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New weird guitar day. Switch Vibracell


polara

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In my monthly prowl through GCs used section, I saw this. I'd heard about Switch guitars but my recollection was foggy. I knew they were molded from some kind of plastic and the company failed in an Ishtar-DeLorean catastrophic fashion. It was cheap, and I love cheap weird guitars that have their own thing going. Also it reaffirms my belief that we're in a kind of golden age of guitars, where we can get Shishkovs and Collings and MotorAves for less than a month's salary, stuff like PRS SEs cost less in constant wages than early Strats or LPs and even beginner instruments can be gigged pretty well.

It was dusty and dirty but seemed to be in excellent shape. The strings were ancient and dead. So I brought it home and oiled the rosewood board, polished the frets with ScotchBriteâ„¢, shined up the finish, tightened the tuner hardware and output jack and strung it up. Twiddled the truss rod (which was dead slack) and did a teensy bit of tweaking the bridge saddles for height and intonation.

Cleaned up, it doesn't have a scratch or ding on it. Immaculate, no fret wear, all in all out-of-the-box clean. But what IS it, you may ask. I did some research (i.e. Googled and went to forums.) The available records are really spotty but here we go.

Switch guitars were evidently designed with some (or a lot) of input from Trev Wilkinson. Some American guy had the idea to mold guitars to control the density of material for consistency and for resistance to temperature and humidity, a la Parker or Steinberger, but out of "Vibracell." No one is very clear what Vibracell is/was. I suspect it's sawdust and epoxy, but I have no evidence it's not ground fairy wings or recycled inner tubes or plywood. I imagine the guy saw something else made from similar stuff, maybe tennis rackets or yo-yos or spaceships, and thought it'd work for guitars.

So we have these Wilkinson-designed guitars and a guy who wants to make guitars from plastic. He immediately does a number of questionable things:

  1. He names the company "Switch" which is... well not the worst, but still. Really?
  2. He has them built in China. In 2005 this was even more of a "Crap guitar" signal than it is now.
  3. He designs them to be not only the ugliest guitars ever made but among the ugliest objects ever created by mankind. Science-fiction jumps and grooves and bevels, and molded in horrifying day-glo neon bursts.

The result? The company launched in 2005 and apparently by the end of the year was in big trouble. The guitars were being blown out for a hundred bucks new. The company also showed Drive brand amps, but I can't tell if they were even produced. In 2006 they pumped out some guitars with simpler bodies and wood bolt-on necks, thus being not just ugly but also generically so. A few all-wood jazz boxes followed in what seems like a desperate attempt to make some cash and then the company was gone.

Interestingly, there's a site now amounting that they may be back in 2015, showing some less hideous guitars. We'll see.

So here is my Switch. The model name is Wild 1 (shudder.) It is, in my opinion, the least grotesque of all their models, having just a sort of "endorsed by Darth Vader" look. The build quality is...well. REALLY good. I'm shocked. Grover tuners are smooth and tight, the nut was perfectly cut, there are no rough ends on the medium frets on bound neck, the pots are dead quiet. Neck is dead straight and with the action scary-low there is not a hint of buzz. The finish is the aforementioned Darth Vader Empire Black, smooth and glossy all over. The shape is very comfy sitting or standing, and the way it's molded gives great access to the high frets on a normal medium C neck. Y'all know I have a MotorAve, a few Hamers and a Giffin so I know what a good guitar should play like. I think if someone told me this was hand-built by Swedish elves and cost $2,000 I'd say the elves should polish the frets and found the ends better but otherwise did a fine job. Average weight, not an anchor.

The sound? Super aggro. The pickup is all slugs, no adjustable pole pieces and is super-hot sounding, like a Slammer. The sound reminds me a bit of an 80s Slammer pickup, hot and with some mid-high emphasis. The guitar vibrates nicely, feels like...well, like a wood guitar. The coil split doesn't exactly do Tele but gives a sonic option and the tone knob is genuinely useful.

I may have gotten lucky with the build quality on this one and everyone's ears are different. For two bills this thing is sensational and it's very nice for any amount. The reviews I found online tend to run toward "I was surprised, thought it'd be junk but I really like it." Shame they're so ugly and the business plan was so bad. If you find one, buy it or tell me about it!

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Interesting bit of guitar history. The contours of the top are slightly reminiscent of a higher end guitar by Frank Hartung.

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it is an interesting idea though - what if you had a guitar that was carved from a single piece of completely uniform wood? No glue joints anywhere.

Here's one. I saw another cruder one online a few years ago too.

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Vibracell DOES sound like some sort of "marital device".

"Switch it on for a deep and satisfying massage".

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Nathan has at least eight guitars that are uglier than that. He is getting a Virt and an Improv though, so his unwonted tendencies do seem to be moving in a better direction.

I can neither confirm nor deny...

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I had the two-pickup version of that. got it new for something stupid cheap. Played well, sounded pretty aggressive, but the quality of the switch, pots etc. was noticeably cheapo. Mine was a end-to-end day-glo fade/burst/whatever. I didn't hate it, but it went away in a "toy guitar" purge. I still know where it is and the new owner loves it.

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