottom of the pickups and the inside of the guitar’s body. This open space can exacerbate feedback issues. Luckily, it’s easy to solve with a piece of foam.
Using a piece of white paper, outline the routing for each pickup. Cut them out as a template for the foam. Then, trim the foam to shape. Place the foam on the bottom of both pickup routings, and you are done. There is no need to glue or attach the foam in any way.
It’s important that the bottom of the pickup is touching the foam so there is no more open gap. I usually use foam that is a little bit thicker than necessary, so the pickup will press on it slightly, making a perfect connection. The type of foam is not important as long as the gap is closed. I prefer to use foam rubber that is easily available in a variety of thicknesses.
Closing Support Routings
On a lot of Telecasters, you can find open support routings from the neck pickup routing towards the electronic compartment. This is for easier access when running the wires of the neck pickup through the body.
Note the various cavities in this typical Telecaster body.
Photo courtesy of Singlecoil (https://singlecoil.com)
There are two ways of routing the wires of the neck pickup through the body: from the neck pickup routing directly into the electronic compartment or into the routing of the bridge pickup, and from there into the electronic compartment, which is the traditional way. In the latter case, make sure all the wires are running underneath the additional piece of foam. If you have any open support routings on your Telecaster body, put some foam in to close them. You don’t need to attach the foam; the pickguard will hold it in place. The kind of foam doesn’t matter, and you can also use things like a small piece of cotton cloth, cotton wool, Styrofoam, etc. in there.
Addressing Bridge Plate Flaws
One of the most common reasons for unwanted feedback is the typical Telecaster bridge plate. The Telecaster bridge system was designed in the ’40s by Leo Fender himself and is crude at best. Its function was simply positioning the strings and providing a rough, easy adjustment of the intonation and the string-height settings. It wasn’t long before Fender released the much-improved bridge design found on the Stratocaster.
The current production Fender vintage bridge plate, as well as most budget aftermarket bridge plates, is made from thin hot-rolled steel in a deep-drawn process. Using this manufacturing process, parts can be made very quickly and cheaply, but at severe cost in quality. The steel used must be very soft and thin to allow it to fold and bend in the corners.
A classic Telcaster bridge plate.
Photo courtesy of Singlecoil (https://singlecoil.com)
Unfortunately, this process creates unusual internal stress in the steel, which can bow the plate so it can’t sit flat on the wooden body. This is a common reason for unwanted feedback on so many Teles. Interestingly, the early vintage bridge plates Fender made used a cold-rolled steel procedure to relieve stress in the material and to avoid this problem. Long live modern mass production!
If you have a Tele with a bowed bridge plate, there are three possible things you can do:
• Change the bowed bridge plate for a straight and even one. (This is the easiest way to avoid any troubles.) There are excellent replacement bridge plates on the market, so you’ll have plenty of choices for materials, designs, finishes, etc.
• Get the bowed bridge plate to a metal fabricator or tool maker so they can try to solve the problem for you. This process will probably cost you more than a new bridge, so this is only an option if it’s a special bridge you want to keep, no matter the cost.
• Drill two small additional holes on the front of the bridge plate, shown as red dots in the picture. After re-installing the bridge plate on the guitar, tightly drill two wood screws through these holes. Often, modern replacement bridges already have these two additional holes. In many cases, this will do the trick, so you don´t have to buy a new bridge.
If you have gone through this entire list and still have problems with feedback, it’s very likely that the pickup itself needs to be re-potted, which a pickup builder can do for you.
Next month, we will stay on the Telecaster subject, taking a close look at the famous Andy Summers Telecaster wiring, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!
Andy Powers has been working with electric guitars his whole life, and he’s been slowly collecting all the ideas that could go into his own “solo project,” waiting for the right time to strike.
As CEO, president, and chief guitar designer of Taylor Guitars, Andy Powers has an unimaginable amount of experience sifting through his ideas and, with a large production mechanism at hand, efficiently and effectively realizing them. He knows that there are great ideas that need more time, and rethinking electric guitar design—from the neck to the pickups to how its hollow body is constructed—doesn’t come quickly. His A-Type—which has appeared in Premier Guitarin the hands of guitarists Andy Summers and Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard—is the innovative flagship model of his new brand, Powers Electric. And it’s the culmination of a lifetime of thought, experience, and influences.
“Southern California is a birthplace of a lot of different things. I think of it as the epicenter of electric guitar.”
“I’ve got a lot of musician friends who write songs and have notebooks of ideas,” explains Powers. “They go, ‘I’ve got these three great verses and a bridge, but no chorus. I’ll just put it on the shelf; I’ll come back to it.’ Or ‘I’ve got this cool hook,’ or ‘I’ve got this cool set of chord changes,’ or whatever it might be—they’re half-finished ideas. And once in a while, you take them off the shelf, blow the dust off, and go, ‘That’s a really nice chorus. Maybe I should write a couple of verses for it someday. But not today.’ And they put it back.”
That’s how his electric guitar design spent decades collecting in Powers’ head. There were influences that he wanted to play with that fell far afield from his acoustic work at Taylor, and he saw room to look at some technical aspects of the instrument a little differently, with his own flair.
The Powers Electric A-Type draws from Powers’ lifelong influences of cars, surfing, and skateboarding.
Over the course of Powers’ “long personal history” with the instrument, he’s built, played, restored, and repaired electric guitars. And, having grown up in Southern California, surrounded by custom-car culture, skateboarding, and surfing—all things he loves—he sees the instrument as part of his design DNA.
“Southern California is a birthplace of a lot of different things,” Powers explains. “I think of it as the epicenter of electric guitar. Post-World War II, you had Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby and Les Paul—all these guys living within just a couple of miles of each other. And I grew up in those same sorts of surroundings.”
Those influences and the ideas about what to do with them kept collecting without a plan to take action. “At some point,” he says, “you need the catalyst to go, ‘Hey, you know what? I actually have the entire guitar’s worth of ideas sitting right in front of me, and they all go together. I would want to play that guitar if it existed. Now is a good time to build that guitar.’”
“I started thinking, ‘If I had been alive then, what would I have made?’ It’s kind of an open-ended question, because at that point, well, there’s no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. A lot of these things hadn’t been invented yet. How would you interpret this?”
The pandemic ultimately served as the catalyst Powers’ electric guitars needed, and that local history proved to be a jumping-off point necessary for focusing his long-marinating ideas. “I started thinking, ‘If I had been alive then, what would I have made?’ It’s kind of an open-ended question, because at that point, well, there’s no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. A lot of these things hadn’t been invented yet. How would you interpret this? As a designer, I think that’s really interesting. Overlay that with understanding what happens to electric guitars and how people want to use them, as well as some acoustic engineering. Well, that’s pretty fascinating. That’s an interesting mix.”
Tucked away in his home workshop, Powers set about designing a guitar, building “literally every little bit other than a couple screws” including handmade and hand-polished knobs. Soon, the prototype for the Powers Electric A-Type was born. “I played this guitar and went, ‘I’ve been waiting a long time to play this guitar.’ A friend played it and went, ‘I want one, too.’ Okay, I’ll make another one. Made two more. Made three more….”
The A-Type—seen here with both vibrato and hardtail—is a fully hollow guitar that is built in what Powers calls a “hot-rod shop” on the Taylor Guitars campus.
From there, Powers recalls that he started bringing his ideas back to his shop on Taylor’s campus, where he set up “essentially a small hot-rod shop” to build these new guitars. “It’s a real small-scale operation,” he explains. “It exists here at Taylor Guitars, but in its own lane.”
The A-Type—currently the only planned Powers Electric model—has the retro appeal of classic SoCal electrics. Its single-cut body style is unique but points to the curvature of midcentury car designs, and the wide range of vibrant color options help drive that home. Conceptually, the idea of reinventing each piece of the guitar’s hardware points toward the instrument’s creators. That might get a vintage guitar enthusiast’s motor running, but it’s in the slick precision of those parts—from the bridge and saddle to the pickup components—where the A-Type’s modernism shines.
“It’s a real small-scale operation. It exists here at Taylor Guitars, but in its own lane.”
Grabbing hold of the guitar, it’s clearly an instrument living on the contemporary cutting edge. The A-Type’s neck gives the clearest indication that it’s a high-performance machine; it’s remarkably easy to fret, with low action but just enough bite across the board. Powers put a lot of thought into the fretboard dynamics that make that so, and he decided to create a hybrid radius. “You have about a 9 1/2" radius, which is really what your hand feels, but then under the plain strings, it’s a bit flatter at 14, 15-ish—it’s so subtle, it’s really tough to measure.” Without reading the specs and talking to Powers, I don’t know that I would detect the difference—and I certainly didn’t upon first try. It just felt easy to play precisely without losing character or veering into “shredder guitar” territory.
The A-Type looks like a solidbody, but you’ll know it’s hollow by its light, balanced weight. That makes it comfortable to hold, whether standing or sitting. But its hollow-ness is no inhibitor to style: I’ve yet to provoke any unintended feedback from any of my amps. Powers explains that’s part of the design, which uses V-class bracing, similar to what you’ll find on a modern Taylor acoustic.
Powers says the A-Type that is now being produced is no different than the prototype he built in his home workshop: “I have the blueprint, still, that I hand drew. I can hold the guitar that we’re making up against that drawing, and it would be like I traced over it.”
“Coupling the back and the top of the guitar matter a lot,” he asserts. “When you do that, you can make them move in parallel so that they are not prone to feeding back on stage. You don’t actually have that same Helmholtz resonance going on that makes a hollowbody guitar feedback. It’s still moving.”
On a traditional hollowbody, he points out, the top and back move independently, compressing the air inside the body. “It’ll make one start to run away by re-amplifying its own sound,” he explains. “But if I can make them touch each other, then they move together as a unit. When they do that, you’re not compressing the air inside the body. But it’s still moving. So, you get this dynamic resonance that you want out of a hollowbody guitar; it’s just not prone to feedback.”
What I hear from the A-Type is a rich, dynamic tone, full of resonance, sustain, and volume. I found it to be surprisingly loud and vibrant when unplugged. Powers tells me that’s in part due to the “stressed spherical top” and explains, “I take this piece of wood and I stress it into a sphere, which unnaturally raises its resonant frequency well above what the piece of wood normally could. It’s kind of sprung, ready to set in motion as soon as you strike the string. So, it becomes a mechanical amplifier.” The bridge then sits in two soundposts, which Powers says makes it “almost like a cello.”
“Literally every little bit other than a couple screws” on the A-Type is custom made.
The single-coil pickups take it from there. They’re available in two variations, Full Faraday and Partial Faraday, the latter of which were in my demo model, and Powers tells me they are the brighter option. Their design, he says, has been in progress for about seven or eight years. The concept behind the pickups is to use the “paramagnetic quality of aluminum”—found in the pickup housing—“to shape the magnetic field … which functions almost like a Faraday cage.” And he complements them with a simple circuit on the way out.
I found them to run quietly, as promised, and offer a transparent tone with plenty of headroom. They paired excellently with the ultra-responsive playability and feel of the guitar, so I could play as dynamically as I desired. If a standard solidbody with single-coils offers the performance of a practical sedan, this combo gave the A-Type the feel of a well-tuned racecar. At low volumes and with no pedals, it felt like I was simply amplifying the guitar’s acoustic sound, and I had full control with nothing but my pick. (Powers explains that the pickups have a wide resonance peak, which plays out to my ear.) Add pedals to the mix, including distortion and fuzz, and that translates to an articulated, hi-fi sound.
Now up to serial number XXX, the Powers Electric team has refined their production process. I wonder about that first guitar, the dream guitar Powers built in his house. How similar is the guitar I’m holding to his original vision? “It’s very, very, very close,” Powers tells me. “Literally, this guitar outline is a tracing. It’s an exact duplicate of what I first drew on paper with a pencil. I have the blueprint, still, that I hand drew. I can hold the guitar that we’re making up against that drawing, and it would be like I traced over it.”
“It’s one of those things you do because you just really want to do it. It puts some spark in your life.”
Playing the guitar and, later, talking through its features, I’m left with few questions. But one that remains has to do with branding and marketing, not the instrument: Why go to all the effort to create a new brand for the A-Type, which is to say, why isn’t this a Taylor? For Powers, it’s about design. “As guitar players,” he explains, “we know what Taylor guitars are, we know what it stands for, and we know what we do. The design language of a Taylor guitar is a very specific thing. When I look at a Taylor acoustic guitar, I go, ‘I need curves like this, I need colors like this, I need shapes like this.’”
Those aren’t the same curves, colors, and shapes as the Powers Electric design, nor do they mine the same influences. “There’s a look and a feel to what a Taylor is. And that is different from this. I look at this and go, ‘It’s not the same.’”
Of course, adding the A-Type to the well-established Taylor catalog would probably be easier in lots of ways, but Powers’ positioning of the brand is a sign of his dedication to the project. It feels like a labor of love. “They’re guitars that I really wanted to make,” he tells me enthusiastically. “And I’m excited that they get to exist. It’s one of those things you do because you just really want to do it. It puts some spark in your life.”
“It’s like a solo project,” he continues. “As musicians, you front this band, you do this thing, and you also like these other kinds of music and you’ve got other musician friends, and you want to do something that’s a different flavor. You try to make some space to do that, too.”
