Ok, I know we're talking about Epiphones and not Fenders here, but in case there was any doubt I'm still a diehard Fender fanatic no matter what. Nothing will ever come between me and my Strat.

I just won the district finals for the Battle of the Blues at Guitar Center and one of the choices is an Epiphone guitar! I can choose a Les Paul Pro, Casino, or Sheraton. I've kind of eliminated the Les Paul as an option since I already have a solid body guitar with humbuckers. The one thing I don't have is any non-solid body electric guitar. I'm still after that illusive Fender Coronado, but either of the Epiphones might help hold me over until I can find a good Coronado that I can afford.

Here are my pros and cons for the Epiphones as I've figured them out so far.

Casino:
Pros
- P-90s (I really like P-90s)
- Full hollowbody (which means it would be lightweight)
-Shorter feeling neck, might look better on me because it's not as big looking (ES-335 type guitars make me look really short, because I am. I'm a girl in case you thought that was a weird statement. lol)

Cons
- Doesn't have very good upper fret access
- Might be a little too close to the Coronado I want to get someday, and the single coils don't get that creamy Robben Ford-like tone

Sheraton:
Pros
- Would be very good for jazzy stuff, which is what I need to do more of for college
- Sounds really deep and rich, which is wildly different than anything I currently own
- Has excellent upper fret access

Cons
- Since it's a semi hollowbody, it might be heavy. I've played some very heavy ES-335s before
- Stock pickups are supposed worse than the Casino
- Longer feeling neck might be slightly more uncomfortable for me

I'd love to hear from people who have played or owned either one. You guys are always great at helping me sort things out when I have a GAS dilemma. Also, I'm going to try to hit some guitar stores tomorrow to try both of them out extensively. I still have a few days to decide.

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Couple year ago I had a Sheraton made in 1993 , I like it . I bought a Gibson ES 335 custom shop 1983 . I play both . My Sheraton was very close as my ES335 , pickups sound , feeling wow . I should never sold it.

I don't know if today Sheraton are same as mine.

I had to a Epiphone Dot. same year, pickups was poor.

Hi TGS.

Obviously, that's the best and I'm certain you can make a sensible choice without any help from us. But just for shucks, howabout taking it point by point:


They are nice...



Feedback issues live? Regarding weight, I can't find a spec for that on any of the Epiphone archtops. As we know, they can be surprisingly heavy, but I don't know how the raw numbers compare to your solid body guitars? Something to look into.



Well, with the neck joining the body at the 16th fret everything is set a little closer to the tail, but still I don't think there's much in it, lookswise. It's the size of the body that's going to make it look big on you.

Far as big guitars on small girls is concerned, I've several times stood in front of KT Tunstall playing her Gretsch archtops: she's small and it's a good look. I wouldn't worry about that part of things:


So as far as feel is concerned I guess you mean it's a D-shape while the Sheriton is a C, right?



No. That guitar is arguably more a strummer than a lead player.



In truth, you want humbuckers, don't you?



All good points.



Easily changed. Not a deal-breaker.



Again, by longer feeling you mean C-shape? Only your hands can decide about that.

Also, completely subjective and irrational - but that Sheriton is just plain prettier, no? Nice binding, beautiful headstock, and also the don't you just like the stopbar better? Hmmm: a Sheriton in natural finish, gradually getting darker over the years: it's got a lot going for it!

One more thought, TGS. Going back to the size thing, if you're still worried that guitars can look too big on people -

- I've been wondering all along whether a 339 mightn't be a better bet for you? D-shape neck, humbuckers, center block for less feedback, semi-hollow for lightness and big tones, independent coil-splitting on the Pro model and all kinds of extra electrickery on the Ultra. And beautiful looking...!

Would they consider letting you drag home one of those instead? Seems to me it's the ultimate TGS archtop solution.

Some thoughts.

Cheers - C

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Try a 339 Ultra

I'd take the Sheraton personally. They are both great guitars, but IMO the Sheraton is a little more versatile.

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First of all congrats! Well done and good on ya! Is there a video you can share with us?
Re: Epiphone 339 http://youtu.be/JRIbb0yYRII
These guys are very informative and fun to watch too.

Cheers,
John.E
P.S. What comes after the district finals?

Congrat's as well, nice problem to have.

Are these the choices? Texas, although you have a LP, this one has 3 pick-ups edit: I didn't notice that the LP is a Pro model, so, I changed the pic to the "Tuxedo" Pro. After all you might play Carnegie hall or with the Philharmonic in some large metropolis were it's formal. This LP would match-up nicely.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

The Black Beautys are very good. I recently picked one up used and its fantastic.

Got the Sheraton II the one at the top of Rollie's pic, beautiful looking guitar got to say, don't let that sway you though give it a good going over before commiting Becks, I did try a 335 alongside a Sheraton and to be honest not a lot of difference in feel, unfortunatly that was the only Sheri in the shop and was previously sold and was being put aside, next shop I visited had them so a quick try with one and it was mine and off home I went...couple of things I noticed after a while was halfway down the fretboard if I gave it any vibrato on the G the string fell of the fretboard looked up the board to find a bow in the neck, don't know how it passed QC also the nut edges were sharp nothing a nail file couldn't fix though, anyways took it back lifted another one which was better, fast forward a few months Honeymoon ended so to speak a few other things niggled, fretboard is so dry even after a good soak may be my maple preferance though also the MOP frets I could do without (plastic feel to my mind), gold hardware wears away pretty quick, scratchplate had an annoying squeek everytime I touched it it rubbed against pickup ( nail file cure again ), pickup switch a bit iffy as well, altogether I don't think I made a wise choice Money and Gas got the better of me, I think it'll be gone soon

First of all congrats on your win Rebecca,as an Epiphone fanatic-I have 6 so far-I can say that any Epiphone is a good guitar,at least each one of mine is an exceptional guitar. Although the Sheraton is a great humbucker equipped guitar I find that the Casino is way better for sound and playability.I have 2 Casinos,a Indonesian made natural that is just great and a John Lennon 1965 model that is the easiest playing and best sounding guitar that I ever had in my hands and is my favourite of my 30 guitars -except for my '65 Strat of course. The sparkle of the P-90s in the JL Casino is way better than that of the MII and MIC models,even though they sound beautiful too but the John Lennon with the real Gibson P-90s really rings out.Feedback can be a problem if you don't watch it but that can be overcome by where you stand in relation to the amp(The Beatles used 100 W Vox Super Beatles for their Casinos for their final tour and had no problem at all with any feedback). The Casino is wonderful for the blues,especially if you roll back the tone controls to about 5 or 6,they can give you a real muddy,dirty growl that really grows on you,just listen to the tone of John Lennon's Casino in Get Back and Helter Skelter or the raunch he and Paul get from both of theirs on The End. I routinely put my Casino through my Blues Jr and get the sweetest bluesy tones this side of the Mississippi Delta,I simply can't say enough good about the Casino.

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Hi TGS, congrats on the win. My son has a Casino, I played it and compared it to my Sheraton. I gave my Sheraton to my son to compare the two, we both preferred the Sheraton. I wasn't playing my Sheraton much at the time,and my son bugged me half to death till I sold him the Sheraton.
I got a bad case of sellers remorse and wound up buying a Schecter Corsair, and haven't looked back. But you are very wise to realize the fact that everyone should have a semi-hollow, they just have their own sound.

Well, I went to Guitar Center today and played a Casino, several ES-335s (they didn't have any Sheratons) and a few other hollow body guitars extensively.

I loved the clean tone of the Casino, and the light weight. And I guess it might be a little more compact in length than a 335 and I found it very slightly more comfortable. The thing I really didn't like too much was the overdriven tone and the fact that it fed back at extremely low volumes with gain. The fact that I can't reach the 18th fret or higher also bugged me. Overall, it's a great rhythm guitar that I know would get a lot of use in church or with the alt rock singer I play with, and it would be great for 60's pop/rock, but it's not the sort of lead guitar I'm used to and it's versatility is somewhat limited.

The ES-335s I tried were definitely heavier, but none were ridiculously heavy like some solid body Les Pauls I've tried. And truth be told, I'd probably not play through an entire set with it. I'd stick with my Strat most of the time. In fact, the Sheraton might see more in the way of studio time than live performance. The sustain was better, and I can reach all of the frets just fine. I'm still a big P-90s fan, but it's probably easy enough to swap the pickups for hum bucker sized P-90s or P-100s. The versatility of the guitar is probably better too, considering it did a good job of whatever genre I could think of throwing at it. Also, there were no feed back issues. I think the Sheraton is probably more what I'm after. I'll still get an all hollow body guitar someday, but it will likely be more for jazz than anything else. And if I ever get the chance at a used Casino later on, I'd probably take it if I could.

So I've tentatively made up my mind on the Sheraton, but the question still remains... Natural or Sunburst?



They all seemed a hair heavier than my Strat, but still light enough to be manageable. I don't think it's as big an issue as I thought it was.



Yes, they were both basically the same in that respect. And neither of them made me look as tiny as I thought they would.



I was thinking more that it would a little easier to reach open chord territory on the Casino. It sort of was, but maybe by two centimeters. The Casino necks in general did feel a little tiny bit less beefy, but again, it was super close.


By upper frets I was thinking of the 17-22 frets. So yes, definitely more of a strummer than a lead player.


True. Although I liked the Casino better clean, I liked the 335 a lot better with gain/boost added.


Again, by longer feeling you mean C-shape? Only your hands can decide about that.[/quote]

I guess I meant more that the neck sticks out very slightly further on the 335s than the Casino because of where it's placed on the body. The difference is extremely subtle and you wouldn't even notice if you didn't think about it.



I've been after one since they came out, I just haven't found one used yet. I might ask just for the heck of it (or the ES-175, those are in the same price range), but I think they probably won't let me switch for one.

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I'm also leaning more towards the Sheraton because of these videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rk0WZH6RYM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUd8367H0Gs&feature=relmfu

It just fits the bill for what I'd need it for.

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Hi TGS,

Congrats by the way......

I will be honest here and say I don't have a large amount of experience of either BUT reading your original post I will point out the screamingly obvious....(to me anyways....)

Your 'pros' for the Sheraton have come from the 'head'...........you have thought about them in relation to what you need and what you need to do.............all your other reasonings for both are from the 'heart'....what you like and what you want. That is fine when you are just alleviating GAS but in your position, the sensible decisions should prevail regarding college etc........everything else - weight, length, 'look' etc is just about adaptation of style which is good for progressing your abilities anyway I think.

AS far as I can see, if you read back your post, your decision is there........simple!!

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