Sheraton Pick-ups Question

[Blackvette]

Hi everyone, I'm new on this great forum and have a question;

Recently acquired a pristine 2001 Sheraton made at the Samick Korea location. I love the sound and feel of this guitar, everything is excellent on it. Just wondering what were the stock pickups on that year, and will I get a large improvement in sound with the Gibson 57 custom pickups upgrade.

Thanks, Neil

[charlie brown]

Hi everyone, I'm new on this great forum and have a question;

Recently acquired a pristine 2001 Sheraton made at the Samick Korea location. I love the sound and feel of this guitar, everything is excellent on it. Just wondering what were the stock pickups on that year, and will I get a large improvement in sound with the Gibson 57 custom pickups upgrade.

Thanks, Neil

 

That's such a matter of personal taste! Stock pickups were Alnico II, Korean copy's of PAF's or '57

Classic's, etc. If you like/love they way they sound, I'd keep 'em. Classic '57's are awesome pickups,

for sure, but I think, at this point, I'd see what you can get out of the originals, or upgrade your amp,

which is generally more important to your overall tone, than any particular pickups. Some folks do

upgrade the wiring, pots, caps, etc. So, IF you're going to change anything, I'd try that first, before

changing pickups.

 

Cheers, and congratulations, on your new (to you) Sheraton II!

 

CB

[JD76]

I have a Korean Sheraton from the 90's, I have recently changed the neck pup for a Seymour Duncan 59.

The stock pups are ok IMO but get a bit muddy, esp the Neck pup.

 

The SD 59 have been a vast improvement IMO, wish I'd done it ages ago.

 

Of course this is all a matter of taste but you can find 2nd hand pups quite cheap, I think its worth trying something considered better quality to find out for yourself.

[vomer]

Usual comment is 'muddy'. +1 on SD 59's though if you have Gibson 57's you will see an improvement too. And as CB says, do the wiring. But at the same time, unless you want to be going through those f-holes twice .

[JD76]

Usual comment is 'muddy'. +1 on SD 59's though if you have Gibson 57's you will see an improvement too. And as CB says, do the wiring. But at the same time, unless you want to be going through those f-holes twice .

 

Would you say swapping out the electronics gives as noticable an improvement as a good quality pickup or just adds more sweep?

I have though about buying a prewired harness but even then the thought of fishing around in those F holes seems a frustraiting task.....Also another thing with these older Korean sheratons is the F holes are smaller than the new ones making a tricky job even more so.

 

I just wired the SD 59 to the existing wire & put electrical tape around the solder joints, took a couple minutes.

 

Should I bother?

[byrds1965]

Would you say swapping out the electronics gives as noticable an improvement as a good quality pickup or just adds more sweep?

I have though about buying a prewired harness but even then the thought of fishing around in those F holes seems a frustraiting task.....Also another thing with these older Korean sheratons is the F holes are smaller than the new ones making a tricky job even more so.

 

I just wired the SD 59 to the existing wire & put electrical tape around the solder joints, took a couple minutes.

 

Should I bother?

 

 

Swapping the PUs will be an improvement on a 2001 guitar.

 

The PUs back then were just a cake of wax and pretty bad, photos and opinions on the web.

 

The pots if you are a player who uses the volume and tone knobs yes.

 

If you leave them at full on both the controls are just in bypass mode, so if you don't like the PUs that way new pots and wiring change nothing.

 

If you use the knobs to adjust the tone/volume then swap them to good quality pots

 

An Epiphone that old might even have the mini pots in it.

 

I say might as Peerless models from the same era used full size on the ones I had and sill own anyway.

[wrvond]

Would you say swapping out the electronics gives as noticable an improvement as a good quality pickup or just adds more sweep?

I have though about buying a prewired harness but even then the thought of fishing around in those F holes seems a frustraiting task.....Also another thing with these older Korean sheratons is the F holes are smaller than the new ones making a tricky job even more so.

 

I just wired the SD 59 to the existing wire & put electrical tape around the solder joints, took a couple minutes.

 

Should I bother?

 

I just upgraded all the electrics on my 2000 Sherry. First, I wouldn't bother if the existing pots and switch and jack are working. If they are scratchy or hard to turn, etc, then sure, go ahead and replace them.

It isn't easy, that's for sure. But here's a few tips:

Forget that deal with airline tubing. It doesn't work worth squat on a Sherry.

Don't worry about the F-holes. Everything comes out and goes in through a hole in the center block under the bridge pup.

Do use fishing line or similar very thin line to pull your pots up to the holes.

Use a line with a washer to pull your jack into its hole.

It's easiest to feed everything thing through the hole one thing at a time, reaching through the F-hole to help position everything. Then use the line to pull everything up to the proper position.