(blues guitar riff)
(rock guitar riff)
- Hi folks, I'm Al from Fender.
I wanna talk to you about the new Powercaster.
I'm sitting next to my buddy, Alex Perez,
who's the Master Builder in our R&D department.
He's the genius that designed this model,
and we're gonna talk to him in a little bit about
how he was inspired to do so.
This is part of our Alternate Reality Series.
Basically, the Alternate Reality Series
is all about what's new.
It allows us to kinda mix and match different
Fender elements, try cool pick up configurations,
cool applications of wood and necks and
all that kind of stuff.
And the Powercaster is no exception.
It's got a really nice, smooth neck.
This is actually a really nice Surf Green finish.
Cool pickup configuration,
and we're gonna play a little bit for ya,
talk about the specs in a little bit as well.
But, to start, I'd like Mr. Perez to kinda tell us
exactly what inspired him to design this beauty.
- I wanted to, basically, take the offset design that
we already have been making for so long,
and kinda give it a little bit of an update,
but more of a bare bones, all-around rock guitar.
- [Al] Right.
- [Alex] The normal offsets are more known for
surf guitar and things like that.
That was my main goal.
I just wanted to make a nice, simple rock guitar
with a cool body shape.
(blues guitar riff)
- The body shape, it looks like a little bit of
a hybrid between a Jaguar and a Jazzmaster.
Is that correct in saying that?
- Yeah, absolutely.
It started as a Jazzmaster, - Okay.
- Then got a shortened rear-end here.
Also, they added contour.
- Yeah, this contour's really neat.
It's not traditional but it looks very modern and cool.
And I bet it's very comfortable for most players.
- Absolutely, yeah.
That was my main goal there,
is having a little bit more comfortable feel on your arm.
- The other unique thing about this instrument is
it's 24 and 3/4 scale which is a little
different scale for Fender.
We normally have 24-inch or 25 1/2-inch scale length.
So, what's the deal with the scale
length on this instrument?
- Well, I chose that just because
with the scaled-down body I figured
let's scale down the the scale as well.
And I found that 24 and 3/4,
for me personally,
made it a little bit easier to play
some of the things that I was trying to play at the time.
- Yeah, I kinda feel like the shorter
scales like 24-inch and then
the 24 3/4-inch length kinda gives it a
little bit more chunk and oomph.
- Yeah.
(blues guitar riff)
- All right, let's get into the specs of the Powercaster.
First of all, let's talk about the body.
This is Surf Green, a very popular Fender finish.
I should mention that the Powercaster also comes in
3-Color Sunburst, and White Opal.
So, three really neat colors that
play well against this white guard.
This is an Alder body.
So, why did you choose Alder?
- I just chose Alder because it's usually
the most consistent sounding wood that we have
that's kind of in that mid-range.
It's not to high, not too low.
- Weight-wise it's kinda consistent as well.
- Exactly.
- You get a much better spectrum of weight with Alder.
- Exactly.
- There's not a ton heavy ones and a ton of light ones.
- [Alex] Right, right.
- Okay, gotcha.
So, We've got a nice pickup configuration here
that's really interesting.
An Atomic Humbucking pickup and an MP-90.
That's a really interesting configuration.
Talk about your choice with that.
- Yeah, I just wanted to get a nice,
simple rock guitar that you could play some
nice heavy rhythm with this and
if you want to get some nice,
sweeter nuances but still dirty,
you could us the P-90. - Gotcha.
- And, it just seemed to work really well together.
- Yeah the Atomic Humbucking pickup is Alnico 5.
That magnet is kind of the Fender thing.
It's got really nice string-to-string
note articulation and it gets really
nice grind with some overdrive on that pickup.
- Yeah.
- The controls are really neat, too.
We've got a master volume and a master tone and a three-way
toggle so you can chose the bridge pickup,
both pickups on, or the neck pickup solo.
The toggle's not usually situated right here.
Talk about your choice to put the toggle there.
- [Alex] Yeah, it was just more of a convenience thing
to me, just get it out of the way.
Put it between the volume and the tone.
You put your fingers on here as if you were playing
and it's right there, it's in the middle.
- Ergonomics, yeah.
- You can't miss it.
Also, most of these style of offset guitars
have switches on the bottom or on the top.
And, a lot of times, guys will hit
those if you strum too hard.
I figured this is much cleaner and
nicer out of the way and it looks great.
- You can tell when you're riding the volume knob
with your pinky, that switch is right behind your hand.
So, it's really easy to get to it and flip
through the pickup selections.
(southern rock guitar riff)
- So let's talk about the neck.
It's a Pau Ferro fretboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets and
a nice, modern C on the back there.
- [Alex] Right.
- [Al] What are some characteristics on the Pau Ferro?
- So, Pau Ferro is really similar to Rosewood.
But it's also kinda closer to Ebony.
- Mmm.
- It's a little bit harder and brighter.
So, you get a little bit more punch and
and a little more slap, I think.
It's beautiful, it looks very similar to Rosewood.
It's just has a little bit different characteristics.
- Yeah, and the 9 1/2-inch radius is
a little bit flatter here which means
you can bend notes without them choking out.
Medium-jumbo frets help that, too.
If you wanna flip the guitar over, Alex,
folks here can see the Roasted Maple.
That is just a super cool treatment.
It's satin on the back there.
So, it's really silky smooth and fast.
I wanna talk about this neck heel.
That actually is the same shape that we're
using on our American Elites.
Talk a little bit about the neck heel choice there.
- Yeah, we started doing that neck heel in
R&D about 2011, around that time.
And we were just trying to give ourselves a little more
access here and not have anything hit you.
- Yeah, you can totally tell when you're playing
that the corner being rounded off here is
a lot more comfortable when you're playing, for sure.
And then, of course, we've got
standard tuners there on the headstock.
Okay, so let's take a listen to the Powercaster.
We're plugged into a Fender Bassbreaker 30R
on the clean channel with a hint of reverb.
And you're gonna start with the MP-90 neck pickup.
- Here we go.
(blues guitar riff)
- Okay, now we're gonna listen to position two
on the toggle with both pickups on
through the 30R on channel two with
a hint of gain and reverb and it's drop D tuning?
- Drop D tuning.
(southern rock guitar riff)
- Okay, now we're gonna take a listen to the
Atomic Humbucking pickup.
We're in the 30R on channel two again,
but this time with much more gain.
(metal rock riff)
- All right, thanks for joining us to
talk about the Powercaster part of
the Alternate Reality Series.
Thank you to Alex Perez for coming here to
talk about it and for designing this awesome unit.
You wanna play us out?
(blues rock guitar riff)