This very rare blonde beauty weighs in at 7.60 lbs, has a superbly curvaceous 17 inch single Venetian cutaway laminated bound maple body with a depth of 33/8 inches, and a full size scale length of 25 1/2 inches. A very smooth two piece maple neck with mahogany strip and a comfortable 1 11/16 nut width. Rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and pearl block inlays. Three powerful PAF's, three volume controls, three tone controls, and a four-way toggle switch. Five-ply black pickguard with bevelled edge, fully adjustable Tune-O-Matic bridge, and a specific multi-loop tailpiece, somewhat looking like number 88 and etched with ES-5. This is most definitely one of the finest examples of a blonde Switchmaster, with all its hardware gold plated, ever to surface on the vintage market and literally is "as good as it gets". Gibson produced just 167 blonde switchmasters between 1956 and 1961, but only around 100 had the 'Holy Grail' PAF's. This guitar is one of only 34 that were made in 1958, and is in its original Gibson brown plush-lined hardshell case. It also has its original hang tag and instructions.

Introduced in mid 1949, the ES-5 was arguably the first electric Spanish guitar ever produced with three pickups. In 1955 the model was equipped with a more elaborate circuitry which brought about the Switchmaster designation. At the end of 1957 the ES-5 Switchmaster was upgraded with humbucking (PAF) pickups. Despite its phenomenal characteristics the ES-5 Switchmaster was considerably less expensive at $475.00 than its cousin, the Super 400 CES which sold then at a huge $675.00. Many of the great old rock 'n rollers played a Switchmaster including one of the greatest rockers of all time - Carl Perkins.