We love it when we get something in that needs a bit of research. We recently purchased several musical instruments from a private collection. In amongst the acoustic guitars, mandolins, lutes, bongos and congas there was this strange looking sunset-coloured electric guitar. Never seen one of them before, weird.....” was Aaron’s reaction (he’s a musician with a penchant for things with strings).
A bit of background digging revealed that the guitar was made by Switch, a short-lived company from the early 2000’s. Switch first presented their guitars at the 2004 NAMM show. Switch Guitars featured a one-piece body-and-neck construction, made by in injection moulding a patented polyurethane resin based synthetic material called Vibracell. Our Switch is early Innovo 111 custom. This seems to be a bit rarer than most of the Switch guitars with a significantly higher spec. with a rosewood fingerboard. 2 single coil pickups, a humbucker Bridge pickup and Grover machine heads.it comes with a tremelo bar and original hard case (functional but a but road worn …). Switch have been described as the DeLorean of the guitar world, flashy and ambitious, they burned bright for a short time only.
So, is it any good? Well, surprisingly …..yes! Vibracell was designed to sound like wood, and it does. It certainly doesn’t sound ‘plasticky’ (is that even a word?), it has a great tone.The sustain is excellent. The neck feels good. It was designed to be heat and moisture resistant so you could go from playing in the desert in LA or the salty damp of Cardiff Bay with no ill effects. The one-piece design means it is incredibly robust (perfect for touring), and it’s loud to look at. Admittedly the tequila sunrise orange, red and black colour and angular shape isn't everyone's cup of tea, but we think it's pretty cool and love it’s ballsy unsubtlety. This is not a guitar for a shrinking violet, it screams “look at me”.
Now with the electrics fully checked over and tested, with new strings, its on sale in the shop.
