Switch Innovo III Signature

Switch Innovo III MIDI, Purchased new about 2-1/2 years ago.

Face the facts! These are UGLY guitars!!!

I believe this company is more or less out of business, but there are still quite a few Switch guitars out there new and used. I also have an Innovo IV MIDI, and a Ultima IV MIDI. Except for the pickups, tailpiece, and the looks, they are all the same guitar. It depends on the features you want in a guitar, you can find a Switch in ANY configuration. The Ultima came with a nice hard shell case, the others with HIGH quality gig bags and accesories. I bought the Ultima cause it was a dirt CHEAP good deal for a MIDI guitar. Obviously I loved it, so I found the Innovo IV with a tremolo, I wanted a Innovo III for the single coils, but the IV was so cheap I could not resist. Found the III, again I fell dirt cheap and bought it.

This is NOT a guitar for just everyone. It will NEVER become a collectors piece, and will hold it's value ONLY as a playable instrument if you can buy one cheap, but you can!!! Most people CANNOT play guitar anymore so I doubt you will find one that is wore out, so I would buy one used if it was NOT broken.

The sound of these guitars was VERY amazing, and unexpected. They ALL exceded ANY expectations, as for what I paid I was not expecting much more than a MIDI guitar.

The sound with the single coil pickups is not as good as my best Custom USA Strat with gold lace sensors, but it's pretty damn close. Close enough for rock and roll in fact! On a serious blues tune I would NOT use the MIDI, and switch to the strat, but ONLY in the studio. The sound is that GOOD, and far better than the cheaper strats. The Ultima IV sounds just like my BEST Les Pauls, and better than ANY Les Paul copy I ever heard.

With the excellent Wilkinson Tremolo, the Innovo III and IV sound less Les Paul like amd more like ANY Top of the Line - Jackson, ESP, PRS, etc..... The EXCELLENT sustain with the vibracell body is NOT unlike the old Ampeg Plexi guitars, but with ALL the features you could want.

The Ultima IV and the Innovo IV have the same Switch pichups which sound perfect for my needs. The Red humbucker on the Innovo III sounds great, but if I did not have the IV's , I would change it out for something similar to those.

Finish - I give it a 10 for what it is, an ugly strange guitar! It is it's own creature and understood that way, I can find no flaws with the designed finish from the factory. One could be damaged, but that is different now!

Action - you make it work for you, no instrument can come from ANY factory set up to my 100% satisfaction. When I was done setting up this guitar I was 99% satisfied with the total package.

ONLY a VERY MINIMAL amount of adjustment can be made on the truss rods of these guitars, but the necks on ALL three adjusted out to TOTAL perfection.

The finish on my guitars has been very scratch resistant. But really if you are a player first, you know scratches, dings, and dents come with the deal in the harsh world of music. Scratches and dings will NOT affect the value of this guitar as it has VERY little re-sale value anyway, so your buying one to play. I would play more consevately on a vintage instrument, so this is a plus actually!

Playability - You LOVE the neck or you hate it! It is a wider, thin, flat neck with a 12-radius on all three. I have never seen one with more than 22 jumbo nickle frets. This neck is EXCELLENT for fingerstyle pickers. Others may NOT care for it. Rosewood fretboards on all three. I have completly wore out the necks on several guitars, and at that point I retire them. I had a strat re-fretted once, and that was a mistake.

I do NOT believe these guitars can be re-fretted. I think when I hit that point, I would strip it and throw the guitar in the garbage. One could probably just replace the thing cheaper than the cost of a QUALITY refret anyway.

This may be the MOST indestructable guitar EVER made! There are only TWO types of Switch guitars - those that work and are playable, and those that are broken! I loved the Ultima and played the HELL out it the first week. Then it got accidentally pulled off the guitar stand by the cord, twisting on the stand, and the headstock hit the floor HARD. It hit in a way that would have busted the headstock off of ANY other guitar - PERIOD. I was horrified as I watched it fall. It was in one piece but across the back of the neck at the headstock was a fracture going through the finish from one end of the graphite nut to the other end across the back of the neck. But the neck remained in PERFECT adjustment.

I saw another for sale on eBay and the top at the knobs was broken into the control cavity, but could be easily repaired with the proper resin glue. I asked him what it took to do that, and he said the guitar was smashed face down onto the floor Pete Townsend style.

Compared to a normal wood guitar, this guitar could be easily repaed in the eveny of any minor damage. I would worry most about the two bolts going into the body securing the tremolo, but even if i did have a problem, I'm sure I could make a workable repair with just the proper glue.

I don't know what it would take to destroy the thing, but it would have to be deliberate, and would survive FAR more abuse than ANY strat ot Les Paul type guitar could.

I don't think there is much in the way of customer support now, and would be afraid to need it.

I'm afraid anyone that buys one of these guitars is going to be on his own!

It was never intended to be this way I'm sure, but I would classify this as a disposable item along with most of the other disposable stuff of the 21st Century.

I don'r normally give a guitar the 10 ratings the way I gave these. I paid less than $350 for the most expensive one, and ONLY about $200 for the Ultima NEW - with hardcase and FULL acessories. So the rating I gave these guitars is based FIRST on what I paid for each guitar. zZounds was blowing them out DIRT CHEAP at the time.

But the sound and playability are all 10's regardless. After over two years of being bashed around, they are still holding up just fine!

The Switch guitars are nice little secret for those that know what they are, and value this kind of thing. I would replace either one in a heartbeat, if I could find a replacement cheap enough! As I said, they have collectors value, hence NO resale value, and I doubt they ever will!

But this has also become THE feature quality to these guitars.

This guitar is NOT a toy, but a true players guitar for someone who can actually play. But I think that is why the concept failed.

All manmade materials; Vibracell one-piece neck and body, Ebonite fingerboard. 22 nicely dressed frets, Wilkinson tremolo, quality tuners, Hum-Single-Single EMG Select (passive) pickups. Their only locking tremolo option is the Stealth Innovo, which is a little bit of a lower-end instrument in their line or the Innovo V Signature, which appears to be exclusive to some of the online retailers and no longer available. They do make the Revolution X-102, but that design is a bit outlandish and won't appeal to players requireing a more conservative body type.

This guitar is surprisingly versatile. The manmade materials provide for long, even sustain across the neck. The EMG selects are not surprisingly a little dark, but are actually very decent. With my setup I can go from straight forward rock and roll to some very nice strat-like tones such as the over-played Heaven from Los Lonely Boys and that classic solo from Pink Floyd's hit Brick in the Wall and other hard-to-achieve violin-like tones. My setup is Guitar->Analog Man Comprossor->Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah->Visual Sound Jeckyl & Hide (V1)->Visual Sound H2O (V2)->MXR Micro Amp->Visual Sound Workhorse Pony 30watt, 1x12 tube amp; a very versatile and toneful setup.

As with most guitars in the medium to lower price range, this one came requiring some minor setup work, but nothing I couldn't do on my own. I just lowered the bridge for better action and tweaked the truss rod slightly. The guitar plays wonderfully and stays in tune (I crank the bridge down to the body on non-locking tremelos and use them as stop tailpieces). The finish is good too and the frets were dressed as well as any top of the line instrument. My only complaint is that the bridge cavity had kind of a sloppy edge on one side, but nothing major. The input jack seems a bit cheesy but has held up so far.

Its difficult to predict reliability as I just recently purchased the guitar, but the Vibracell material should be impervious to temperature and humidity fluctuations. I don't know how it would react to a drop or other severe impact or abuse but I have no reason to think it won't be a reliable and durable instrument.

My only expeience with Switch Music was to ask a question as to what wood the Vibracell material would most closely compare. They were prompt in responding, but weren't able to answer the question to my satisfaction. They basically said that they engineered the material to meet their design and tone goals but didn't make a comparison to any specific wood. If I had to guess I'd say basswood. I was looking for this answer to help me deferentiate what tonal characteristics were coming from the guitar and what was coming from the pickups, should I decide to one day replace them though I have no imminent plans to do so.

To me this guitar represents a possible future direction for musical instruments and certainly electric guitars. The overall package is an outstanding value and worth a look, play and listen. Its difficult to find these at dealers, but I took my chances buying online and am extremely happy with what I recieved; so much so that I've ordered their Oscar IV model to serve as a reasinably priced Les Paul-like guitar. Switch is obviously trying to go for a more progressive design, which is apparent in their uniquely contoured bodies. Unfortunately, I don't think they really need to do that and that design philospphy might in some cases drive away potential buyers. Make no mistake however, this guitar is a very real, solid, quality and worthy instrument.