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2014 Epiphone Union Jack Sheraton waiting thread


sdgails

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I'm sending mine back today. The guitar plays great sounds great but having spent 899 on it I just can't bond with UJ paint job. I'm not really an Oasis fan and already having two 62/50 Sheratons I've got all the mini humbuckers I need. So I'm exchanging it for an IB 64 Texan and hoping Epiphone does another vintage Sheraton reissue in the future

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Congrats Chilly. She looks great. Sorry you're not happy with yours Burchster. I've had mine about a month now and I'm starting to dig it. My miniHB's do seem very hot. I'm playing through a USA Fender Blues Deluxe and it's killer. Although I'm disappointed with some of the cosmetic issues, mine seems to be OK otherwise. It's unfortunate that there were so many bad ones shipped though. It has colored my impressions of current Epiphone quality.

 

My G.A.S. affliction has reared it's ugly head once more with all these Black Friday deals floating around. I was considering an Epi ES339 and the Epi Genesis as my next purchases. From what I've seen in GC and Sam Ash, the quality control just isn't there anymore. Epiphone is charging the same amount of money , even more in some cases, for the Indonesian/Chinese made guitars. Why did they move manufacture to those countries? So they could make more money. Epiphone no longer cares about quality, it's just about a better bottom line for management and shareholders. It is a foolish business model. If all you're concerned about is making more money as opposed to making a quality product, the people who actually buy those products will go somewhere else. We musicians care about a quality instrument first and are willing to pay for it to certain point. Don't even get me started on the 2015 price increases. (Fender is going to gain a HUGE market share this coming year)

 

So you're wondering how I'm treating my G.A.S. affliction now that Epiphone is no longer an option for me? PRS SE baby!! Still made in Korea! Still a reasonably priced, quality guitar. Not to mention I got a sweeeeet deal on a PRS SE 245 from Sweetwater yesterday. $348, free shipping, 2 year warranty. $50 more than the reduced price of the Genesis and about the same price for the ES339. It was a no brainer for me considering how far Epiphone's quality has dropped since moving to China.

 

Unless Epiphone quality improves in their Chinese factories, I'll continue to enjoy my Korean made Epi's but will never, ever buy another Chinese made Epiphone again. Cheers!

post-67800-058028700 1417287343_thumb.jpg

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I finally got around to doing a full set up on the uj today, amazing, by far my best playing epiphone ! I had 1 slightly high fret that was easily fixed and the rest polished up brilliantly! I know I had a dodgy paint job with my first one but I honestly think the quality of this is far superior to all three Korean made episode I've owned and the finish on my 04 Korean Sherri 2 is far from perfect, but because it's a burst it's only on close inspection you notice! For instance the small things like the uj is the only semi I've owned to have kerfing and the truss rod cavity, on the uj it's perfectly routed and painted with good access but on the Sherri 2 it's as rough as a#%e holes and barely painted properly and the rods at an angle to the hole and I need a rounded end hex to adjust! I can only go on my own experience and I have owned three Korean, three Chinese and one Indonesian, I still own one Korean all the Chinese and the indo! The Koreans are good but to me the current Chinese ( except the bad paint on some uj) are better!

A constant gripe with any epi I've ever had is the screws used for the trc, awful!

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Did a recent check for available UJ s and could only find the one on eBay for an inflated price..

Guitar Center had one 'blem' available last week but it appears that it is gone.

Music123, GC,and MF keep pushing back their expected ship date.

Sweetwater is still blowing nicely worded smoke.

I hope everyone that wanted one got theirs...Peace,

Luke.

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Did a recent check for available UJ s and could only find the one on eBay for an inflated price..

Guitar Center had one 'blem' available last week but it appears that it is gone.

Music123, GC,and MF keep pushing back their expected ship date.

Sweetwater is still blowing nicely worded smoke.

I hope everyone that wanted one got theirs...Peace,

Luke.

 

I don't know why, but I keep checking Sweetwater only to see that they haven't arrived yet. I'm not going to buy one, but wonder why Sweetwater is so low on the totem pole.

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I've decided to wait for possible refurbs to appear.

The response to the guitar and it's cost have caused me to reconsider my anxious anticipation.

I am happy for those who received it and are happy with it.

I am finding that there is a mixture of good and bad comments about Epiphone's quality between different forums.

I don't believe everything I read on The Gear Page forums, as they have a strange attitude there about things. They seem to think Epiphone has a much better quality now then ever before. However, reading here has brought up questions on that topic which TGP doesn't consider.

I have not read one post there about the UJ. Maybe I missed it?!

My personal findings, upon playing as many as possible in local music stores, tells me that these guitars are not what I had hoped for. I am not bonding with the neck profiles.

 

Anyway, I am glad to hear that at least some of you are happy with the UJ. I love the paint job and the looks of the guitar, so maybe down the road, I will find one I can bond with.

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1417782190[/url]' post='1598492']

I've decided to wait for possible refurbs to appear.

The response to the guitar and it's cost have caused me to reconsider my anxious anticipation.

I am happy for those who received it and are happy with it.

I am finding that there is a mixture of good and bad comments about Epiphone's quality between different forums.

I don't believe everything I read on The Gear Page forums, as they have a strange attitude there about things. They seem to think Epiphone has a much better quality now then ever before. However, reading here has brought up questions on that topic which TGP doesn't consider.

I have not read one post there about the UJ. Maybe I missed it?!

My personal findings, upon playing as many as possible in local music stores, tells me that these guitars are not what I had hoped for. I am not bonding with the neck profiles.

 

Anyway, I am glad to hear that at least some of you are happy with the UJ. I love the paint job and the looks of the guitar, so maybe down the road, I will find one I can bond with.

 

The guitars are scarce now and people are asking for exorbitant prices on Flea bay et.al probably because of the impending Holiday but I have a feeling there will a few around in January hopefully at a bargain price for you.

TGP is a strange site indeed, I've been posting there for quite some time...mostly with the older, cynical crowd in The Pub.I did make mention of my preordered EJ in a thread about Sweetwater customer Service.Cheers, if you do decide to look for one, I wish you the best of luck in finding one you like .

Luke

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1417801970[/url]' post='1598611']

Still loads available here in England! Dawsons has 16 left of their 30!

 

Yeah Matt, heard that, but the cost is much more in the Uk...they sell for 899.USD Musicians friend has a 15% discount coupon so some of us got ours for 764. USD...free shipping..

To order one to be shipped to the US would require a substantial postage cost plus the inflated UK price...One would have to really want on desperately...

Wondering what the quality of the new batch coming mid Dec. here in the US will be like?

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1418255790[/url]' post='1600840']

I had to reply because this thread had ALMOST been driven to page 2 of Epiphone Electrics!

 

The breaking news is ...... Sweetwater still doesn't have it yet.

 

Guitar Center and Musicians Friend have now back dated til late December and early Jan 2015.

 

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Well, they aaaaarrrre back!Like manure they are ubiquitous..Everyone has them with the exception of Sweetwater. (Talkin' about the Epi UJs here.)

 

My Sweetwater rep contacted me with an offer of a PRS custom 24 for 389.00 last night...I ordered the tobacco sunburst...They sold out in about a half hour....

 

They according to my rep had an exclusive deal with PRS to get them at that price...Owner of PRS is shown on the Sweetwater site doing a video about the new Made in Korea Custom 24...At that price I couldn't pass it up.Musicians Friend is selling them for 650?

Good reviews and a beautiful finish.

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Beat me to it Jeff!They sent me an e-mail last night..I told them they were a 'day late and a dollar short'..

 

One thing that Sweetwater does do right..they listed all the EJ s they received, put up high resolution pics so you can pick the one you want.

Happy New Year.

Peace,Luke

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Beware buying any open box ones from Musicians friend... I received a brand new one on Monday that had huge cracks down the neck from the nut.. defiantly some freeboard separation of some sort. Any way got my replacement to day and behold finish cracks down from the nut..... I contacted them and got 150 dollars back because Im tired of returning them I think this one is just in the finish hopefully like my 62/50 sherry has. And now to top it all off Sweetwater finally has them in stock. Should have held on the my first one but hindsight is 20/20

 

sherryneck.jpeg

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Sorry to hear about your probs...you are taking it quite well I might add...I would have blown a 'O' ring out of my butt by now..I don't thing that feathering at the nut is a prob...I have a bit of that on the side too, guitar tech said he doesn't feel it is an issue.

Couple of posts ago, I mentioned I got a Korean PRS from Sweetwater,...Rep failed to mention their was a shipping charge...Got the bill on the 31st, called them up and told my Rep I was sending it back...he said they would remove the charge...Told him No, he should have told me, or removed it up front when I was dickering the price with him..Sending it back today...wasn't too keen on the guitar after I got it....

Looking to by a Orange Amp....but NOT from Sweetwater!

Happy New Year y'all!

Luke

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Just looking through ebay I notice someone has one for sale, buy it now £1500 bids starting at £800! Apparently it's number 150, because the serial number ends in 150!

One shop still lists 14 available at £669!

Do people even bother to google before listing things anymore?

Good luck to him someone might be stupid enough!

How's everyone getting on with them? Mine doesn't get as much play as a expected, I just can't leave my dot studio alone!

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Sorry to hear about your probs...you are taking it quite well I might add...I would have blown a 'O' ring out of my butt by now..I don't thing that feathering at the nut is a prob...I have a bit of that on the side too, guitar tech said he doesn't feel it is an issue.

Couple of posts ago, I mentioned I got a Korean PRS from Sweetwater,...Rep failed to mention their was a shipping charge...Got the bill on the 31st, called them up and told my Rep I was sending it back...he said they would remove the charge...Told him No, he should have told me, or removed it up front when I was dickering the price with him..Sending it back today...wasn't too keen on the guitar after I got it....

Looking to by a Orange Amp....but NOT from Sweetwater!

Happy New Year y'all!

Luke

 

 

Luke,

sorry to hear Sweetwater didn't mention shipping charge. You did the right thing. There is no excuse for not mentioning the charge up front.

 

I got a call from my rep at Sweetwater telling me they finally got in a "large load" of UJ's. However, I only saw four listed with weights and pics. I'm still going to wait a bit. I need two refrets badly on guitars I work with weekly, which will run me about $1600 for both guitars to be done. If I thought the neck on the UJ was going to be different from the 50 or so Epiphone necks I tried out, I would get one immediately.

 

On a good note, I was contacted by Diezel amps on Christmas day. They are coming out with an new line and will be sending me one when they are complete. 2015 will be an amp-heavy year for me. I will be getting a Matrix amp and 1x12, as well.

 

I hope everyone here had a terrific holiday. Let's hope we all have a great 2015 in every way. :)

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Got my 3rd UJ from sweetwater today and behold fretboard separation from shipping....I'm sending it back and gonna have the one with just finish cracks checked over and fixed of possible...it's gotta be those cases that aren't cradling the neck right...there is gonna be a lot of refurbished ones coming in the future....

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Wow Podnah!

You can't seem to catch a break....I think you might be on to something about the case cradling...it really isnt a proper fit.

I'm pretty sure the one you have listed on eBay will be fine to keep...mine had some slight cracks in the finish on the top near the nut, guitar tech did a thorough check and deemed the crackling superficial and not detrimental or a future concern.

Think you are right about the refurbs...maybe there will be glut of them on the market in a few weeks- months.

Peace, Luke

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