Switch Revolution X102

Red Hot Humbucking bridge position, 1 Cool Blue Humbucking neck position, Floyd Rose licensed tremolo system, Locking nut, Cosmo black hardware Grover tuners Rosewood fingerboard w/ white pearl triangle inlays Jumbo fret wire (2.9mm) 3-way lever switch Single volume & tone controls Scale: 25 1/2" Neck width @ nut: 1 21/32" 22 frets Vibracell?? One piece neck & body

- thats the official stuff. Switch Guitars is no more, so there is very little info on their guitars anywhere. And as anyone trying to research them will find out, it seems there was very little consistency anyway with their products - models may have missing or extra features just by chance!

Anyway, these guitars are pretty out there. Ugly as sin but original, they are somewhere between a Flying V and a Burns Flyte... not really metal, more 80s electro than hair-thrash.
The material is vibracell, a kind of plastic-carbon-wood-resin scifi stuff. Pretty heavy, but it sustains for days. Finish is great because the colour is embedded in the material.
Fitted [soft] case is excellent.

Ideally i would have liked an HSH pickup combo, or coil taps as on some of the other models.

Simply put, the sound is pretty fantastic. The pickups have a really good sound - and the sustain through the body is unparalleled. Notes seem to sing through the fingerboard.

style of music - my band plays a kind of industrial electronica sound, but ive been involved in music from classical, blues, ambient through to truly noisy metallic hardcore experimental riffing [check out www.cell7.com to hear it in action]...

Pickups are very loud but smooth - generally the sound suits processing well. There is a nice amount of weighty bass that suits fat chunky distortion, and the neck has a good throaty les paul-ish sound. Good rock guitar.

action was pretty high, but the neck was straight and intonation was good. After a quick setup it is good and flat action, with no buzzing. Frets are good too for the most part.

For me, the neck was much too fat. Im used to the wizard neck, and this was just too chunky. I got out the sandpaper and shaved it down for a few hours, and now it is really pretty slick and smooth. Another benefit is that the high-gloss stickyness of the original finish is now gone too.

Flaws were minimal if any [i bought this guitar to modify so i wasnt too concerned with whether there were any minor aesthetic issues...]

The balance on this body shape is also a bit of a problem. The strap buttons location means the guitar is neck heavy and also tilts out from the body. I will try to change this in the future.

All this considered, for a guitar of this price, or even at the original list price - the finish is a pleasant surprise.

Looks like it would be the only instrument left after the apocalypse... i think its close to indestructible.

Definitely dependable.

NA - the company is no longer with us.

Been playing for 15 years, own/owned about 20 other guitars and basses - ibanez RGs, steinbergers, hohners, fenders etc. I also own a complete studio rig with pretty much every guitar effect and rack unit of interest. At the moment im playing through a lexicon interface directly into guitar rig 3.

I wish it had a midi pickup, a kill switch, an extra pickup and a steinberger transtrem - but thats kinda asking a bit much hehehe.

I thoroughly researched this guitar before i got it off ebay [new stock] but i hadnt ever played one, but im certainly happy i got it. I had to wait a while before one came up - so if u are interested grab the first one you see because they are rare as hell.

This gets a 10 for value because you will never find this much guitar for this little amount anywhere else. List price was already a bargain at around US$500 - but for just 130-odd through ebay it was a steal.

If you see a switch with ebonite fretboard and the red/blue pickups just grab it, no matter how ugly it is... u can do something about that later :)