What epiphone to get?

Bridgehouse

Calum13 said:

Thanks for all the feedback! The only doubt I'm having about the iced tea 335 is the colour. It looks very different in some pictures than others whereas the wine red sheraton looks basically the same in all the pictures. I think the sheraton may have slightly better pickups but if I got the 335 I'd have an extra £80 for a pedal or something.

You have to go see in person...

Calum13

Bridgehouse said:

Calum13 said:

Thanks for all the feedback! The only doubt I'm having about the iced tea 335 is the colour. It looks very different in some pictures than others whereas the wine red sheraton looks basically the same in all the pictures. I think the sheraton may have slightly better pickups but if I got the 335 I'd have an extra £80 for a pedal or something.

You have to go see in person...

Yeah, I live near Glasgow and there's a guitar guitar there. They have a sheraton and I've played but they said they don't have the wine red one but they will come in later on in the year. The ice tea burst 335 is a pre order guitar and it looks like the only retailers in the U.K. that have them are andertons and gear4music.

Bridgehouse

Calum13 said:

Bridgehouse said:

Calum13 said:

Thanks for all the feedback! The only doubt I'm having about the iced tea 335 is the colour. It looks very different in some pictures than others whereas the wine red sheraton looks basically the same in all the pictures. I think the sheraton may have slightly better pickups but if I got the 335 I'd have an extra £80 for a pedal or something.

You have to go see in person...

Yeah, I live near Glasgow and there's a guitar guitar there. They have a sheraton and I've played but they said they don't have the wine red one but they will come in later on in the year. The ice tea burst 335 is a pre order guitar and it looks like the only retailers in the U.K. that have them are andertons and gear4music.

That's a pity. Mind you if you buy online you can always send it back if the tea burst is grim..

Loaded1me

Hopefully links below work.

I have the Tea Burst and it looks fine. Not too dark, or too fake. It also have the Epi Pro-Buckers which are the uprated pups.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KvAynb8dF4NopSbW9

GAK have a B Stock Ebony currently, looks quite nice.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/epiphone-limited-edition-es-335-pro-ebony/919827

Or there's a Epi Dot with Gibby 57's in natural for a few £'s more.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/epiphone-es-335-dot-semi-hollow-guitar-with-gibson-usa-pickups-natural/1310509003

Calum13

Loaded1me said:

Hopefully links below work.

I have the Tea Burst and it looks fine. Not too dark, or too fake. It also have the Epi Pro-Buckers which are the uprated pups.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KvAynb8dF4NopSbW9

GAK have a B Stock Ebony currently, looks quite nice.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/epiphone-limited-edition-es-335-pro-ebony/919827

Or there's a Epi Dot with Gibby 57's in natural for a few £'s more.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/epiphone-es-335-dot-semi-hollow-guitar-with-gibson-usa-pickups-natural/1310509003

Thanks for the pictures   I'd need to see both of them in real life so I'll wait till later on in the year so I can see the wine red sheraton. If the 1962 reissue sheraton wasn't a limited edition thing I probably would have got that.

Loaded1me

No worries.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

Ade.

vale

Snags said:

Unfortunately you don't know until you try.

A year or so back I really thought I wanted a Sheraton, after watching endless YouTube etc. and reading around.  Then I went and played one, and decided I really didn't. Which was annoying, as I ended up spending a lot more on  something else

However, that's me, and your mileage might well vary - loads of people have Sheratons and love them, and I still love the concept, I just didn't gel with the reality.

this. unless it's in your hands you can't make a decision really. and epi qc really isn't that great in my experience (of the last decade at least. i don't know about before then). squier are far closer to fender than epi to gibson.

the only gibson type guitars i've ever been interested in were the SGs. but vintage generally do better (sub £300) SGs, and some of the JHS encore SGs are great build and qc wise for the money (sub £200).
just sub in pickups with whatever you have laying around, or with the price difference to the epi.

but only trying in person taught me that. on paper (online) the epis looked best bet.

on a side note, i wish epi would be a bit more adventurous with their offerings. push things beyond being a budget gibson wannabee.
i think gibson should be using epi as their r&d for new ideas, test them out in a budget context, instead of putting the gibson logo on some of the deranged tat they have been meddling in recently.

that way anthing new or innovatinve epi came up with that caught on could find its way into the gibsons, once it had form and a following. people buying new gibsons are generally not looking for wild innovation and untested novelty, they want the classical and familiar.
but if they saw some innovation epi had nurtured and it made sense, they might be prepared to risk big money on something new, to be part of the new thing.

i'm not sure if the epi and gibson relationship is that close, but epi seems to be not doing much.

chickenchaser

Bit of a thread bump but i'm also looking at some cheaper 335 types. The Sheraton, 335 Pro and Ibanez models have been in my sights, and although i've tried the Epi's, I'm struggling to locate an Ibanez to try. I'll probably buy used anyway. 

I'd been looking for a Hagstrom but there seems to be few around used at present, and I don't really want to get one delivered due to the risk of the neck getting broken in transit. 

I've seen an old Epi 335 pro available locally but its one of the 2002 Samick factory models. Not sure whether the current models are better than the older ones? 

I've already got myself an Epiphone LP Tribute which plays beautifully (although the maple top has changed colour a bit) so I know that decent Epiphones are out there. 

DB1

Just a comment based on my recent experiences with Epiphones - I started on the GAS trail just a couple of years ago and have ended up (so far) with about 16 Gibsons of varying vintages, but got into the '335' type thing at the lower end of the market, price wise. I've had Zephyrs, Joe Pass's, Broadways, Byrdland Elitist, Sheratons and a Dot. Mine have been built by Peerless, Samick and Unsung.

I think that the used Korean (Unsung, Samick factory and Peerless) factories have turned out some very good guitars, and if you can pick a Sheraton up for around the £350 mark (used, Korean) you'll probably be getting a very good guitar. For £200, used, the Dot is (IMO) spectacularly good value for money. 

I bought a cherry red Dot (Samick) in Leeds one morning for £200, and then drove down to Sheffield to look at a Gibson Memphis ES-335, block inlays, etc, which I also ended up buying. This was red as well, and I thought that the first thing that I'd do when I got home was to sell the Dot. In fact, it was a few months before I did, and that was probably only down to badge snobbery if I'm honest - put it like this, if I was out playing, it would be a Sheraton or Dot, and I'd leave the Gibsons at home, I think. Obviously, it would depend on the venue but I'm unlikely to be asked to play at the Albert Hall. 

I think they're 80% of the guitar for 15%/25% (depending on model) of the money - my thinking would be to buy a used Korean made model (I don't know if they're better or not but I've always perceived them to be - and they have a certain minor cache over the Chinese built models IMO) - you won't lose money if you don't get on with them either.

As I say, I do have a fair few of the Gibson variety, but I have a soft spot for the Epi's and wouldn't hesitate to buy another. 

jonnyburgo

I've had a few Sheratons, from the 90's onwards all really nice and consistent. I really fancy an ES 175 but they don't come up that often. Also fancy a Casino but would need new pickups, or so I'm told. The humble dot is also really nice, had a few of them too.

Fifty9

I’ve just bought a peerless hardtail which I’d recommend you try also - I prefer the headstock to the Epiphone one. Had a couple of peerless made guitars previously and they were comfortably above the Chinese epi dot I had in terms of overal finish (but I could have just had a bad dot...). 

dogload

I've had two Sheratons over the years... an 80's one back in the early 90's and a 2000's one more recently. On both occasions I ended up selling them on pretty sharpish as I couldn't get on with the necks. I like them chunky but both Sheratons felt like cricket bats, and had a tendency for the bottom string to slide off the edge of the fretboard (my technique no doubt but still. only guitars it's happened with!). Also they were both very heavy and rather sonically uninspiring.

On the other hand, all the dots I've played have been good through to very good.