Anybody who follows this blog knows I’m a big fan of Epiphone — they continue to put out great equipment at a fraction of the cost of the more popular “name” brands, and in general their guitars sound as good as the big boys.
If you’ve ever balked at the cost of a true Gibson ES335, well, you might take a look at the Epiphone Sheraton II… as the past owner of an ES335 I can tell you that while the instrument is popular for a reason, in my humble opinion there’s no reason it should cost so freakin’ much.
The Sheraton II on the other hand will cost you less than $600, and still comes loaded up — from what I’ve read it features a highly-playable neck and a pair of humbuckers, not to mention a semi-hollowbody that allows for a fat “jazz” tone while still providing lengthy sustain [sounds a bit like the ES335, eh?]
The Epiphone Sheraton II Features–
- Arched Maple Top
- Laminated Maple Back & Sides
- Maple Neck
- Rosewood Fretboard With 22 Frets
- Abalone/Mother Of Pearl Inlays
- Body & Neck Binding
- Dual Humbuckers
- Two Volume & Two Controls
- 3-Way Pickup Switching
- Gold-Plated Hardware
You might take a look at the larger photo on Epiphone’s website for a real idea of just how handsome this hollowbody really is.
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July 3rd, 2007 at 5:36 am
I just got a sheraton II a couple weeks back and I absolutely love it, I couldn’t recommend one more, I’ve never actually played on a proper Gibson 335 model yet though so I don’t know how it compares… other than the £1000 still in my bank account…
August 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
hi, i´m from argentina. i got my self a sheraton II and i couldn´t agree more with you. it´s an excellent guitar in every order, looks, tone, etc.
but I have a little problem i want to ask you about.
the tunning goes off after playing a little while.
( it detunes?? i don´t know the proper word in english for this….sorry jajaja)
do you have the same problem???
and if you do,,,how did you solve it???
congrats on the web. it´s really cool
greetins from argnetina
agustin
August 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
hi, i´m from argentina. i got my self a sheraton II and i couldn´t agree more with you. it´s an excellent guitar in every order, looks, tone, etc.
but I have a little problem i want to ask you about.
the tunning goes off after playing a little while.
( it detunes?? i don´t know the proper word in english for this….sorry jajaja)
do you have the same problem???
and if you do,,,how did you solve it???
congrats on the web. it´s really cool
greetins from argnetina
agustin
January 30th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I bought a new Sheraton 2 last year and having had one a few years ago, I’d like to mention the differences that I’ve noticed. My first one a had a cr*p pick-up switch which I had to change twice, the second time for a switchcraft one for it to be reliable. I’ve not had any trouble with the switch on the new one. The new one doesn’t seem to hold its tuning quite as well as the old one, I seem to be re-tuning it during use more often than the old one. I have 011’s on the new one whereas I had a mix of 010’s trebles and 009’s bass strings on the old one, so I don’t know if this affects it. In both cases I had the shop perform a full set-up before I took the guitar home but it seems on the new one it isn’t quite as accurate as to old one and this may be affecting the sound in a way my ears say is “a little out of tune”.
On neither guitar do the tone controls make a lot of difference, certainly less than on Strats or Teles which is rather disappointing. The pick-ups on the new one seem to have more ‘bright’ treble in them than the old one, which to my delicate little ears makes them sound a little harsher. It’s also harder to get a warm jazzy sound on the neck pickup even with the tone pot on ‘bassy’ and the Mid and Bass on the amp up full and treble off, it’s also harder to get a passable ‘acoustic’ sound with both pick-ups on. As far as I can remember the pick-ups on the old one were “57 classics” but according to epiphone’s website they are just un-named “humbuckers” on the new one so maybe that epxlains the differences.
The amp I’m now using is a marshall park G215RCD which I bought on ebay, and the amp I had with the old Sheraton was a new marshall park G215RCD. Maybe some of the differences in sound are due to differences in the amps? I don’t know how long G215RCD’s were made for, so if they changed something during the apms production run…
Finally, while the new sheraton looks better, has the pick-up switch sorted and came with a case, the old one sounded better and was more stable as far as tuning goes So: Old Sheraton 2 scores 8/10; New Sheraton 2 scores 7/10.