TRIPLE THREAT
By the 1950s, Gibson’s reputation as a jazz-guitar manufacturer was founded on traditional lutherie skills and understated style. But when the mood took it, the company could certainly bling it out with anybody – Gretsch and Epiphone included.
This ES-5 Switchmaster is a prime example, with gold hardware, fancy multi-ply fingerboard binding and no less than six knobs to go with three original PAF humbuckers. The ‘Switchmaster’ name comes from the four-way switch mounted on the Venetian cutaway with an accompanying plate engraved to denote settings for each individual pickup, or ‘all’ three.
THREE’S A CROWD
The ES-5 model was introduced in 1949 with a rosewood bridge, a gold-plated version of the ES-175 parallelogram tailpiece and three P-90 pickups.
