Switch Guitars?

feylya · 31-07-2005 4:34pm #1

Anyone ever hear of Switch guitars? www.switchmusic.com

One piece body and neck. I played one yesterday, dual humbuckers, 22 frets I think, Grover tuners, piezo bridge. €255 :eek: Very strange carved tops but very very nice I think. Well worth the money.

NotMe · 31-07-2005 5:45pm

Yeah I think they look great. I nearly bought one in Waltons about a year ago when I was looking for a new guitar. This one:

I decided to stick with wood though. (no pun intended

)

feylya · 31-07-2005 5:48pm

Are they not wood?

TBH, if I had €255 spare, I'd get it straight away!

NotMe · 31-07-2005 6:06pm

They're made from Vibracell. http://www.switchmusic.com/vibracell_page/about_vibracell.html
Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

feylya · 31-07-2005 6:09pm

Hmmm. I can't even read that site. Text is far too small and hard to read.

NotMe · 31-07-2005 6:18pm

CTRL and + in Firefox

feylya · 31-07-2005 6:21pm

If they're not going to accomodate my crazy 1152x864 screen res, then I'm not going to read their pages

Even the pdf advertisements are impossible to read

Karl Hungus · 31-07-2005 6:28pm

feylya wrote:

Anyone ever hear of Switch guitars? www.switchmusic.com

One piece body and neck. I played one yesterday, dual humbuckers, 22 frets I think, Grover tuners, piezo bridge. €255 :eek: Very strange carved tops but very very nice I think. Well worth the money.

Wow, that sounds very good indeed! Piezo you say? €255? Hmm.... Where was it you were trying it out?

feylya · 31-07-2005 6:50pm

Cumiskey's in Dundalk.

Johnny Storm · 13-08-2005 2:24pm

Just saw this thread.
FWIW I have a Switch Wild IV. It cost about €250. Superb guitar for the money IMHO. It was the first guitar I had bought since 1978 (!) and I enjoyed it so much I went on to buy my 'berger and Parker.
Dont let the "Vibracell" thing put you off. There is 100% literally no way you would know it was not made of wood. Mine does have a (real) rosewood fretboard. Beautiful neck and action, good rockin humbucker sound. Just as playable as my other guitars.
Disadvantages: sharp edges on frets (worn off now), sound is good but not as widely variable as the aforementioned 'berger and Parker, many Switches come in totally gank colours.

Warning: Switch guitars were not designed in the 1950s.

Eoin Madsen · 13-08-2005 3:49pm

They look fugly, imo.

Vibracell sounds like an interesting idea though. Not unlike "Acousticon" created by Remo.

Of course, technically speaking, solidstate amps are more accurate in reproduction than valve amps... I suspect a similar situation with this, tbh. Or else they wouldn't cost so little. Definitely would like to try one out alongside a Les Paul or something of that ilk. I wonder what their electronics are like.

Johnny Storm · 13-08-2005 4:32pm

I dont think there's much point comparing any guit that costs 250 yo-yos to an LP or other guit that costs 10 times as much, if I'm understanding you correctly?
I think if you compared the Switch to other guits costing about the same you'd be reasonably impressed.
I would guess that Vibracell is something that can be manufactured and assembled more consistently (i.e. more cheaply) than wood. This allows them to put good hardware on a 250 yo-yo guit.
The electronics on my one seem pretty standard, the 'buckers are pretty good but the tone pot can crackle.
I may be wrong but I seem to remember reading that Geoff (?) Wilkinson had some hand in designing the Switches

Switch Guitars?

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