Epiphone Shearton II 1989 MIK

[jmendoza]

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