IN USE
Beginning unplugged, the Switchmaster has a
glorious tone. It’s reasonably loud for a laminate
construction, the treble is mellow but clear and the
bass resonates deep inside the body. There’s also a
considerable thump to the low mids and impressive
sustain. Yet while the Switchmaster ticks all the
boxes for definition, body, sustain and balance, there
is something that some players may find hard to
live with...
This guitar’s defining feature may also be its
most divisive. Depending on your picking-handKEY FEATURES
PRICE £14,995
DESCRIPTION Hollowbody electric guitar. Made in the USA
BUILD Maple ply body with maple/rosewood/maple laminate
neck, bound Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, 20 frets
HARDWARE Kluson ‘waffle back’ tuners, Tune-o-matic bridge
on floating rosewood base, double-loop tailpiece
ELECTRICS 3x PAF humbucking pickups, 3x volume,
3x tone, 4-way switch
FINISH Blonde nitrocellulose
SCALE LENGTH 643mm/25.3"
NECK WIDTH 42.9mm at nut, 53mm at 12th fret
NECK DEPTH 23.5mm at first fret, 25mm at 9th fret
STRING SPACING 33.7mm at nut, 50.9mm at bridge
WEIGHT 3.44kg/7.58lb
CONTACT ATB Guitars atbguitars.comtailpiece, but they’re barely noticeable. The finish
does have some very fine checking, but overall,
it’s near mint. The gold plating has worn away
from the outer edges of the pickup covers and the
top of the tailpiece, but the fingerboard and frets
appear almost unplayed.
A retainer wire reveals the Tune-o-matic here is
old, but a later replacement. The case is slightly later,
too, but it fits the guitar perfectly and marks in the
orange velour demonstrate that the Switchmaster is
the only guitar ever to have lived inside.
Switchmasters are considerably more upmarket
than ES-175s. Although laminated, Gibson tended
to use more figured maple, and both the body and
neck have five-ply binding. Single-ply binding adorns
the headstock and f-holes, with genuine pearl marker
blocks along the light Brazilian rosewood.
The neck is a laminated construction with a thin
rosewood centre strip flanked by two pieces of maple.
Headstock ‘ears’ are added but you can only tell by
looking at the end of the headstock because the rear
is sprayed black.
A ‘stinger’ gracefully transitions into the centre
strip with a precision that, back in the late 1950s,
the Gretsch factory could only have dreamed of.ABOVE Although there’s a
familiar Telecaster-style tip,
this is a four-position switch
ƇĩÝƇŕƷĈŸžĭōāĭƣĭāƍÝńŴĭûl·ƍŴ
settings and a combination
of all three
OPPOSITE TOP The end
ŕğƇĩĈƼōġĈŸùŕÝŸāĩÝžƇĩĈ
peaked shape reserved for
Gibson’s fanciest jazz boxes
and the neck pickup’s gold
plating is quite worn
OPPOSITE RIGHT The
engraved model name on
the tailpiece has a quirky
period charm
VINTAGE BENCH TEST
90