Frank Brothers Arcade Thinline Lemon/Tango Burst (USED, 2025)

If your love of electrics hovers around Fender and Gibson guitars, you'll really like what the Frank Brothers have done with this custom Arcade Thinline.

The Arcade Thinline takes the instantly recognizable Frank Brothers silhouette and gives it an airy twist. There's a large chamber carved into the bass side of the body that trims the weight and opens up the resonance, which boosts acoustic projection, clarity, and touch sensitivity in a big way. Same carved top and back, same extra-deep neck tenon, same blended heel that gets rid of the dead zone where most set-neck guitars lose upper-fret access.

What makes this one worth a second look are the woods used (aside from the fact that it's a gorgeous guitar). Arcades are almost always mahogany, sometimes korina. This one is roasted alder, which is a wood Frank Brothers usually saves for their California-leaning Sonar model, and putting it in an Arcade body changes the whole personality.

Here's why. Mahogany gives you that thick, warm, midrange-forward voice we usually associate with this shape. Alder does something different. More scoop through the mids, a stronger fundamental, and a snappier, more immediate attack, which is exactly why it became the Fender body wood in the first place. Roast it and you drive out the moisture and expedite the natural aging process, so you get a lighter, more stable piece of wood that tends to respond more openly right out of the gate. Then carve a chamber into it.

Add all that up and you've got a guitar that's genuinely light, quick to respond, and clearer through the mids than an Arcade normally is. Fender-leaning bones inside a shape you'd swear was going to sound like a Gibson. Folks, it's a really fun combination and we can seem to put this one down.

The neck follows the same logic. Flame maple with a stripped finish, so there's essentially nothing between your hand and the wood. No gloss, no tack, no drag on a hot night. It's a fast, dry, broken-in feel from the first minute, and because it's bare it wears in over time instead of wearing through. The figure in the flame comes through with nothing sitting on top of it, which is a subtler look than a gloss neck but a much better feel. The profile reminds us a bit of an ES-335 - not super fat, not super skinny. The porridge in the middle, right? Just right.

Even through a small amp this thing sings. Big tone at low volume is no problem, and at gig levels we've got zero doubts it'll rise to the occasion.