The Epiphone Sheraton-II PRO honors Epiphone' most influential thin-line™ semi-hollowbody electric archtop now with critically acclaimed ProBucker pickups with coil-tapping and a Graph Tech NuBone XL nut.
An Epiphone Icon: Hailed by blues legend John Lee Hooker as "an outdid 335," the Sheraton has been renown for decades for its combination of superior tone and beautiful pearloid and abalone inlay. Originally released in 1959, the inspiration for the "thin-line" or ES Series has its roots in Les Paul's first solidbody guitar, "The Log," that Les built in Epiphone's factory in Manhattan in 1940.
"The Log" was made from Epiphone parts with a 4" x 4" piece of pinewood down the middle. The ES Series is also semi-hollow with a solid center, which makes it more resistant to feedback than a typical archtop guitar.
Inside the Epiphone Sheraton-II PRO: "The Outdid 335"
John Lee Hooker described the original Sheraton as an "outdid 335" for its striking fingerboard inlay, classic shape, and elegant ivory and black binding on the top, back, neck, headstock and f-holes. The new Sheraton-II PRO has the same profile and is made from laminated maple and topped with a bound "tortoise" style pickguard with a signature metal "E" (for Epiphone) and the same classic binding.
The Sheraton-II PRO has a hand-set 5-piece laminated hard maple/walnut 24.75" scale neck with a beautiful rosewood fingerboard with block and triangle pearloid and abalone inlays, 22 medium-jumbo frets, and a large vintage-style "tree of life" motif "Clipped Ear" headstock. The Epiphone Sheraton-II PRO also now comes with the new Graph Tech NuBone XL nut that is as hard as bone but will last a lifetime without chipping or cracking. Graph Tech molds and engineers each NuBone XL nut for consistent tone and string balance as well as precise string spacing.
ProBucker Humbuckers
The Epiphone Sheraton II-PRO now features new critically acclaimed ProBucker humbuckers. The first humbuckers (often called "Patent Applied For" for the tell-tale sticker found on the back of the pickups) were made at the Epiphone/Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the late '50s and have acquired a mythical status among guitar players. Epiphone ProBucker pickups have that elusive tone because they are made with the same alloy as the originals - 18% nickel-silver unit bases and covers - along with Sand cast Alnico II magnets and high quality 4-conductor lead wire. Each ProBucker pickup is also vacuum wax potted to eliminate microphonics.
The Epiphone Sheraton-II PRO has a ProBucker-2 in the neck position and a slightly hotter ProBucker-3 in the lead position. Both pickups also have coil-tapping via their individual volume controls. Coil-tapping allows a player to turn a humbucker pickup into a single coil pickup for endless tone combinations. Each ProBucker pickup' volume and tone control use 1 500K Ohm potentiometers along with a 3-way pickup selector with an ivory-colored toggle cap.
Epiphone Gold Hardware
The Epiphone Sheraton II-PRO has rock solid nickel hardware in elegant gold with an unbeatable LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge and StopBar tailpiece combo. Tuning is easy and reliable with gold Grover Rotomatic machine heads with a pro-level 18:1 tuning ratio. The Sheraton-II PRO is strung at the factory with D™Addario 10-46 gauge strings.
Case sold separately.