One of only 30 Gibson ES-5N Switchmaster guitars made during 1957. This late ‘57 model has all the desirable features including 3 x original PAF’s with stickers intact and a beautiful flame maple top, back and sides. It is in near MINT condition and the only signs of use is just on the gold plating, usually the first things to wear.

It is all correct aside from a slightly later wire bridge and a later black case. All 3 PAF’s sound superb and are nicely and evenly balanced to suit the most discerning PAF connoisseur. The covers have been off/on but we have looked and checked every pickup and there are no repairs or rewinds. All windings, tape and magnets are original.

If you like your knobs then this guitar adorns a feast of them and in combination with the four way Telecaster type switch, allows you to select a virtual endless combination of tonal variations. These include, but are not limited to: pure honky tonk blues, soft warm mellow jazz, biting rockabilly and country rock twang. Steve Howe is also a nifty user of one of these and can be seen picking up a PAF equipped ES-5N every time ‘Roundabout’ comes up on the Yes setlist.

It is in really lovely condition and is a real beauty to behold. There is hardly any wear on it anywhere, even on the back of the neck which is often the first place you expect to see wear. The original small frets are in great condition aided by the popularity of flat wound strings during its early life no doubt. The beautiful rosewood fingerboard has no wear divots and the chunky C profile neck fits perfectly in your hand.

You cannot fail to be amazed by the quality of this guitar and the attention to detail paid during the construction. When new, this was near the top of the Gibson product range and was way out of the price bracket of an awful lot of players who desired one of the coolest Gibsons around, with the latest PAF pickups.

Not very often we see ES-5N’s with the all PAF pickups still present and correct and also in this mighty fine condition. If you seek one of these, you would be hard pressed to find better…