Epiphone - Sheraton Natural

Founded in 1873 in Smyrna by Anastasios Stathopoulo and later rebranded as ‘Epi’ in New York in the 1920s, Epiphone built its reputation on archtop guitars before making its mark in jazz and then rock. The Epiphone Sheraton Natural carries on this legacy with its Sheraton shape and semi-hollow body, a silhouette that still evokes the original archtop aesthetic.

The laminated maple body, supported by a laminated maple back and sides and a solid maple centre block, features a top edged with 7-ply binding and a 3-ply back binding that clearly define its contours. The mahogany neck, featuring a SlimTaper 60s C profile, has a scale length of 24.75 inches (628.65 mm) and a fingerboard radius of 12 inches (304.80 mm). Twenty-two medium-jumbo frets run along an Indian laurel fingerboard marked with mother-of-pearl block and triangle inlays, leading to a 43 mm GraphTech nut and a Kalamazoo headstock fitted with Wilkinson tuners.

Two gold-plated Epiphone ProBucker Mini-Humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions are controlled by a 3-position switch and two volume controls, two tone controls that shape the tone from clean to overdriven. The signal is output via a 6.35 mm jack. The Epiphone LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and the trapezoidal Frequensator tailpiece, both gold-coloured, hold .010 to .046 strings in place.

The 1962 Sheraton Historic pickguard, with its tortoiseshell-effect finish, completes the look with a vintage touch that the Natural gloss finish highlights on stage. A Premium Gig Bag accompanies the guitar from the club to the concert, from hushed bebop to more aggressive rock.