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Epiphone Sheraton Korea vs Chinese


bigtim

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There are cosmetic, and body shape differences. The Chinese and Indonesian models have

the more "Gibson" body outline/proportions. The Korean versions, have the more "generic"

Samick style body. You may not notice that, unless you put them side by side, or tend to

prefer one shape over the other. I, for one, prefer the Chinese, or Indonesian versions,

because they are much closer, visually, to a Gibson ES style. Electronics may be the same,

now, or not? But, those can be changed or upgraded, to your own preferences. I've played both

Korean, and Chinese Sheratons, and I tend to prefer the Chinese versions, these days.

BUT, that's just Me! Your preferences may differ. It's all Good!

 

Best thing to do, overall, is play as many as you can, and pick the best of the lot!

 

Good Luck,

 

CB

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It is a good question and one which I am most certainly not qualified to answer.

 

However, I will observe that there does seem to exist a certain undefined "snobbery" (at least to my perception) that Korean equals "better than" Chinese / Indonesian. And the older the Sheraton the more this seems to be true.

 

I am certainly NOT saying this is justified - I simply cannot make a judgement - but it seems to be reflected in Ebay resale prices at least in the UK and maybe other places.

 

There is one question I would ask the experts (and there are many) on this forum re the differences between Chinese and Korean Sheratons:

 

When I had my Epiphone (Chinese) ES345 I was able to compare it directly with a newly acquired Gibson Es345 1959 reissue. I subsequently sold the Epiphone. One very startling difference was the enormous mismatch between the thickness (front to back of the body) between the instruments. The Epiphone was significantly thicker (deeper body).

 

is this true of Chinese versus Korean Sheratons?

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I had a mid 90s Korean Sherry. that they are better than the current ones IMO is urban legend.

 

Pickups sounded kinda like the were wrapped in paper towels. (muddy) and fed back a bit. The gold plating wore down on the bass side of the bridge within a few months. The machine heads from that era, were just about one or two slots up from utter crap.

 

I have a 2015 Sherry which is MIC? It's a pretty impressive guitar. I use it quite a lot, I have 6 USA Gibsons, and 3 USA fenders, as well as a few USA made Taylor acoustics, I know what a US made verses an import feel like, this feels like a sold well built guitar in my hands.

 

When it first arrived it needed some frets dressed down, after that I was able to set the action where I like it and it plays great.

 

The stock ProBucker pickups are articulate with solid output and tone. They don't feed back & the coil split is very nice for getting different sounds, The NuBone nut was pretty well regulated, and Grover tuners were a definite + The gold plating has not shown any sign of wear in the 2+ years I've had it.

 

Over all I've been very happy with this one.

 

Conversely, and perhaps off the topic, I had a Swingster Royale which was made in Indonesia bought in 2012. That one needed a bit more fret leveling than did the Sherry and the frets on that guitar were some of the biggest frets I've ever seen. The guitar always had a "toothy" feel to it in my hands, due to these MASSIVE frets. The guitar sounded dynamite tho.. the Swingbucker pickups had a really nice PAF bite to them. I sold it last year, just wasn't playing it much. One of the fattest necks I've ever seen on an Epi too.

 

 

not sure if that's any indication of the diffs of China verse Indonesia..

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I've played plenty of MIKs (and a couple '60s MIAs), even owned an MIK SG (the G-400) and an MIK LP Standard in black. The playability on the MIKs was alright, nothing that really set it apart from current MIC Epi's; the hardware, pickups, and electronics on the other hand were pretty shoddy, and the tone was often on the muddy end. I later replaced that MIK Les Paul with a 2006 white LP Custom made in the Qingdao factory, and even 100% stock, the difference was immediately clear. The current offerings in China & Indonesia, including some Indonesian-made Epis that I've since purchased (a Wilshire with tremotone & a Crestwood Deluxe), have gotten even better in the decade since.

 

Bear in mind that the MIK Sheratons (and MIK Epis in general, for that matter) were built at a time 15-20+ years ago when you could get a brand-new Gibson Les Paul Studio for ~$750, a Les Paul Standard for ~$1500, and you could get Gibson's most basic 335-style guitar for about $1,000 give or take. Nowadays the closest Gibson equivalents are going for $1,500, $3,000 and $3,000 respectively.

 

If you're Gibson in the late '90s/early '00s, you had to give the customer a reason to pick the $1,000 unbound, satin-finished US-made semi hollow over the $500-600 blinged-out MIK Sheraton. So, while there were still good Sheratons being made in Korea, Gibson had to keep them built to a price point to avoid having Epi's high end crowd out Gibson's low end.

 

(This is exactly why Gibson scaled back the MIJ Epiphone Elitist line, btw).

 

Nowadays, however, Gibson has almost completely pulled its US line out of the sub-$1,000 market, removing those old constraints on the Epiphone line. Meanwhile, with competitors in the sub-$1,000 market like MIM Fender/Squier/Gretsch/Ibanez/Schechter/Hagstrom etc, Gibson has more incentive than ever to step up their game with the Epi line. So now Gibson has to make sure to give customers a reason to buy that $700 Sheraton or $400 Dot over similar east Asian offerings, and there's no reason to worry about a $700 Sheraton crowding out a $3,000 ES 335.

 

So IMHO, while each guitar is unique and QC is never going to be 100%, I'd say that with a good set-up, the guitars Epiphone is making today in Qingdao & through the Samick factory in Indonesia can generally hold their own against the best instruments they've ever built.

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Hey thanks for the replies. I played a friends Epiphone 339 and I really thought it was a nice guitar. I have been seeing a lot of guitars recently from China. I am not crazy about it though as I think it is a shame we cannot do something here in the USA. I have a very nice Japan Ibanez guitar and it is stunning and plays very well. I am not opposed to import guitars. I have played a very nice Indonesian made Epiphone Dove or maybe Hummingbird acoustic and it was real nice quality and even better than an SG I had at the time. Thanks for your input from each of you as it has kind of help me on a decision.

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I had a mid 90s Korean Sherry. that they are better than the current ones IMO is urban legend.

 

Pickups sounded kinda like the were wrapped in paper towels. (muddy) and fed back a bit. The gold plating wore down on the bass side of the bridge within a few months. The machine heads from that era, were just about one or two slots up from utter crap.

 

I have a 2015 Sherry which is MIC? It's a pretty impressive guitar. I use it quite a lot, I have 6 USA Gibsons, and 3 USA fenders, as well as a few USA made Taylor acoustics, I know what a US made verses an import feel like, this feels like a sold well built guitar in my hands.

 

 

Well, you certainly have been able to make a direct comparison between Chinese and Korean Sheratons kid.

 

Was there any difference in the overall dimensions between the guitars?

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It's been a long while since I sold my 1st Sheraton. So I can't really recall the dimensions to even answer that.

 

Ian's post is a good read and IMO, I think he nails it.

 

To be sure, if you're not all that concerned with what's on the headstock, or where something was made, any of the current line, are safe bets for the money. I didn't just pickup the guitar yesterday, I've been playing for 50+ years. at some point you kind of know what you have got when it is in your hands.

 

That whole topic of the mid 90s MIK epis superior to current builds, is IMHO total rubbish, A ploy to artificially inflate the resale value. It's just not reality. For all the reasons Ian points out, it made sense for Gibson to up the bar for their imports. And they have. Better pickups, better hardware, like Papa John says, "better ingredients, better Pizza"

 

My buddy has had two 339 Pros, he sold the 1st one, and soon after regretted, and replaced it with another. He's not a noob, we met in our first band together in 1978, and we've been fast friends ever since. He's probably had 300+ guitars pass thru his hands in the time I've known him. (Just look at his eBay transactions, and you'll soon see that's not BS)

 

The key is always the "Setup" All guitars need it, I don't care what it is you buy. So find the one ya want, take her home, find a good setup guy, "get er done" and you're off like a herd of turtles.

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