eor Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 had a day off and went to do some errands, among them, taking my les paul to my guy for a retune/setup and to glue down some inlays that decided to pop out. went to go buy a pack of strings and i saw them as soon as i walked in the door; a wall of epi semis and hollows. strangely, they were in the front, buy the studio/recording stuff instead of where the guitars were. amongst them were the rare and lovely elitist casino, sheraton and country deluxe. they had some of the regular line but i wasn't interested. so i made of change of plans and headed straight to the wall. country deluxe- super cool looking in person. however, i didn't get along with the bigsby or the scale/nut. basically, it is like playing a very skinny acoustic, and it was strung with some hefty strings to match. the bigbsy felt a little loose, but maybe they just set it up that way. inlays looked kinda nifty, not mop, but a kinda clear acrylic with stuff going on inside. didn't bother plugging it in as i knew it wouldn't be for me. ditto the casino. sheraton- right off the bat you can tell it was kinda special. it just felt really resonant and kinda bright/twangy. you can really hear the freshness of the strings. took it downstairs and plugged into a jaguar amp (never heard of them, boutiquey fender type, i guess). oh my. so pretty. so responsive. so very nice. knobs offer much more resistance than their regular line, which is ok by me. tried out various positions and settings and i love it. talked to the guy about pricing and options and he gave me a quote, but it was without a case. thought that was strange. they have cases in stock, but not elitist cases, i don't think. later, while he was punching stuff up for me, i snuck it back and plugged into a marshall jcm 800 and a new vintage modern or whatever they are called. and as much as i love it, i don't think the mini hums could handle the amount of gain that i need. truthfully, it might be because i didn't like the amps, but it wasn't happening for me. too thin and bitey. great vintage tones. if you are looking for 60-70s sounds, this is something to consider. so i guess that now i'm leaning away from both the country deluxe and the sheraton. they didn't have any elitist dots in stock, but it looks like that's where i'm going to want to take this next. if it is of the same quality but with more thickness and meat, we could have a winner for me. they are also cheaper, but i really love the sheraton headstock, if not the whole visual package altogether. they told me they don't keep a lot of semis in stock, although they had 5 or 6 gibsons around, crazily priced to match. they also had an elitist goldtop hanging out back there too, but i didn't check it out. so maybe the sun hasn't yet set on the elitist line. lets hope. lastly, i noticed that the rosewood in the elitist is much lighter than what i normally see, with lots of pores in the wood. almost looks dry compared to the lower end stuff. not sure if that is good or bad; just an observation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesstringer Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Nice to hear you evaluation of the elitists you played. The "dryness" you noted is due to the nitro finishes as opposed to the poly finishes of the normal production line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex9152 Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Nice to hear you evaluation of the elitists you played. The "dryness" you noted is due to the nitro finishes as opposed to the poly finishes of the normal production line. I thought he was talking about the fretboard being dry ("the rosewood...is much lighter than what I normally see")? And don't the Elitists use a poly finish if I'm not mistaken, just thinner than on the regular line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eor Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 i'm pretty sure they are all poly, all the time. i meant that to color was literally lighter than other "lower end" rosewood boards. well, i made the mistake of going back to the store to pick up some stuff i had ordered. the guy tried to cut me a deal on the sheraton since they don't have any dots in stock, and it would take 45 days to get one in. it sounded pretty good, but when you factor in the tax and the price of the case (not included), i'm back on the safe side of the cusp. for now. i'm 87% sure i'm not a mini hum guy, but the neck cleans were just trancendent. wow. i need the elitist sheraton to be my workhorse, like my regular sheraton is now, and i think the minis are just too specialized for me. they said i can bring in my amps and stuff and try it out, no pressure, but that is kind of a hassle. such a dilemma... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 I thought he was talking about the fretboard being dry ("the rosewood...is much lighter than what I normally see")? And don't the Elitists use a poly finish if I'm not mistaken' date=' just thinner than on the regular line?[/quote'] Yeah... but polywhat? AFAIK the Elitists are polyurethane while the regular line stuff is polyester. As to the fingerboards, it's possible they were just dried out. Elitist fingerboards tend to use a better grade of rosewood than the regular Epis. I know that this has been the case in all three of my Elitists. The porous nature of the wood is normal. The fact that he's not providing the correct cases is fishy as all hell. Did you check the serials for the manufacture dates? Something weird going on here. I would expect a $150 dollar discount off the going price if there's no case. Then I'd negotiate for whatever crappy case he's flogging in place of the original. The Elitist cases are top quality and not having the correct case will affect the resale value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eor Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 re: the cases- first he said they had plenty of epi cases around and he could throw one in for nothing or next to nothing, then the next day he said that he'd contact epi to make sure he got the "correct" one, but he seemed more concerned with the body size and not the model line. i tried to explain the elitists had a different case, but i don't think it really registered. i guess people just aren't that knowledgeable about the elitist line. they look they've been there awhile- a little dusty off in a corner by themselves. i didn't study the serial, but it did start with t7, making it a terada plant 07, right? that isn't too unreasonable, is it? the deal kinda soured a little when you factor in tax (huge) and the cost of a case. the regular epi case is $90 at musicians friend. couldn't find a price on an elitist case, which tells me they probably shouldn't be without one. musician's friend charges tax, too, right? the out the door price, even after the price of the case, is still better than the major online retailers. and i don't have to wait or hope i don't get stuck with a lemon. maybe i should sell off all my other stuff and save and wait for a dot. that sheraton is a winner, though. oh man. i don't know... i'd hate to sell my current sheraton ii and then end up with nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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