destiny, and cannot be resisted? ;-)

For instance, I've wanted an Epi Sheraton for some time but since I'm in 
debt I'm trying to flog gear rather than aquire it. So a bunch of stuff 
goes on ebay and I get £400 - yay. And pop into a music shop for a cable 
(cough) and took a look at the guitars, as you do, and I see this used 
but immaculate vintage sunburst Sheraton with hard case for £400!

Do you think I could _not_ buy that guitar? It's not like I'm any worse 
off. ;-)

It's very nice, quite heavy for a semihollow but tone-wise far more 
subtle and mellow than I would've expected - good strings, no idea what 
they are. They have silver balls and have red tape or something around a 
short piece of the string at the ball end (any ideas?). The neck is 
smooth, consistent, feels right. All in all a very nice guitar for the 
price!

John A. wrote:
> destiny, and cannot be resisted? ;-)
> 
> For instance, I've wanted an Epi Sheraton for some time but since I'm in 
> debt I'm trying to flog gear rather than aquire it. So a bunch of stuff 
> goes on ebay and I get £400 - yay. And pop into a music shop for a cable 
> (cough) and took a look at the guitars, as you do, and I see this used 
> but immaculate vintage sunburst Sheraton with hard case for £400!
> 
> Do you think I could _not_ buy that guitar? It's not like I'm any worse 
> off. ;-)
> 
> It's very nice, quite heavy for a semihollow but tone-wise far more 
> subtle and mellow than I would've expected - good strings, no idea what 
> they are. They have silver balls and have red tape or something around a 
> short piece of the string at the ball end (any ideas?). The neck is 
> smooth, consistent, feels right. All in all a very nice guitar for the 
> price!

Well done!

Excellent guitars. A friend has one with replacement pickups (gold-plated, no 
visible polepieces, don't know the brand), gold tuners (Gotoh Schaller 
copies, I think) and a gold Bigsby with a customised lever.

On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:02:27 +0000, JNugent
 wrote:

>John A. wrote:
>> destiny, and cannot be resisted? ;-)
>> 
>> For instance, I've wanted an Epi Sheraton for some time but since I'm in 
>> debt I'm trying to flog gear rather than aquire it. So a bunch of stuff 
>> goes on ebay and I get £400 - yay. And pop into a music shop for a cable 
>> (cough) and took a look at the guitars, as you do, and I see this used 
>> but immaculate vintage sunburst Sheraton with hard case for £400!
>> 
>> Do you think I could _not_ buy that guitar? It's not like I'm any worse 
>> off. ;-)
>> 
>> It's very nice, quite heavy for a semihollow but tone-wise far more 
>> subtle and mellow than I would've expected - good strings, no idea what 
>> they are. They have silver balls and have red tape or something around a 
>> short piece of the string at the ball end (any ideas?). The neck is 
>> smooth, consistent, feels right. All in all a very nice guitar for the 
>> price!
>
>Well done!
>
>Excellent guitars. A friend has one with replacement pickups (gold-plated, no 
>visible polepieces, don't know the brand), gold tuners (Gotoh Schaller 
>copies, I think) and a gold Bigsby with a customised lever.

But the replacement pickups are important. Epi pickups are known for
being poor, and the Sheraton I tried new was no exception.
-- 
Chris Bolus (change o to zero to reply by email)
A guitar is for life, not just for Christmas!

On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:20:47 +0000, Chris Bolus 
wrote:

>On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:02:27 +0000, JNugent
> wrote:
>
>>John A. wrote:
>>> destiny, and cannot be resisted? ;-)
>>> 
>>> For instance, I've wanted an Epi Sheraton for some time but since I'm in 
>>> debt I'm trying to flog gear rather than aquire it. So a bunch of stuff 
>>> goes on ebay and I get £400 - yay. And pop into a music shop for a cable 
>>> (cough) and took a look at the guitars, as you do, and I see this used 
>>> but immaculate vintage sunburst Sheraton with hard case for £400!
>>> 
>>> Do you think I could _not_ buy that guitar? It's not like I'm any worse 
>>> off. ;-)
>>> 
>>> It's very nice, quite heavy for a semihollow but tone-wise far more 
>>> subtle and mellow than I would've expected - good strings, no idea what 
>>> they are. They have silver balls and have red tape or something around a 
>>> short piece of the string at the ball end (any ideas?). The neck is 
>>> smooth, consistent, feels right. All in all a very nice guitar for the 
>>> price!
>>
>>Well done!
>>
>>Excellent guitars. A friend has one with replacement pickups (gold-plated, no 
>>visible polepieces, don't know the brand), gold tuners (Gotoh Schaller 
>>copies, I think) and a gold Bigsby with a customised lever.
>
>But the replacement pickups are important. Epi pickups are known for
>being poor, and the Sheraton I tried new was no exception.

Not sure about that, Chris.

I gigged a Sheraton (which ironically I paid £425 for new in about
1985 - so at least they haven't depreciated much!) with a soul band
for about seven years. The pups are quieter than Gibson pickups, but
they're precise, and of course if you wind up the amp enough they give
you a very nice warm feedback. They're nothing like as bad as the
crummy Aria Pro pickups of about the same vintage.

Thay're also the only humbuckers I've ever played successfully through
a tranny - but then we were doing some fairly big gigs with the soul
band so I was using a 100w HH 6 channel P.A top (that was great - I
just loved the alien greeny dials)  over a pair of Marshall 2x12's for
backline - no lack of crunch there...

Pete

On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:20:47 +0000, Chris Bolus 
wrote:


>But the replacement pickups are important. Epi pickups are known for
>being poor, and the Sheraton I tried new was no exception.

Hmmm.  Depends.  Epiphone went from Korean to Chinese manufacture, and
the electronics went a step down.  My Sheraton certainly has fairly
decent pickups, and that's a Korean one.  My Casino (also Korean) had
stickers on it claiming to have alnicos, but the Korean Casinos
changed the neck joint in an attempt to even up the pickups, leaving
them sounding weedy.  Shimming them made them much better.

-- 
http://www.cdbaby.com/sinistrals      http://sinistrals.stevedix.de/  
http://www.stevedix.de/blog           http://www.snorty.net/