Description

We could compare it with the Gibson ES-355, or wax lyrical about how visually appealing she is (face it, you stopped to admire the pictures before scrolling down this far) but instead let’s cut to the chase: with the Epiphone Sheraton, what you’re basically getting is a Cadillac for the price of a Ford.

With all the features on offer, both cosmetic and functional, there’s heaps more guitar here than that low price tag would initially suggest. It’s all in the fine detail and craftsmanship, but what we’d really like to impress upon you is just how great this Epiphone sounds.

Hooking it straight up to an amp, what you initially notice is how the Sheri delivers a velvety smooth sound and playing it harder introduces a cool, lightly overdriven edginess. After experimenting up and down the rosewood fingerboard and marvelling at the richness of tone, you realize you’re still only playing through the bridge pickup. Flipping to the neck, and that edge you noticed previously turns the guitar into a biting beast, pushing through the air with an assertiveness that you probably wouldn’t expect.

The tone and volume controls really do have a dramatic effect. If you engage both pickups and simply max out the tone, you get fantastic attack especially as you approach the tenth fret and beyond, and the lows are powerful and full-bodied. Roll-off the bridge tone for a groovy, darker feel.

It has a super-smooth neck made from three-pieces of maple, with a likeable and comfortable profile slightly flatter than it’s Gibson cousins and a fraction wider at 1-¾”. The 22 fret rosewood fretboard has real mother of pearl and abalone inlaid block markers and 5 ply bindings. Yes, 5! The headstock features more mother of pearl, for the vine decoration and vintage script “Epiphone” logo.

The woodwork and finish is in fine condition (there’s some barely noticeable wear to the back of the headstock) but the gold plating has partially lifted on the pickup covers and the base metal shows heavy oxidization. Also oxidization on the bridge and stop tail.

It will arrive at your door strung with D’Addario 10-52s inside a lavish black TKL case (non-original), swaddled in many layers of bubble wrap and brown tape. That reminds me, must buy shares in bubble wrap!

Not an Epiphone Sheraton II

This Sheraton should not be confused with the later reissue, the Sheraton II (made in Korea during the nineties, scores of which currently on the market. Not a bad guitar if you replace the pickups and don’t mind handling a heavy polyurethane finish.) This is a Japanese-made stunner from the seventies, it’s the script style “E” in the logo that gives this away.

Epiphone Sheraton features

• 16” wide double cutaway with bound f-holes
• 7-ply multiple bound laminated maple body
• Solid maple centre block
• 3-piece maple neck
• Rosewood finger board with block mop and abalone Vee inlays
• 5 ply neck bindings
• 24½” scale length
• 22 frets, body joint at 19th
• 5-ply pick guard with black/white bevelled edge
• Mother-of-pearl Epiphone script logo in on headstock above mother-of-pearl vine inlay
• Gold plated hardware
• Dual humbucker pick ups
• 2 volume and 2 tone controls, gold knobs
• 3-way pickup selector switch
• Stop tail and Tune-O-Matic bridge
• Grover tuners with Epiphone ‘E’ logo on back
• Non-original hard shell case

Epiphone Sheraton tags

Epiphone, Epi, Sheraton, Japanese guitar, Japanese sheraton, Gibson 335, John Lee Hooker,