Guitars for Real Musicians

Craig · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:34 am Post subject: Gibson ES-5

Are any of you guys familiar with the Gibson ES-5/ES-5 Switchmaster? A full hollow, single cut ES body with 3 pickups and a pretty slick wiring setup. I dunno what it is with me and triple pickup Gibbys lately, but that would be a cool one for Robert to build also... well, pretty much any Gibby fills that bill.

The one on the left is a '52 ES-5; on the right is a '55 ES-5 Switchmaster which allows selection of any pickup individually or all 3 simultaneously. It had P90s originally, but when Gibby's Alnico V "staple" pickup came out in '54 the new pickup became optional. (Cool, rare, and Duncan's custom shop has repros!)

Then in '57 obviously they went to PAFs. Dropped from the lineup in '62. They reissued this guitar with either 'buckers or Alnicos, but now it's only offered with 'buckers.
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