You see, when I was a kid, I had an early 60's model dot-neck Gibson ES-335. I bought it for a song, and after almost ten years of joy, sold it (like an idiot) for a little more than three times what I paid for it (after I got my Les Paul Custom, which I thought was more "cool" at the time). What a deal! Except, now I see them going for more than TEN TIMES what I sold mine for, all those years ago. AND, as it was one of my first "real" guitars, I've missed it. Ain't that the way? Anyway, after growing weary of hearing this story time and time again, the wife finally sez, let's just find you another one. Yeah, right!
1991, After a trip to a local guitar shop, we found this nice-looking, nice-feeling Epiphone Sheraton II among the models they had in stock, in what I thought was an unusual finish, ebony. The wife thought all my guitars had to be black, because my much-played Les Paul Custom was...
Well, the Epiphone fit the budget at the time, played very nice and looked pretty, and so, just to be polite, I let her buy it for me... Thanks! But a few years later, after the "new" wore off, I came to find that I just couldn't stand: (A) the gold hardware; and (B) the pickups. Well, I thought, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?
And so, I did... It now has all-chrome hardware, and over the years many pups have come and gone...
After playing this axe loaded with Seymour Duncans (JB bridge, Pearly Gates neck) for a couple of years - which made it an absolute DREAM - I recently purchased a new Gibson ES-333. As I then hotrodded the Gibbie with a similar Seymour Duncan load, I decided I wanted to do something really sonically different with this Epi. After a couple of different setups, I think I've found the "keeper" pups for this axe...
It's now loaded with the GFS Retrotron "Nashville" set. A bit larger than mini-humbuckers, they're actually the same size as a Gretsch HiLotron (Gretsch trim rings fit perfectly, anyway). They seem pretty well-made (MIK) and are quite attractive in person - but hard to photograph. Four-conductor wired, they have a nice chrome cover with Gretsch-looking cutouts revealing a black top-plate and a row of adjustable pole pieces for each coil, making them look more than a bit like a set of Filtertrons. I now call this axe my "Urban Ruffian" - the antithesis of a "Country Gentleman." These smaller-model GFS Nashvilles have since been discontinued in favor of a larger, humbucker-sized version, but, luckily, I was able to obtain another pair of these "Gretsch-y" sized ones, and I'm holding them in reserve until the right axe comes along...
As for the TONE of the new pups, well, I can certainly say that I like 'em very much. They meter out at about 13k, and have plenty of punch. Played as humbuckers, these pups have some BITE, and are definitely not overly dark, as you might assume from the hot impedance numbers. I guess the sound reminds me of something like that of mini-humbuckers, more than anything else - but, that's not a bad thing. Coil-shunt, these things are full of chime and spank - just a touch fuller-sounding than my (Baldwin Era US-made) Gretsch Double Anniversary's HiloTrons.
I already have a couple of full-size humbuckered axes, but there's nothing in the stable quite like this axe. I love it when I can (A) fill a new nitch, and (B) teach an old axe new tricks!
Yes, I wired a push/pull for coil-shunts, and I already had a push/pull for series/out of phase, which sounds great with these pups, humbucker or coil-shunt, with great bite but not too thin. The other trick wiring deal with THIS axe is that, long ago I wired it to have two pickup volumes, and a MASTER volume and tone - yeah, like a Gretsch, huh!? OK, so this axe has been a Gretsch wanna-be for a very long time...
THE BOTTOM LINE:
So, what we now have here is my Gretsch wanna-be: an early 90's MIK Epiphone Sheraton II in ebony, re-outfitted with all chrome hardware, Grover tuners, loaded with Retrotron old-school Nashvilles, push/pulls for coil shunt and series/out of phase, rewired with a pair of pickup volumes, master volume and tone.
Now I'm considering a Bigsby to finish it off...
UPDATE- FEBRUARY 2006: OK, I finally DID put a Bigsby on it - a B70, the MIK copy of the B7. Works great, looks good - now, sling it high for George, sling it low for Keef!
Finally, I have to give a shout out for guitarvalue.com. I figured I needed a roller bridge to finish off the Bigsby installation, and eBay-ed one from them. When it didn't fit, I FYI-ed them and they sent me ANOTHER bridge - no charge - to try out. I wound up returning the replacement and modding the first bridge I bought, but they went far and beyond what I would have considered a reasonable effort to get me a part that would work. You just don't see that kind of concern for the satisfaction of the customer after the sale much anymore. Kudos, guys!
