Epiphone Sheraton?

Blackhorse Slim

Starting to look ahead to the end of the year, when hopefully I will have a few quid, and my guitar collection is missing an archtop since my old Hondo 335-copy got damaged. The Sheraton looks beautiful, and I've heard good things about Epiphone archtops in general.

I liked my old Hondo for sentimental reasons, it was my first guitar, bought around 1990. But it really wasn't that good. I've also played a Shine archtop that was decent, but not great. I now mostly play a strat, but I'd like to have an archtop for a contrast.

I play mostly blues/blues rock through a Fender Blues Jr, if that helps. The Hondo sounded very thin through that amp, but sounded much better through my old JCM800, and most other amps I used it with. Although, come to think of it, it sounded pretty crap through a couple of different Fender amps. My strat, on the other hand, sounds much better through the Blues Jr. So I want something that will sound great with the Blues Jr.

So these are my questions for the forum; has anyone here played one (Sheraton)? Particularly through a Fender valve amp? Just how good are they? Are they worth the extra couple of hundred over a Dot? And what other options are there for around €300-€600?

Thanks

Ostrom

Ordered one yesterday, shipped this morning - I'll let you know as soon as I get it, I'll be playing through a blackstar HT5 though which probably wont help you. Hopefully will have it before the weekend...

Matt Bianco

I have a Korean made Epi Sheraton which I picked up through Adverts after trying some of the more recent Chinese made offerings around town. The Korean Sheratons are excellent and definitely add tones that are hard to replicate with other guitars (a tele and Ibanez dual humbucker Roadstar in my case) The Sheraton was loaded with Irongear P90s which add good bite as I found the stock humbuckers tended to be subdued and muffled. I play through a Super Champ XD which really adds a nice brightness to the natural woody tones.

I can't comment on the Dots but I can't recommend a Sheraton enough in terms of bang for buck - €350 should bag you a Korean Sheraton second hand.

Blackhorse Slim

I think all the Sheraton IIs are Korean made, aren't they? If I'm buying one, I must have the natural (bonde) finish with a tortoise-shell pickguard, it looks great.

I prefer humbuckers to P90s, I've heard the stock pickups in a Sheraton are very good, but if you can upgrade to some Gibson 57 Classics or Burstbuckers it becomes a beast of a guitar.

Congrats on your purchase, efla, I'm sure you'll love it

Keyzer

I have a Sheraton MKII, love it and use mainly for playing slide at the moment.

Beautiful guitar to play and a nice price too, however, the stock pickups are RUBBISH. I played the guitar once with the stock pickups through an amp.

I replaced them with Gibson 57 Classics, now that baby sings like a bird. Replaced the knobs and the nut too.

Ideally, I'd love to replace all the hardware with nickel/silver coloured hw but for the time being I'm happy...


BTW - I'm playing through a Fender Blues Junior with a tube screamer for added dirt.

Ostrom

Keyzer wrote: »

I have a Sheraton MKII, love it and use mainly for playing slide at the moment.

Beautiful guitar to play and a nice price too, however, the stock pickups are RUBBISH. I played the guitar once with the stock pickups through an amp.

I replaced them with Gibson 57 Classics, now that baby sings like a bird. Replaced the knobs and the nut too.

Ideally, I'd love to replace all the hardware with nickel/silver coloured hw but for the time being I'm happy...


BTW - I'm playing through a Fender Blues Junior with a tube screamer for added dirt.

I'm hoping to butcher the electrics and pickups on mine - were the pickups a DIY job?

Keyzer

efla wrote: »

I'm hoping to butcher the electrics and pickups on mine - were the pickups a DIY job?

Yes and it was extremely difficult to do given everything has to be done through the F holes, you cannot open the guitar up like a strat.

I wouldn't do it again myself, it took me hours and hours to get it right and only I had a mate who had done it before I would have made a complete balls of it.

not sure how much it would cost but I'd get it professionally done if I were doing it again.

Good luck...

Ostrom

Arrived intact yesterday, absolutely delighted with it. Played almost perfect out of the box but I'm gonna put the gauges on it hopefully this weekend as its a little bit low. Have to agree on the stock pickups, although I have limited basis for comparison - they dont quite get it, but I'm not too discerning about tone so I'm happy enough with them for now.

Build quality is excellent, but for some reason I'm getting a searing pain in my shouldder from playing it. I've played nothing but my strat for the past year so maybe its just taking some getting used to, but it was pretty bad after I took it out this evening.

Keyzer - any idea how much I might expect to pay for pickup installation?

Matt Bianco

Congratulations on your purchase and glad to hear you're enjoying it

I found I was lifting the shoulder of my strumming hand high so my elbow was almost sitting on the top and back at a right angle - it'll be a case of adjusting your strap to accommodate the new body shape

There was me thinking strap length was fashion for fashions sake when Harrisson was playing a casino at neck height!

Squidgy Black

You'll get used to the body shape eventually, I sometimes have the same problem when I switch from playing tele's to my old jumbo bodied acoustic.

As for pickups, if you buy them local more than likely they'll install them for you. The Music Outlet in Swords in North Dublin tend to have pretty good prices on pickups as they're the main seymour duncan outlet in Ireland apparently. They match online prices too.

Otherwise it'd be around 40 euro to install a pair by a tech.

Ravelleman

I'd love to find me an Elitist Sheraton with mini-humbuckers.

Keyzer

efla wrote: »

Keyzer - any idea how much I might expect to pay for pickup installation?

I have no idea about pricing for installation as I did it myself.

However, the pickups cost me approximately €200. I put a Gibson 57 classic in the bridge and a Gibson 57 classic plus in the bridge...

I cannot stress the value of this investment - the guitar was literally transformed from a cheap ass piece of crap, soundwise, to a savage instrument capable of any tone imaginable, apart from metal which I'm not into anyway...