jmendoza

Other than no fret nibs on the neck edge binding( USA Casino aside) the current Epis are almost as nice as Gibsons. Depending on the model, some have USA electronics too. Gibson hit their golden years in the 90s with the historic and Artist series of guitars, but they did not sell as well as anticipated. Epiphone followed with some very nice archtops and their version of a poor mans L-5, the Emperor Regent. Today, both Epi and Gibson have curtailed and in many cases ceased production altogether of some of their more iconic guitars, but both companies still make many versions of the Les Paul. But how ironic is it that both Gibson, and Epiphone, who vied for the archtop acoustic guitar market in the 1930s-40S, both no longer produce acoustic archtops. The acoustic archtop is what made both Epipnone and Gibson famous, and yet they have even dropped the budget ES-175. Times and peoples tastes change things but who would have ever though that we would see the day that Epiphone and Gibson quit making their signature archtop acoustic , and acoustic electric guitars.

The coil tap switch was special order, it was an "option" hence the "s". Originally, the ES347 was $12 more than the ES-335, and that was because of the upgraded neck, which had a bound peghead, larger block inlay position markers, ebony fretboard.. Basically, it was a deluxe version of the ES-335 dot. At one point, they added the fine tuner stop tailpiece. The body seems to identical to an ES335, but has nicer figuring of the veneers. Think of it as what the L4CES is to the ES-175, an upgraded version.

Looks like a honey burst to me. The Maple top will help reduce feedback, which full body archies tend to have. The ES-137 is sort of a budget version of the Byrdland. The main differences are that it lacks a peghead pearl inlay and peghead binding, single ply instead of multiple ply body edge binding, laminate instead of solid construction (laminate is thicker with maple veneers which reduces feedback) The Nuge made the Byrdland guitar famous and they handle loud volume without feedback issues. Very nice guitar for the money and in many ways it is well suited to the job as the laminate construction with high quality veneers is less prone to impact damage, temperature and humidity changes and virtually crack resistant. The fingerboard extension you noted is referred to as "floating" and is similar to a violin fingerboard extension in that regard. This was one of Lloyd Loars original design features that first appeared on his legendary L-5, the grand father of all archtops. What is so cool about it is that it can do Jazz, surf, classic rock, blues and metal, which makes it very versatile. Definitely not a one trick pony, you will love playing it and discovering the many different sound and tones it is capable of. Jay

Easy to work on if you simply remove the strings and the two pick-ups. Wrap the pick-ups in bubble wrap so they don't scratch the finish. Try using De-Ox -Id for plastic controls/ sliders as it cleans and lubes the pots. Be careful and cover the guitar body with a plastic bag and a terry cloth towel over that, doubled over. You need to avoid getting the spray cleaner on the finish, as it will harm the Nitro Cellulose finish. If cleaning the pots and switch does nothing, it is time to have the pots replaced. For Humbuckers, use 500K audio taper pots such as CTS or Allen Bradley. You can buy them directly from Gibson.

How funny that today the 80s and 90s MIK Sheris are sought after. They had lousy pick-ups but were very well made and playable.

What happened to all the pictures?

It looks identical to my 1989 Korean Sheri. But is has replacement pick-ups, the pickup rings and pick guard are not original, gold pick-up covers came on the originals. Someone added a cream Les Paul parts: pickup rings , pickguard, and switch position ring. So it has "new"look compared to the original. I would put covers back on the pick-ups to reduce the 60/120 Hz noise you get when they are removed, and get rid of the cream colored plastics as they are out of place. I removed the original pick-guard which had 5 ply binding but made from imitation printed tortoise shell and looked really cheap. I cut one from 3 ply black pickguard material and copied the shape of a ES-335 dot pickguard. Someone obviously replaced the pick-ups, as the originals really sucked. I put PAFs in my MIK Sheri, and that woke it up 🙂 Not exactly sure when, but sometime before the millennium, Epiphone discontinued the fret nibs on the binding, which had been a long standing Epi and Gibson high quality feature. Gibson then also quit doing the fret nibs on all guitars except the Pauls, which was a shame . I think this is why the early MIK Epis are now more valued than later Asian produced Epis.

Got this Sheraton , a MIK 1989 model back in 1990. At $300, it seemed like a bargain and although it is beautiful and has excellent play-ability when I got it home and plugged it into an amp, it sounded terrible and lacked good tone. Thus, it sat in it's case for decades. In revisiting this guitar, I found the older ones were selling for as much, or more than new Sheratons. It appears Gibson/Epiphones no longer have as many quality features like nibs on the edge binding which was done as a cost cutting measure. I also noted that some Epiphone Les Pauls now came with made in USA pick-up which got me to thinking about my old Sheraton. Research revealed that it was not practical, or even necessary to change out the pots and caps, as the pots are smaller and regular ES-335 pots won't fit due to the Sheri having narrower sides, so I bought a set of PAFs and used them to replace the original pickups. OMG! what a difference, and I could not put down the Sheri for two hours, playing non-stop. It actually sounds better to me than my buddies 70s Norlin made ES-335 TDC. I also treated myself to using some Super Slinkys as I usually played 10s. The pickups were the cost cutting weak link in this guitar, and now I am glad I did not sell it. It has another feature I never really considered and that is the longer scale which makes playing above the 12th fret much easier than a short scale ES series. Granted, longer scale is more tension, but with 9s on it you don't even notice. With the Sheri, and a Stratocaster, one can cover a huge range of sounds and songs from surf to rock, and from blues to Jazz. Now I don't have to lug around my ES-175 and worry about it getting damaged or stolen at a gig. The other plus is the wonderful controllable feedback you can get with the semi-hollow body, which is fun to do. Jay

Much mystery surrounds this guitar. John claim a it was his grandmothers 1910 Gibson F-hole archtop jazz guitar. There are also claims he was cremated with it. On a TV special titled "This Old Guitar" John appears with the Gibson in question and plays a song he wrote called This Old Guitar as a tribute to the instrument. He also says it was "lost" which is a platitude for stolen, and then he" found"it again(recovered) and conveniently omits any details as to how this all happened. Buy he does point out that a large crack in the top was from him being hit over the head with the guitar by someone who did not like Hank Williams songs. All that said, there are some problems with John's , and others stories regarding this Gibson. It appears to be a mid 1930s Gibson L-37, and is a budget model lacking edge binding on the neck, and a small 16 inch body with F-holes in the top. Gibson did not produce archtop guitars with F holes until 1922, when Lloyd Loar developed the L-5. So although this may be an older pre-war Gibson his grandmother gave him, it is most certainly not a 1910 model as Gibson had did not make F-hole archtops until some 12 years later. One plausible explanation would be his grandmothers memory was faded, or John simply got it wrong by mistake. In addition, the Musicians Museum in Tucson Arizona has a Gibson archtop that is identical to the one he played on his "This Old Guitar" video that has an identical crack in the same location and also lacks a headstock logo, just like the one he had in his video, so this means it is his grandma's guitar, or if he was cremated with it, it is one hell of a good counter fit version of his guitar. I suspect the guitar is an L-37 judging by the body size, neck headstock and tail piece, but others here may be able to more accurately identify it.

Unbelievable, but I got a call today from The Guitar Shoppe and they managed to re-glue the brace and clamp it in place successfully. They were able to clean the area of old glue and get a good bond using magnets to clamp it, which is novel but effective, who woulda though that was possible? From talking with them, this is a type of repair they specialize in because they cater to jazz players with old archtops from the pre-war era. This shop has a reputation for taking on really difficult repairs and having excellent success. If fact, many customers have said they have done repairs others would not attempt. To my sheer delight, they were very reasonable and I was surprised at how quickly they were able to do the repair, and more surprised by how inexpensive they are. Best of all, the guitar sounds the best it ever has. I think the brace has been loose since I bought the guitar back in the mid-1980s. I have never taken a repair to them because I was under the mistaken impression that they charge top dollar, but that is anything but true; they are very experienced and so it takes them less time due to that and they charge a fair rate that is affordable. One of the very last real old fashion Guitar shops around with a full staff of experienced luthiers. I give them 5 stars and a big thumbs up! They saved my "baby" Thanks to Kirk and crew! 🙂

I was doing a replacement of the tuners, nut, and strings on my 1954 L-50 and while putting on and tightening the bass e-string, I saw the top collapsing near the f-hole on the bass side. I let off the string tension and put my finger inside to feel the bass bar...it was completely loose from the top from the end block to about the small end of the f-hole. I have no idea how to glue it back in place without removing the back or top, which I do not want to do. There must be someone who has done this repair without taking the guitar apart and I'm open to suggestions. The guitar is otherwise in wonderful condition and actually played and sounded great before I notice the loose bass bar. Apparently this has been a problem for some time and I never noticed it as normally, I only change one string at a time. TIA Jay

That guitar looks similar to my 1989 Sherri but has some differences: The stop tailpiece looks to be after-market (not Gibson style) the Epiphone logo on the head stock is slightly tilted to the left, and the notch in the "open book" at the top of the peghead is wider than mine. Color is the same as mine and since the gold plating is in good condition, it must have very little play time, as it wears away quickly. I do not know where mine was made as it has no letters in the serial number, but does date to 1989, which was when it was purchased. I was given a set of Gibson PAF pick-ups from a 335, with wiring harness and installed them in the Sheraton, which made a huge improvement in its sound. . Jay

I normally play my Regent un-plugged, but when using my Blues Jr, it had some odd behaviors: The volume pot seems to be the knob at the lower end of the pick guard, and the tone control is at the top, which seems backwards to me. In addition, the volume has less effect on the loudness than the tone does, which also seems backwards to me. I did confirm by removing the pick guard that the tone cap is on the top control pot, so it appears that is the way they came stock, or maybe mine was modified? I think it is stock but would like to confirm that. Does anyone here have a schematic of how they were wired? The tone I get is very nice but it takes a bit of fiddling around to get it as the controls don't seem to work like most other guitars and the range they work in is very narrow (linear instead of audio taper pots may be the problem, but I have not confirmed that). Any insight is appreciated. Jay

Epi was renowned for archtops, but have quit making them. Any hope for them to resume manufacturing of these fine guitars? Jay

The Archtop was one of Gibsons most famous designs, being pioneered by Orville himself, but now, sadly, Gibson no monger makes them. Is there any hope of them releasing an acoustic archtop again? Jay