NimbusEarthling Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Hi everybody, I am knew to these forums. I recently had the pleasure of purchasing a '91 Epiphone Sheraton, and I am enjoying it very much. Judging by what a lot of people are saying, there are some things that could use improving, such as the pots, pickups, tuners, wiring, etc. Tuners are straightforward, pickups I am more or less familiar with, but pots and wiring I know nothing about, so any information on what kind people are using for their upgrades would be great. If Sheraton players feel like sharing their mods and upgrades with me for some inspiration, I would be much obliged. Also, if anybody has any information they could share about this guitar judging by the serial number, I figured from the serial decoder website it was made in '91, but I don't know what factory. Thanks for lookin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Gibson '57 Classics, a Mojotone ES-335 wiring harness, a bone nut, and a fret leveling and you're good to go. The tuners are fine, leave them alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabar Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Your guitar was made in the Samick factory (love the birdseye maple top!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinlander Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Classic 57s will bring it alive. Based on the size of the f-holes on the picture, it can be tricky to get the regular CTS pots through them however if you intend on upgrading the harness. BCS makes a harness with minipots for smaller F-Holes model Sheratons or Dots see the bottom of the page: VESK-1 335 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon S. Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Classic 57s will bring it alive. Based on the size of the f-holes on the picture, it can be tricky to get the regular CTS pots through them however if you intend on upgrading the harness. BCS makes a harness with minipots for smaller F-Holes model Sheratons or Dots see the bottom of the page: VESK-1 335 +1(bajillion) on the '57s. You may be able to fit the pots through the pickup cavity. I've got a Sheraton from '87 and was going to order the mini pots until I took the pickups out. There was plenty of room to fit full size pots. My last Sheraton was newer and didn't have the opening(it had bigger f-holes). I'd check first to make sure before you buy new pots, but my guess is that there will be room through the pickup cavity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Welcome to the forums NE, all good advice above, but I wouldn't buy a harness, making your own out of individual components is much, much cheaper, depends if you have the ability to do it yourself or not. I prefer CTS post and Switchcraft switch and jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueman335 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I have a bunch of Epi's, and only upgrade the PU's, as that does more to improve the tone quality than everything else put together. No need to replace the pots, toggle, jack, or wiring unless they're shorting out. Some guys will tell you that replacing the pots and wire harness makes a big difference; others do it and say they can't hear any difference. Put your money in PU's; a set of good PAF's (Duncan, DiMarzio, Gibson, Lollar, Fralin, etc) are ideal. I'm not thrilled with Gibson '57's; they're high-quality, but sometimes it can be hard to get the tones you want. I like Burstbucker 1, 2, & 3 much better. I have a pair of Duncan Seth's (the most authentic PAF) in a Dot, and it sounds excellent. The old Epi tuners aren't as good as today's Grover rotomatics, but if they're working okay, there's no need to dump money into that. Any time I get a used guitar, I put conditioner on the fretboard to rejuvenate the rosewood. If you don't have it already, you should get Dan Erlewine's book 'How to make your electric guitar play and sound great' (from StewMac). Every guitarist should own that book so he's not helpless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I have a bunch of Epi's, and only upgrade the PU's, as that does more to improve the tone quality than everything else put together. No need to replace the pots, toggle, jack, or wiring unless they're shorting out. Some guys will tell you that replacing the pots and wire harness makes a big difference; others do it and say they can't hear any difference. I don't think it makes much of a difference tonally, though that can be achieved if you vary the impedance, capacitance and tapers of those parts, it does make a huge difference in reliability though, that's the main reason I swap out my electronics, and it is an important point, it costs very little to do and is worth every cent to know you don't have to worry about reliability issues down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NimbusEarthling Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Hey guys, thanks for all the information. I don't have any plans on changing out the tuners, unless the stock ones have trouble staying in tune, although I do love those vintage "green key" tuners. The pickups are pretty good to my ear, but the bridge p.u. in particular seems a little thin sounding, and I'm sure upgrading both will greatly improve the tone, although which ones to choose would easily fill its own thread, I'm thinking about either the Duncan Seth's per Bluesman's recommendation, or obviously '57s are in the running. I should have said in the first post that one reason I am thinking about the pots replacement is that there is some scratchiness in some of them, but maybe they can just be cleaned? Has anybody ever used this pot cleaning cap from StewMac?' I may be purchasing that cleaning cap, as well as a fret file from stewmac to restore this beauty to tip-top shape, the frets could use a little bit of work. Thank you all for the ideas, I'll keep you updated on my progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueman335 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Another tip: tuners get blamed, and often replaced, when most tuning problems are actually the strings catching in the nut slots. Easy fix is using a little graphite powder there, the kind used on padlocks. That solves 90% of 'tuner' problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gentlemanvase Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I bought a 90's Sheraton 2 and now one of the screws on the bridge has sheared. Non-standard 72mm bridge. Non standard 50mm string spacing. Any solutions that don't involve drilling and plugging the guitar? Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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