Powers Electric A-Type FF42 Camtail TME-Spec British Racing Green/Gold Metallic

The third two-tone A-Type with racing stripes, spec'd by The Music Emporium.

Andy Powers famously built the A-Type around his love of Southern California cars, surfing, and skateboarding. The CamTail tremolo is a camshaft; the pickup covers are engine turned like hot rod dash panels; the colors come out of a classic sports car palette; the leather case takes its cues from a Porsche interior.

A while back we asked Powers for something we'd never seen on an A-Type, and they'd never built: racing stripes. The first one turned out so well that we kept going. This is our third striped A-Type, finished in British Racing Green with Gold Metallic stripes, and it might be our favorite yet.

If you haven't spent time with an A-Type, the short version is that they don't play or sound like anything else. The body is a slim hollowbody of urban ash with a braced solid maple top, trussed by two internal soundposts fitted the way a violin's are, so the top and back move together. That's where the resonance and sustain come from, and it's why the guitar stays controllable when things get loud.

The fingerboard uses a split radius rather than a conventional compound: flatter on the treble side for bending, rounder on the bass side for chords. Everything except the tuners and strings is made in Andy's shop, including the knobs, which are cast from surfboard resin left over from the glassing process. No two sets look quite alike.

The feel is slinky and the neck carve is comfortable from the first minute. Plugged in, it's fat, warm, and articulate, with the clean tones you'd expect and overdriven tones you might not. Push it with real gain and the FF42 pickups compress beautifully with plenty of sustain. Single-note runs come easy. The guitar doesn't fight you.

The car comparison holds up. The A-Type is agile, quick to respond, and built with one foot in tradition and the other pointed forward. This one just happens to look the part.