Powers Electric Guitar Review: A Hollow-Body Design Built for Resonance

Introduction

At first glance, the Powers Electric guitar looks like a fairly standard solid-body electric. It has two pickups, a pick guard, knobs, a switch, and a vibrato arm. But this instrument is different in ways that are not immediately obvious. The body is completely hollow, with no center block. The vibrato system uses a cam-shaft design that affects every string with the same percentage of pitch change. The pickups are covered in milled blocks of aluminum and run exceptionally quiet. Every part is designed and machined in-house at the Taylor Guitars facility in San Diego, California.

This review covers the key design decisions behind the Powers Electric, what makes it unique, and who it is best suited for.

Who This Guitar Is For

The Powers Electric is aimed at players who want a guitar that behaves differently from the usual catalog of solid-body designs. It is built for musicians who care about resonance, dynamic response, and a balanced, lyrical sound across the entire fretboard. The design draws on Southern California influences: surf music, rockabilly, custom car culture, and surfboard craftsmanship.

This is not a mass-market instrument. It is a boutique guitar built in small numbers by a dedicated team of machinists and luthiers. If you are looking for a production-line guitar with interchangeable parts, this is not it. If you want an instrument where every component is designed to work together as a cohesive whole, the Powers Electric deserves attention.

A Hollow Body With a Solid Approach

The most surprising feature of the Powers Electric is its construction. The body is not chambered or honeycomb-drilled. It is completely hollow, with no center block at all. A solid maple top is braced almost like an archtop guitar, and two sound posts sit directly under the bridge mounting points. These sound posts, similar to what you would find in a cello, keep the top and back from moving out of phase with each other. This prevents the runaway feedback that plagues many hollow-body designs.

The entire string load is mounted into the bracing architecture under the top. The braces are mortised into the walls of the sides, creating a stable structure with a lot of resonance. The result is a guitar that feels light, just under six and a half pounds, with the sustain of a solid body and the dynamic response of a hollow one.

The bridge base is made of high-carbon steel, arched almost like a leaf spring, with a single-piece saddle. Once adjusted, there is nothing in the system that is not locked down. This direct coupling from strings to body is a core part of the design philosophy.

A Vibrato System Built Like a Cam Shaft

The vibrato system on the Powers Electric is one of its most distinctive features. Instead of a standard tremolo arm, the design uses a cam-shaft mechanism. Each string rides on a different-sized cam, so when the arm is moved, every string is bent and relaxed to the exact same percentage of pitch change. This eliminates the natural chorusing effect found on most vibrato systems and allows chords to maintain relative pitch between notes, similar to what a pedal steel player can achieve.

The system also includes a pressure differential with a hard stop, giving what the designer calls a zero-point return. The arm always comes back to exactly the same spot, which is ideal for players who do not like a floating tremolo. A small screw can be removed to allow full floating operation. The screw is designed as a shear pin, so if it breaks under heavy use, it is inexpensive to replace and causes no permanent damage.

An Asymmetrical Fretboard for Clean Bends

The fretboard on the Powers Electric is subtly asymmetrical. The radius is not a true radius. It is slightly flatter on the treble side, where most players do their bending, and slightly rounder on the bass side. This design allows for low action and clean, clear bends without the string choking out on the frets. The shape stays within a familiar, comfortable range, so the player’s hand never notices anything unusual.

The fretboard is made of Honduran rosewood, matched with a thick peg head veneer of the same wood. The nut does not pierce through this veneer. Instead, the nut sits on a shelf, bonded between the two surfaces. This arrangement controls the torsional resonance of the neck, making the whole assembly behave more like a tuning fork. The headstock is also designed with specific string lengths in mind, helping to control sympathetic vibrations and avoid dead spots across the fretboard.

Pickups That Let the String Breathe

The pickups on the Powers Electric are called Full Faraday 42, named for the 42-gauge magnet wire and the full Faraday cage that surrounds each unit. The covers are milled from 6061 aluminum, which is paramagnetic. When a magnetic field moves near aluminum, it generates eddy currents that oppose the motion. The designer uses this effect to diffuse the magnetic field of the pickups, so they do not pull hard on the strings and corrupt their vibration pattern.

This softer magnetic effect preserves the harmonic content and richness of the string’s sound. The pickups run almost perfectly quiet in every switch position, even with multiple overdrive pedals engaged. Tonally, the pickups are described as clear and warm, with a smooth, balanced response. The tone control is voiced more like an amplifier EQ than a typical guitar control, rolling off highs while leaving the mids intact.

Buying Advice

The Powers Electric is priced in the high three-thousand to low four-thousand dollar range. This places it firmly in the boutique luthier category, comparable to what you would pay for a custom instrument from a small builder. The price reflects the level of craftsmanship: every part is machined in-house, from the vibrato base to the pickup covers, using the same facilities and team that support Taylor Guitars.

There is no indication of a more affordable production version in the near future. The designer has stated that moving production to a lower-cost model would lose much of what makes the guitar special. If you are looking for a unique instrument with a cohesive design and a strong point of view, the Powers Electric is worth serious consideration.

Conclusion

The Powers Electric guitar is a remarkable piece of design and engineering. Its fully hollow body, cam-shaft vibrato, asymmetrical fretboard, and aluminum-covered pickups all work together to create an instrument that is responsive, quiet, and balanced. It is a guitar built by people who love making guitars, and that passion is evident in every detail.

For players who appreciate craftsmanship and are willing to invest in a boutique instrument, the Powers Electric offers something genuinely different. It is a guitar that rewards close attention and delivers a playing experience that is hard to find elsewhere.