Sheraton Modification Project!

[EpiSheriMan]

Hi Guys, I'm a Newbie here. I've been playing and collecting guitars as a hobby for over 15 years now.

 

I've just bought a used '97 Korean Sheraton and am about to embark on a modification project on the guitar.

 

Here is what she looks like pre-mods

My dream was to find a US Nashville built model, sadly these are few and far between. Impossible to find one on EBAY or any of the vintage site like gbase.com.

 

I've always been a big fan of the look of this guitar, but have been sadly let down by the Korean models cheap hardware. Well, that's about to change.

 

Here are my mod plans....

 

- 2 x Nickel plated Gibson 57 Classic Humbuckers

- 6 x Nickel plated Grover Rotomatic 18:1 tuners

- Nick plated Tonepros ABR-1 locking tune-o-matic bridge and locking Tonepros tailpiece

- Custom made black 2 ply pick guard

- Gibson potentiometers

- Nickel anodised position markers

- Nickel Switchcraft leaf switch with vintage amber knob

- Nickel Switchcraft jack socket (Switchcraft 1/4" jack with the long shaft)

- Bone nut

- Schaller Nickel plated Strap Locks

- Gibson "reflector" control knobs

 

All the above is gonna cost me a bit but the result should be the best Korean Sheraton money can buy!

 

I'll post some pictures when she's all done!

 

[jcwillow777]

Before you start buying a bunch of stuff, check out to see if the Tonepros bridge will fit. An ABR I won't though, that is for a Gibson, and Gibson parts don't fit on and Epi, for the most part. I don't remember for sure, but it seems to me there were a few guys here that had older Sherrys (in the 90s) that had a really hard time finding bridges that would fit. Not a problem with the newer Sherrys though. Unfortunately most of those guys aren't here anymore. TonePros does make a bridge for Asian guitars, not sure if it will fit yours or not, so make sure you buy it from someone that will take returns incase it doesn't.

 

CST pots will work as well as "Gibson" and cost less. I don't know if you are positive about the Classic 57s, but I put a set of GFS Vintage 59s in my Dot and Sherry, and I was very pleased with them. Will the Gibson pickups sound better, most likely, but I got both of my pickups for less than one Classic 57. I did get their Alpha pots too and they work great, as well as a set of Orange Drop caps from them. I also got my knobs from GFS, they have a good selection, and I have never had any problems with them fitting.

 

Make sure you get the Switchcraft 1/4" jack with the long shaft. The regular shaft is too short. I got mine from www.guitarpartresources.com

 

And most of all, use shielded wire. I think gpr (above link) sells it, but I'm not sure. I know www.stewmac.com does for sure.

 

I just wished it was easy to order and you could get everything from one place, but I haven't found that to be the case. It would dave on shipping.

 

I thought about nickel/chroming my Sherry out too, but I have decided to keep it as is, at lest until the gold starts wearing off and it starts looking bad. I may then.

[EpiSheriMan]

Hi JC,

 

Many thanks for your all that good advice on the Mods.

 

I was aware of the bridge issues and I was going to get a pro tech to do this for me. Been speaking to Steve at Manchester Guitar Tech who has done these Epi Sheraton mods before. He says, and I quote,...

 

"...One thing I get asked a lot is how I fitted the bridge, as the post spacing is wider on the Sheraton. The answer is that I made adapter posts, slightly offset to cope with the difference in spacing. The lower half was M8x1.25 metric threaded and the upper part was 6-32 UNC for the Gibson ABR-1 bridge. The easiest way to make these is to use 8mm threaded bar cut to length, then drill and tap to accept the ABR-1 threaded posts..."

 

I've noted your point about Making sure to get the Switchcraft 1/4" jack with the long shaft!

 

As for the pick-ups I was going to go with Toneriders but managed to get a cheap used '57 Gibson so I'm gonna splurge and buy a new one to make up the pair....

 

I'll also look into CST pots......

 

JC, I greatly appreciate your thoughts on best way to move forward with replacement pick guard. I've pm'ed TWANG....

 

Thanks again so much.......

 

[lpdeluxe]

I'll post this again: your Sheraton may have large enough f-holes to that the CTS pots will work, but my '95 couldn't accommodate them -- I used Alpha mini pots. The part # I cite are Stewart-McDonalds. Replace the pots and switch when you install the pickups -- it's "easier" to use the cheat method and just wire in the new pickups, but it's only "easier" until they get noisy and you have to do it all anyway.

 

Here goes:

 

I got my '95 Sheraton II last summer and immediately decided it needed better pickups, so I ordered the Seymour Duncan "Silver" set (Jazz neck, JB bridge) from MF. Then I was confronted with the problem of installing them. My local tech turned down the job!

 

Apparently Sheratons are not all the same. Mine was made at the Samick factory in Korea, and has small f-holes and no access route through the pickup cavities. Gibson ES-335s and maybe some other Sheratons do, and that makes life easier.

 

Here's what I did: the Mojo Assemblies pots are too big to fit through the opening of the f-hole, which on mine is 1" x .75" at its largest. That part of the f-hole is any where from 2" to 8" away from the various components, so that has to be kept in mind when cutting the wiring to length.

 

I stole the idea from Mojo of using a template, which I made from a piece of cardboard and a set of leather punches. I measured the distances to all the controls, and punched holes for them in the same relative position on the cardboard as on the guitar top.

 

My Epi had one noisy pot and a noisy switch, so I ordered new "mini" pots from Stewart-McDonald (part # 3477) along with a three-way switch (#1217), an output jack (#4652) and two of their basic wiring packages (#4575), which include .020 and .050 caps for the tone controls. It took most of both wiring kits for the Epiphone, so don't scrimp.

 

The Seymour Duncans came with a wiring diagram, as did the three-way switch, and both offer different options. I chose to wire them up as conventional humbuckers and to wire the switch to allow using the volume controls to blend the pickups when using both -- don't worry, it's all in the diagrams.

 

I put the new pots, switch and jack in the template from the bottom so they'd lay out like the real ones from the top, and then wired them from the bottom side. I used a Sharpie to label the holes on the underside. Very easy to keep track of that way.

 

You'll probably need to roughen the surface of the pot body where you solder the grounds in order for the solder to stick. Another tip: turn the shafts on the pots all the counterclockwise (off) to avoid damaging them from heat.

 

The .020 cap goes on the bridge tone control and the .050 on the neck pot. This emulates Gibson wiring, which uses .022 and .047 values, respectively. Before you solder the cap leg to the pot body, put an alligator clip on to act as a heat sink so you don't fry it with the soldering iron.

 

Solder up everything but the wires from the pickups, and make sure all the parts share a ground by checking with a multimeter. Otherwise you'll put it together and get a nice hum and have to take it all apart again. Trust me -- I know.

 

Use the shielded wire between the switch and the output jack, and between the volume and tone pots. Since I actually disemboweled my Epi before I got this far, I used the sleeves provided in the original harness to dress all the wires before soldering. Always allow a bit of slack for the shield wire to reach to the back of the pot, where you'll be soldering it to ground.

 

The SD pickups have 5 wires coming out of them: red, white, green, black and silver (bare). Strip the ends of the red and white wires, twist them together and secure the join with solder, then put heat shrink tubing over the bare part to insulate them. The leads were a little too short for comfort, so I soldered the green and bare wires together (they both go to ground, you're not shorting out anything) and spliced in a 5" length of the white wire to them, covering all the joints with heat shrink. Then I spliced another 5" to the black wire and covered the joint with heat shrink; I repeated this operation for the second pickup.

 

Note that other brands have different color coding, but the principal doesn't change. In my experience, all pickup makers provide full wiring diagrams, and Stewart-McDonald has others at their website.

 

When I was done I had two leads from each pickup, a white to connect to ground and a black to connect to hot.

 

Time to work on the Sheraton: set her on a towel on your workbench with the peghead to your right (reverse for a lefty), loosen the strings enough to work the stop tailpiece off its studs, and lay it down on the other side of the neck from you. If you're going to restring anyway, just go ahead and take the strings off.

 

Take an ice cube tray (if your refrigerator doesn't have one, dollar stores do) and lay it behind the guitar where you won't be knocking it over. This is where you'll keep the screws and washers and springs and other little gubbinses organized.

 

Wrap a cloth under the edge of each knob and lift: it will pull right off. Occasionally you'll find one that needs more persuasion, but be wary of using screwdrivers or other tools, because it's really easy for it to slip and mar the top. When possible I put something between the tool and the top to minimize dings.

 

The switch knob unscrews (you were wondering why it didn't pull right off!). Then undo the nuts on the various controls and push them down through the holes in the guitar top. Take out the screws holding the pickup rings and lift out the pickups from their cavities, clip the leads that go into the guitar interior (I enjoy that part), and disassemble the pickups from their rings, being careful not to lose the springs -- even though the new ones come with springs, it's easier than you might think to watch them arc up into the air and drop behind some unmovable object.

 

Using a thin, bent wire (a large paper clip that's been straightened out except for one loop is perfect) fish the wires inside the body out through the f-hole and pull the controls out. It might be imprudent at this point to start snipping wires, because you want everything to come out with a minimum of fuss.

 

Identify the wire coming from the tailpiece or bridge: this is the string ground, and you'll be soldering it into the circuit later.

 

Then attach the pickups to the rings. Note that the thin ring is the neck pickup, and the narrower end is against the fingerboard, and that the pole pieces on the pickups are also next to the neck. The thick ring is for the bridge, and the thicker end -- and the pole pieces -- are toward the bridge. Pickup springs are devils without any horns, let me tell you. What I do is put the pickup in the ring, and run the screw on one side to the flange on the side of the pickup where it screws in. That makes it easier to put the other screw in place, put its spring around it, and compress the whole assembly while screwing that side in. Then you repeat the fun for the other side, and maybe 2-3 hours later, you've got the

spring mounted nicely between the rings and the flanges. It's useful to make sure the floor underneath the workbench is clear of obstruction for the many times you'll be on your hands and knees, retrieving the springs. If somebody knows an easier way, feel free to chime in!

 

Finally, solder the pickup leads to the harness. You may have to remove the harness from the template for this step. If so, be sure to have a protective cover over the guitar top to avoid boogers in your finish.

 

Now we're at the fun and games stage of the whole catastrophe. Take a length of string long enough to reach from the wide part of the f-hole to the output jack, allow a few more inches, and tie one end so that you can pull it up into the hole. Using the bent paper clip, fish the string from inside the guitar up through the jack hole in the guitar body (mine required two steps: fishing to the neck tone hole, then from there to the output hole, because my paper clip wasn't long enough. That's the only time I had to do that). Pull the jack up into the hole (a thin jeweler's screwdriver is useful in persuading it to come up straight); grip the end of the jack securely with your fingers or needlenose pliers while you cut the string as far inside the jack as you can, then install the flat washer and nut. Damn, that sounds easy...but if it doesn't work right away, try, try again. Pretty soon -- after a day or so -- you'll get good at it!

 

Then do each pot in turn (I started with the one closest to the jack, and worked my way up), remembering to put a star washer on the shaft of the pot before you tie the string on. Patience, patience, patience. As soon as each pot is sticking its lovely little shaft straight up in its hole, untie the string and pull it out, never letting go of the pot. You will likely have to drop the pot down a fraction of an inch in order to pull out the end of the string, but maybe you'll get lucky, or have better knot-tying skills than I do: I always seem to end up with a bit of a tail past the knot.

 

The switch is the last to go in, and then you are done with that part. Take up the slack in the leads coming from the pickups and fold them into the pickup cavity. This is a chance to make it look perhaps a little more professional. Attach the pickups and string it up (or, replace the tailpiece and tune it up). Leave the knobs off until you've had a chance to test your work. I plug into a tuner and make sure the tuner recognizes the notes from each switch position...then I plug into an amp for the final test before I put the knobs back on.

 

Have fun and good luck...and avoid telephone hookup wire: it's solid core and the solder joints break easily while you're working everything into place. Guess how I know that?

[jcwillow777]

I forgot about the f-holes being smaller on the older Sheratons, you may need to use Alpha minis.

[EpiSheriMan]

I forgot about the f-holes being smaller on the older Sheratons' date=' you may need to use Alpha minis.[/quote']

 

Hey Guys, Is a '97 Sheraton considered old? I never knew that that there was a difference in size of f-holes. Doooaaaaah!

 

'08 model

My'97

 

Oh well I'll get it to my tech and see what he says...

 

Do you guys have a web site that sells Alpha mini pots?

[EpiSheriMan]

http://www.stewmac.com/

 

Found it!

[jcwillow777]

pm Twang. He can do a wiring harness for you if you like.

[Suho]

I think when we mention "older" Sheratons we generally mean pre- early/mid 2000's models. Your '97 is an older one. There were a couple of changes made at that time. One was the bridge size.

 

I read the quote from your tech, but I am not quite sure I understood him. I think he was saying that he gets around the size difference by having posts with 2 different sized threads. The difference in bridges isn't really a matter of post/thread size, however, but spacing. I think the older ones are wider spaced posts. You would need to actually fill and redrill for new posts, unless your tech's solution involves some very interesting post shapes.

 

You might be able to replace the saddles with graphite or something, but I haven't tried that. The stop-bar/tailpiece has the same post spacing if you wanted to add the TP-6 tailpiece with fine tuners (I have done that).

 

I won't comment on replacing the pups and pots. That description seems pretty comprehensive. All I can say is that I have been fortunate to love my stock pup sound, and have had no problems with the pots so far. I think mine is a '97 as well.

 

The older models are generally agreed to be great instruments, and many of the changes had to do with making the instruments more standardized, or consistent.

 

At one time I owned 3 different Sherry's. 2 were older ('94, '97) and one was 2003 or 2004. On the newer ones, the pups are all the same model and wound to pretty much exactly the same output level, etc. I am not saying they are better pups, but they are more consistent from one to the other. Prior to these, the older ones had more variation in sound. My '97 has a fat, clean, smooth clear sound. I love it. My '94 had more of a chimey rockabilly sound, and I always thought of Bill Haley and the Comets whenever I played it. Same factory made them, but they were kind of wound according to the mood of the winder that day, as far as I can tell.

 

Same thing with the necks. Lots of folks here think Sherry's have really thin necks. Maybe many do. My '94 did, but my '97 was a chunky caboose, and that is the one I preferred. Again, same factory, but the consistency was not there. Both were good, but you can't tell what you are getting until you play each one.

 

The newer one I had was a bit different. It was made and played flawlessly, and the sound was very nice. However, it lacked the extra "oomph" of either of my older ones.

[EpiSheriMan]

Hey Suho,...thanks for you thoughts. I'll clarify it with him. I'm hoping he can do the job ;-)

[matthewk]

Huh - I have a 97 MIK Sheraton in the same vintage-burst finish - I have just finished stripping all the gold hardware back to chrome (oven cleaner, metal polish and a LOT of work!) and am waiting on some new knobs and a Tusq nut to arrive before I post pics. So if you want to see how yours will look with all nickel/chrome hardware, just hold on for a few days. Spoiler - it looks BEAUTIFUL instead of the cheap look of thin gold plating.

[matthewk]

A sneak preview:

[EpiSheriMan]

Hi Matthew,

 

That does look nice!

 

Looks like you are still undecided on knobs! Are you thinking of Vintage "Gibson-Style" SG, ES-345 Chrome Topped Gold Bell Knobs ?

 

 

That's what I'm going with....

 

or these....

 

 

Question: Are you happy with your stock Epiphone bridge? I'm really keen to get a Tonepros ABR and locking tailpiece (Nickel off course!) in mine,...if its possible,...which I think it is....

[GlennW]

http://www.stewmac.com/

 

Found it!

 

 

How can you tell they're Alpha pots? I didn't any brand listed.

[EpiSheriMan]

I'm pretty sure these are them:-

 

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?client=644d311bdbcef0f20bba3997e0923617&action=search&SEARCH_FIELD=NB%3BNM%3BWORDS%3BSPECS&SEARCH_SPEC=3477&SUBMIT_ACTION_SEARCH.x=0&SUBMIT_ACTION_SEARCH.y=0

[lpdeluxe]

 

How can you tell they're Alpha pots? I didn't any brand listed.

 

Because they had the name Alpha engraved on the backs.

[TWANG]

mathew.. that looks really sweet.

However, I'll keep my gold.. esp. on a natural finish sheri, thanks!

cheap.. how dare you! (faints dead away)

 

I have pics on my photobucket of the hassles even with the replacement bridge and tail..

and there you can see that, I beleive it was on the tailpiece, I had to use the original posts.. the tail fit them ok.

the holes were not big enough for the replacements posts.. into the wood. but, the originals were the same hole size at the

tail, and they weren't worn so I just swapped them out.

For some reason they made the posts into the wood bigger on the replacements.

They are available in chrome, by the way.

 

I have a gibson tail and bridge and they are wider, being usa sized.

You could get around that by enlarging the holes.. just a little on each one.. with the 'space' unused being toward the middle of either tail or bridge, it would probably come out ok.. hidden for the most part and covered up with a little creativity.

 

I thought about it.. why not just change over to usa sizes and be done with it.. but these fit so well.. no drilling the wood.. no hiding anything.. so I went with stock size replacements.

 

TWANG

[matthewk]

or these....

Wow - spooky! I have ordered a set of these exact knobs from eBay and am waiting impatiently for them to arrive! This is the seller's image:

For ten bucks I thought I couldn't go wrong.

Question: Are you happy with your stock Epiphone bridge? I'm really keen to get a Tonepros ABR and locking tailpiece (Nickel off course!) in mine' date='...if its possible' date='...which I think it is....[/quote'']

As far as the bridge goes, I decided I needed to do these mods for as little money as possible, since I recently bought a used Fender Jaguar and my wife's tolerance has been stretched a bit. I find the stock bridge a little stiff and heavy to intonate, but I must say the unplugged tone of this guitar is great. I might be kidding myself but after putting it all back together it seemed much fuller sounding. Probably because I do a lot of practice unplugged and I had become used to the "dead plank" sound of an unplugged Jaguar ...

I have been put off looking for a new bridge by the sizing eccentricities. I broke a couple of the tiny circlips which retain the saddle screws while I was reassembling the bridge, it all works but buzzes slightly. Fortunately I have sourced some replacement parts so it will all go back together properly when the Tusq nut gets here.

[matthewk]

mathew.. that looks really sweet.

However' date=' I'll keep my gold.. esp. on a natural finish sheri, thanks!

cheap.. how dare you! (faints dead away)[/quote']

Hm, that WAS rather rude of me in retrospect. I don't really go much for gold hardware but I love the deep walnut colour of these Korean Sheratons, which is why I bought it. The gold on mine looked pretty cheap because it was worn away and very obviously a thin plate (see below). When I heard that it could be stripped off with oven cleaner I just had to go for it.

By the way I wish I had known that you sell Tusq nuts, I had planned to buy a wiring upgrade from you when I have six months free to fish things in and out of the f-holes ...

[Avirex]

Hello,

 

I've just done 90% of what you project to do on your Sherry.

I've already posted about it.

I've preferred SD Set Lover pickups. They sound wonderful in every position. Full of bass and fine treble, natural compression, lovely medium. If you want a original PAF sound, that's what you need (or the Antiquity ).

57 classic will sound more like a recent 335, a little more aggressive.

Epiphone sent me an new Epiphone Chrome bridge, that of course fit at 100%(the new locking model).

I installed a MOJO prewired assembly. A little bit hard to put everything in trough the F hole, but absolutely possible.

Check that your F hole is at list 3 inches wide in one point and beware not to brake the rigid capacitors wiring.

Use at list a 30 watts soldering iron to avoid cold soldering.

I installed a set of C106 grover rotomatic, autoblocking guitar machines. I wont keep them, because they don't stay in tune ( in particular the G string, as usual). I'm very disappointed about that.

Here's a picture of this "black beauty" :

 

[ih8thisname]

Sounds like a cool project, I'll be keeping tuned!

[EpiSheriMan]

Hello' date=' I've just done 90% of what you project to do on your Sherry.

I've already posted about it.I installed a set of C106 grover rotomatic, autoblocking guitar machines. I wont keep them, because they don't stay in tune ( in particular the G string, as usual). I'm very disappointed about that.[/quote']

 

Hi Avirex,

 

Beautiful Sheri!!!!!! Congrats man!!!!

 

Can I ask you what you going to replace the Grovers with? I was under the impression they are the best options,...well at least the Grover Rotomatics 18:1 ratio at any rate....

 

Also, do you have a link to where your new Epiphone Chrome bridge (the new locking model)? I may consider that it its less complicated that the tonepros.....

[EpiSheriMan]

Interesting about the Seth Lovers too!

[matthewk]

I wont keep them' date=' because they don't stay in tune ( in particular the G string, as usual). I'm very disappointed about that.[/quote']

Stunning guitar Avirex - about the G tuning problems, have you tried using a wound G string? G is very susceptible to the imperfections of the standard scale and setup of the guitar, and apparently using a wound string reduces the problems somewhat. I switched to a wound G on my other electric and it sounds a lot sweeter I must say.

The thing I am trying to say is that maybe the tuning machine is fine, but you are hearing the G as a "sour note" in a lot of chords - this is due to the way guitars are set up, not a failure of the tuning machine. The reason is that the G string acts as the high note in some chords, and the low note in some - as a low note it needs to be slightly sharp to sound "right", but as the high note it needs to be slightly flat, so you are never going to find a tuning that satisfies both. Using a wound G can correct this to some extent and I have no idea why.

[lpdeluxe]

Another vote for the wound G. When I owned a Gretsch Chet Atkins with a Bigsby, I discovered soon enough that it had to have at least .011-052, with a wound 3rd, to stay in tune. Now I string my electrics that way routinely, and never have tuning problems.