1988 Epiphone Sheraton 2

StefStoep

I open up my "new" guitar last night to clean it and unfortunately I found some problems.

The "ears" of the neck humbucker is broker off and to keep it in place they glued pieces of wood into the pickup cavity. The glue and wood looks like it has been there for quite some time.

And a very bad wiring job to go with it! They used a piece of masking type to insulate the wiring!
That is also why the pickup was the wrong way round at the neck, the wood prevented it to go in the right way round.

I thought of using the guitar without a pickgaurd but after 25 years the wood on the top got darker where it was exposed to the light, so i"ll have to use a pickgaurd, but that is currently the least of my problems.

I managed to get all of the glued in pieces of wood out of the pickup cavity.

But now my upgrading/restoring of this guitar will start sooner than anticipated.

Other things that need replacing immediately, the pickup rings and the bridge :-[ i accidently broke one of the saddle screws on the bridge ☹
Can one buy these screws? Or will I have to replace the bridge?

AlanRatcliffe

Aargh! >☹

As a temp solution, the baseplate on the pup you should be able to replace easily (IIRC, those Epi pups are held together entirely by the potting wax - no solder). Rings are easy enough to find.

While you might find saddle screws, there are no guarantees they will fit. Will definitely be metric thread though (also note post size and thread if you replace the whole bridge), so you might find something to work so long in a parts drawer somewhere. Usually easier just to replace the whole thing.

Gearhead

Hang on - the neck tenon is not the same piece of wood as the neck? How come they put a 5 piece neck in via sixth 'heel' kind of a thing?

The darkened wood on the top is easily sanded off but you'd have to be careful not to take off too much (laminate top).

AlanRatcliffe

Gearhead wrote: Hang on - the neck tenon is not the same piece of wood as the neck? How come they put a 5 piece neck in via sixth 'heel' kind of a thing?

The Sheraton has always had that. It cuts down on wood wastage substantially. It is still an Epi, after all - and they have to cut corners somewhere to keep the prices down.

singemonkey

Quite a few mid-range Asian guitars used to have an added heel-cap, a saving as Alan says. Presumably the tenon is part of that same piece.

StefStoep

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Aargh! >☹

As a temp solution, the baseplate on the pup you should be able to replace easily (IIRC, those Epi pups are held together entirely by the potting wax - no solder). Rings are easy enough to find.

While you might find saddle screws, there are no guarantees they will fit. Will definitely be metric thread though (also note post size and thread if you replace the whole bridge), so you might find something to work so long in a parts drawer somewhere. Usually easier just to replace the whole thing.

Thanks Alan, i checked on Stewmac and I can get a baseplate and most other things I need for under R500 including shipping!

But i think I'm gonna do the things the better way but unfortunately the slower way. I'll probably buy new pickups first, as these stock ones are really bad.
I spoke to Andries at Musica Instrument in Pretoria yesterday and he recons he might have a replacement for the saddle screw that I broke, but he obviously needs the bridge so he can check what spares he has that might fit my bridge. So on my next trip to Pretoria I will pop in there and hopefully leave with the saddle fixed. If not then it is back to Stewmac. I would like it if i can keep the original bridge and tailpiece, i like the fact that tarnished/worked off/faded by years of playing

Does anybody know if Les Paul pickup rings will work with the Sheraton? It seems to be the only "arched" pickup rings i can find on Stewmac and Allparts.

Another question, this is the first time i am replacing any hardware, wiring, pups, etc. on a guitar so excuse the "stupid" questions that might pop up in this thread. If a get the new pups, can i fit them and replace the wiring/harness at a later stage? Or must it be done all at the same time?

AlanRatcliffe

StefStoep wrote: I'll probably buy new pickups first, as these stock ones are really bad.

I know...

Does anybody know if Les Paul pickup rings will work with the Sheraton?

Yup - they'll work. You might have to fill and drill new fixing holes, but that is common and not something you see once it's done.

If a get the new pups, can i fit them and replace the wiring/harness at a later stage? Or must it be done all at the same time?

You can do them at different times, but it doubles your labour (and, if you do it yourself, swearing).

It's a fiddly job to work on the wiring of any hollow - especially on the narrow body, centre-block types like the Sheraton. Chances are good once you've gone through it once for the pups, you'll put off doing it again until way past the point that you should have done it for the controls. And with the Asian parts, you know that it will be a job that needs doing soon (if not already).

Get quality parts - either a quality kit or Switchcraft socket and switch, CTS or Bourns pots and braided shield cloth covered wire. Then you can do it once and forget about it for the next 15-25 years (which coincidentally is about as long as it will take you to forget what a colossal pain it was to replace them and be prepared to give it another bash).

Sneaky-Pete

Just a reminder...in 1988 Gibson were almost certainly putting in 300k volume pots
and 300k or even 100k tone pots..shock!...horror!
Don't know for certain if this applied to Epiphone as well, but I can't really see
Gibson putting crap pots in Gibson models, and decent ones in Epi.....just saying.

Best to check the old pots that are in there now.

StefStoep

So, after a long wait to play this guitar, the time has come! Eventually I got sick and tired of not being able to play it, so I took it to Andries at the Fretshop! Thanks to SARS, I had some extra cash and was able to do all that was needed at once.

* Pots with coil tap (500k)
* Gibson wiring
* Tonerider Alnico IV pickups
* Black pick-gaurd
* New bridge
* New pup-selector switch
* New output jack

The original hardware was gold but is now tarnished, so I hope to have the new bridge looking like the rest of the hardware in a couple of years time.

Got so much compliments on how good the tone of this guitar is the first time I play with it. It really sounds great!!! Currently I prefer this over both my Gibsons! Although I am getting my LP back this week, after it has gotten a pup change (Tonerider Alnico 2). This guitar just feels sold, well balanced and now with all the electronics sorted it has the sound to go with the look and the feel!

ActionArnie

Looks great!

My Epi Dot just came back from Shawn O'Neill with new pups/full electronics upgrade. The Dot's a bit of the poor cousin of the Sheraton, but they really do play nicely when setup properly and now it sounds great too.

AlanRatcliffe

Congrats! That looks great. Now you've sorted out pickups, wiring and the other issues it should be a great guitar.

Sean

Ah, looks great Stef 8)

Chocklit_Thunda

Love it ? 2 questions though...

1) Why not try stick the covers from the old epi waxbuckers on these?

2) was the gold bridge with silver tailpiece (and black 'buckers) mismatch intentional? It looks odd in a very cool way ? Very punk rock ?

StefStoep

Thanks guys, it is really a much better guitar than I thought it would be. I know alot of people complain that the 335 shape is uncomfortable, but to me it is very comfortable, it just feels right!

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Love it ? 2 questions though...

1) Why not try stick the covers from the old epi waxbuckers on these?

2) was the gold bridge with silver tailpiece (and black 'buckers) mismatch intentional? It looks odd in a very cool way ? Very punk rock ?

The pole piece spacing is slightly different from the old pups, so the holes in the covers will be out by a milimeter or so.

Te tailpiece was also gold but it has tarnished from the years of playing, this is a 1988 Sheraton. All of the hardware was gold but most of it has tarnished. I hope the bridge will do the same in time.

singemonkey

That looks great man. And I'm sure it sounds killer.

Here's another vote for getting some gold pickup covers on there though ?